How do I re-hide folders?

Question

Level 1

3 points

How do I re-hide folders?

I've been using my macbook for about 2 years, and have gone through both the mavericks & yosemite updates. Before I did this, however, I decided it was a good idea to permanently unhide all folders everywhere, and now I can't get them hidden again (I can see .ds_store and .TRASHES most of the time, it depends on what folder I'm in). I do not know how I did it, but i remember pasting something into terminal about a week after I got the computer. Any help on re-hiding these folders that are hidden by default would be spectacular.

MacBook, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Dec 1, 2014 10:29 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

M.G.Q

Level 1

4 points

Dec 14, 2017 12:21 AM in response to teke0884

Hi Teke0884,

This should help you with the hidden files on finder.

Paste this on Terminal and hit "Return"

Hide: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO

Unhide: defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Relaunch the Finder by Holding "Alt or Option" and click Relaunch.

Cheers

Greig Quinn

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Answer 2

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Dec 1, 2014 10:30 AM in response to teke0884

Enable Finder to Show Invisible Files and Folders

Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter or paste the following command line then press RETURN.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

killall Finder

To turn off the display of invisible files and folders enter or paste the following command line and press RETURN.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE

killall Finder

Alternatively you can use one of the numerous third-party utilities such as TinkerTool or ShowHideInvisibleFiles - VersionTracker or MacUpdate.

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Answer 3

Niel

Level 10

726,749 points

Dec 1, 2014 10:31 AM in response to teke0884

Use the following Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 0

(117497)

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Answer 4

teke0884 Author

Level 1

3 points

Dec 1, 2014 10:43 AM in response to Kappy

I have tried more than once to paste the following into Terminal: " defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles False
killall Finder" And it has done nothing. I have also tried using TinkerTool to toggle the option "Show hidden and system files" on and off, and relaunched Finder again to no avail.

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Answer 5

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Dec 1, 2014 10:51 AM in response to teke0884

Then I don't know what to suggest. There is no practical way to change the settings on every file on the computer. Something you have done has "fixed" this state such that the OS cannot undo it.

What you might try is using the TRUE option to reset all files to be visible, then reset to FALSE, and see if that will fake the OS into fixing it for you.

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Answer 6

WZZZ

Level 6

13,220 points

Dec 2, 2014 7:39 AM in response to teke0884

Needs the semi-colon.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true ; killall Finder

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool false ; killall Finder

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Answer 7

Apr 19, 2015 8:04 AM in response to teke0884

I've also tried the other commands but this variation did the job for me running 10.10.3

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 0 ; killall Finder

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Answer 8

MattW214

Level 1

13 points

Jun 26, 2015 8:43 AM in response to teke0884

This worked for me:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean false ; killall Finder

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Answer 9

Jul 12, 2015 9:26 AM in response to MattW214

This worked perfect for me. I simply copy and pasted exactly what MattW214 said worked for him into terminal and right away it worked. (kindof scared me for few seconds when all my folders disappeared but they all came back but without the un needed hidden files. Thank you Everyone.

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Answer 10

Oct 3, 2015 7:07 AM in response to MattW214

This worked!! Thanks much:)

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Answer 11

ggcole

Level 1

12 points

Nov 17, 2015 5:16 PM in response to MattW214

Thanks, Matt! Worked perfectly!

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Answer 12

Lauren58

Level 1

5 points

Dec 19, 2015 7:37 PM in response to MattW214

Thanks MattW214 - worked perfectly for me as well!

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Answer 13

Feb 19, 2016 7:58 PM in response to Niel

Niel, if that truly is your given title of station, you are a god amongst men.

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Answer 14

Svengb

Level 1

13 points

Mar 9, 2016 11:07 AM in response to MattW214

MattW214 thanks for the help. I did a copy and paste and it work. By reversing the command to show all of the hidden system files I finally got rid of that .DS_Store file that pops up everywhere.

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Answer 15

jaa228

Level 1

4 points

May 27, 2016 8:11 AM in response to teke0884

After trying all of the terminal commands to no avail, I ended up deleting the com.apple.finder plist file in /Library/Preferences. After that, I relaunched Finder from the Force Quit menu. It created a new com.apple.finder plist file which contained all of the default settings. The hidden files were hidden again.
Caution: If you do this you may erase any other custom finder settings you previously created. In this case there were not any other settings I was concerned about.

13" MacBook Pro Retina running El Capitan.

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