Show hidden files in Finder
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008As I have had to show hidden files in Finder so many times, I thought others might find it useful. The system files in Finder are hidden by default. However, it is useful to know how to show these files.
You have to locate the application “Terminal”. Now there are two ways to find this application. Either go to spotlight and type “Terminal”, and chose the application or locate Terminal in Applications/Utilities/ chose Terminal.
In the Terminal Type:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder
The first line, will tell Finder to show all files. To get this working, Finder must be restarted, hence the second line “killall Finder” will restart Finder and show all files, system files and non-system files.
To revert to the original state, simply type FALSE instead of TRUE, like this
In the Terminal Type:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder
This will revert Finder to the original state when it comes to the hidden files.
It is a very handy thing to be able to do!