Hidden files on El Capitan

Not exactly what you asked for, but several years ago googling around I found an Automator workflow to show/hide invisible files (unfortunately I don't remember where and can't give credits to the author). I forgot about it as I used XtraFinder before upgrading to El Capitan, but now I gave it a new try and it works flawlessly on 10.11.1. You have to launch Automator and choose Service, then select Utilities > Run shell script. Copy/paste the following script:

osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to quit'

SHOWHIDDEN=`defaults read com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles`

if [ $SHOWHIDDEN -eq 1 ]; then

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool FALSE

else

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool TRUE

fi

osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to activate'

Make the selections you see in the rectangle below from the pop-up menus in the upper part of the window and save (the original workflow name was ToggleHiddenFiles and it will be saved to your ~/Library/Services folder). It will look as the figure below:

Finally, in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services set the shortcut you wish. I'm not sure, but I think the author's advice was to use ⌘⇧. (Command-Shift-dot) and that's what I did.

Apple has changed the terminal command necessary to show hidden files again.

Various things like temp folders, .ds store, etc. no longer show up after doing the standard:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

killall Finder

So we have confirmed that the original AppleShowAllFiles YES NO LONGER WORKS.

....so

What DOES work in El Capitain?

That command will reveal files that are normally hidden by the Finder, and should remain that way. It does not affect files and folders a user normally creates. It still works in El Capitan, as does the reverse.

I am confused though. If all your folders and files are hidden, how do you know they exist?

bananaroo wrote:

Hi Barney - all the folders are hidden. When I go to my desktop there are no folders.

What do you mean by "my desktop." That can mean several things to different people. The Desktop is the background you see behind all windows, there are multiple Desktops in Mission Control, depending on your setup, and there is Desktop Folder in your Home directory. Then there's just using the wrong term to describe something like the Sidebar in a Finder window. I think El Capitan resets the Sidebar to defaults, so any folders you had there may not appear.

Finally, if you are looking for MOD, I assume it is something that would be in the user Library. That has been hidden for a while. To open it, hold down the Option key in Finder and choose Library from the Go menu.

I have seen where some people accidentally create a new user during the Setup Assistant. The system logs you into that new user account and you think it is your old account. There isn't anything there as it is a new account. You can log out of the current account and see if there is an old account to log into.

OK thanks. From what you describe they may not be "hidden" but may have been deleted or relocated for reasons unknown. In that event, you could use Spotlight (magnifying glass icon, upper right) in an attempt to find them by name. "Hidden" as it applies to a Mac's file system is normally used in a different context and I don't think that is what the problem is.

Also, check the root level of your Mac's boot volume. To do that click the Finder's Go menu > Computer > click your startup volume icon, usually named "Macintosh HD", and look for a folder there named "Lost+Found".

If you still can't account for the missing files, the remaining option would be to restore them from a Time Machine or other backup created prior to installing the OS X upgrade. If you created one, that would be ideal.

Sorry to disturb your negative complain ... but showing / hiding hidden files in El Capitan still works like a charm ...

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES; killall Finder

or

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

Both definitely work fine on my MacBook Pro (OS X 10.11.1)

And I just tested both commands with AND without System Integrity Protection enabled.

hmmm... ok...

Maybe we should define "hidden files" then.

I'm looking for a way to show Unix "dot files" which begin with a "." and are hidden from a non su ls command (need -a flag to view) to be shown in the finder.

The above switch does not turn on the ability to show these files in a finder window for me.

Tried on iMac and Powerbook running 10.11.1

ahhhh... ok, here's the issue.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Works on a per user basis (i.e. changing the /Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder file.

But

sudo defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

does NOT work. i.e. changing the system level

Hello,

I have been having the same issues, but I found that if I use the following scripts in terminal I can unhide / Hide the Library folder.

Shows all Hidden files and folder

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 1 ; Killall Finder

Hide all hidden files and folders

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

Also used TRUE, FALSE, YES , NO.... they all seemed to work fine.

Did not use Sudo though as this did not gain me anything other than to kill all the Finder and relaunch it.

See you on the trail,

Yeehat et al,

This is odd, but it seems that the default OS X Terminal script to Show/Hide hidden Finder files and folders does not work, unless Finder is closed in a very specific way

Closing Finder windows and Relaunching Finder and running

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO

does not work. However, using Yeehat's osascript to close Finder, allows script to Show/Hide hidden files and folders to run with success. So, the commands to Show and Hide hidden files and folders are as follows:

osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to quit'

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO

or...

osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to quit'

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

This is odd, but it seems that the default OS X Terminal script to Show/Hide hidden Finder files and folders does not work, unless Finder is closed in a very specific way.

Closing Finder windows and Relaunching Finder and running

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO

does not work. However, using Yeehat's osascript to close Finder, allows script to Show/Hide hidden files and folders to run with success. So, the commands to Show and Hide hidden files and folders are as follows:

osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to quit'

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO

or...

osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to quit'

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

This fix is Awesome and worked for me on OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 (15E65) on a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014).

My DJI Phantom III Pro Drone uses a Micro SD Card to record video in 4K and each video is written out when it reaches 8 GB in size. So it was taking forever to dl the 4K video files over the standard USB to Micro cable tethered to the drone. Thanks for the help!!!

Yeehat's method is the only one that works for me to display hidden files globally. Added a (clumsy) workaround via Automator to get the Finder window to reopen as well as reactivate, once done, as well as the shortcut as suggested.

The typical methods work for me to display hidden files for the /User/ that am logged into Terminal with, but not globally.

Bit annoying. My memory is terrible, but I know I could do this easily in the past, without having to play around with Automator. Still, always useful to learn new things 🙂