3 Ways for How to Show Hidden Files and Folders on Mac Easily and Effectively

Updated on Sep 9, 2020

Basically, for the security of the macOS, Apple has hidden many macOS files on Mac by default. And there are other occasions that people want to hide files, avoiding being found by other users who use the Mac unexpectedly. And some people even tell me that they often need to show the hidden files on Mac, and when finish the task, they need to hide them again. Interesting! Here in the following, i’m going to tell you the 3 ways you need to know how to show hidden files on Mac, fully useful for High Sierra and Mojave. Let’s start!!!

Method #1. Show Hidden Files on Mac with Shortcut

Method #2. Show Hidden Files on Mac with Terminal Command

Method #3. Show Hidden Files on Mac App Software to Show All Files

Method #1. Show Hidden Files on Mac with Shortcut

If your macOS is High Sierra or the latest macOS Mojave, then you can show hidden files on Mac with the Shortcut in the Finder: "CMD + Shift +.". It is also the shortcut to hide files on Mac.

Method #2. Show Hidden Files on Mac with Terminal Command

Besides using the show hidden files on Mac with a shortcut, you can also try to show hidden files on Mac with the Terminal Command by following the steps below:

Step 1. Click Finder > Applications > Utilities to open the Terminal found.

Step 2. In Terminal, type in or copy-n-paste the following: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Step 3. Press Return

Step 4. Hold the ‘Option key, then right click on the Finder icon in the dock and click Relaunch. It will show the hidden files on Mac right away. To hide the files again, type in or paste the command line: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO

Method #3. Show Hidden Files on Mac App Software to Show All Files

Even you’ve tried Method #1 and Method #2, sometime you even can’t show the the hidden files on Mac, especially some files you hide deliberately. In this case, it is very necessary to have a show hidden files app for Mac. In this article, I’d like to recommend you try iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac. It is a great tool which will scan your Mac for all the files you’ve hidden or lost, displaying them in front of your eyes. It can also recover deleted files on Mac and external dirves

Let’s see how to show hidden files Mac application works!

Click the download button to get the installation package of the file display Mac software. After then, install it on your Mac. After install the software, you can switch back to the former ones.

Step 1. Select file types to scan

Launch the show hidden files applications for Mac. From the first window, you need to select the file types to scan. Please confirm the hidden file types first, then select the corresponding file type(s). If you’re not sure what types of files you’re going to show, please keep all the file types selected and click "Start" to show hidden files Mac.

Step 2. Select hard drive to scan

From the next window, you can see all partitions are displayed for you. Please select the one on which you want to show hidden files on Mac. External hard drives are supported as well. Click "Scan" to start the process

Step 3. Preview and show hidden files

It takes a while for the best Mac data recovery software to scan for hidden files on Mac. During the scanning process, you can stop the process as you like if you’ve seen it has found the files for you. When it finished, you can select files to preview. If they’re the hidden files, select them to save in a folder on your Mac. It’s very helpful for manage these files.

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