Because I really don’t want to rile up all you wonderful Mac users, I’ve decided to do a follow-up on the whole hiding your folders in plain view dilemma.

If haven’t done so already, be sure to check out my article on how to hide your files, folders, and disk drives; it may not apply to Mojave or whatever else OS you’re running, but at least you’ll get an idea of what you’re up against. So, how do you hide folders on Mac?

Aug 02, 2014  This is the best and the cheapest app for files/folders hide and lock in Mac. I have tried many many paid and free apps. This is the best. You can buy this app for 2.99$ in App store. While free, Show Hidden Files for Mac is of limited utility to advanced users of the Mac terminal, but would be helpful for someone with little knowledge of manually showing hidden files.

• Hide Folders is a freeware app dedicated to hide files and folders on the Mac. It’s optimized for 64-bit compatibility and it works with all modern Macs running macOS.
• Feb 21, 2020  Mac file recovery software supports you to find and restore all hidden files on Mac computer or external storage devices with simple clicks. Download for Mac Download for PC Recently we got a question from a user whether it is possible to find files that are hidden on a mac hard drive.
• If you press CMD + Shift +. On the keyboard, then Mac will hide or unhide the files that are already been hidden. This is an easy method that you can use to easily flip between hidden and visible status for files. Method 2: Using Terminal to Hide Files on Mac The terminal can help you hide files on Mac.
• Feb 07, 2017  Macs offer a way to hide files and folders, just like other operating systems. But Mac OS X hides these options and doesn’t make it as easy as it is on Windows and Linux. To hide a file or folder, you’ll need to set the “hidden” attribute for it. The Finder and other Mac apps will then ignore and not display this file or folder by default.

Get yourself acquainted with the Terminal (Mac’s version of Windows’ command prompt) because, as it happens, it’s the only way to hide folders on Mac without resorting to third-party tools. Let’s dig in.

How to Hide Folders on Mac – Quick and Painless Version

If you really don’t want to trouble yourself with code, there’s a very easy and extremely fast way to hide your folders on Mac -by using the FileVault.

Basically, it turns your hard-drive in a Fort Knox-like vault which cannot be opened without the proper cipher, which in this case is the username and password associated with your admin account.

Yes, I know it’s like curing the disease by killing the patient, but I did say that it’s the easiest way to go about hiding your folders. Anyway, here’s what you’ll need to do, should you choose to use FileVault for masking your files, folders, and everything in between.

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Step 1. Click on the Apple icon located in the upper-left corner of your screen.

Step 2. Click on System Preferences.

Step 3. Click on Security & Privacy.

Step 4. Head to the FileVault tab (it’s right next to the General tab).

Step 5. Click on the padlock icon to make changes.

Step 6. Click on the Turn On FileVault button.

Step 7. In the next dialog box, select the recovery method. You can choose between iCloud and generating a local recovery key. I, for one, would go with the later version since it’s more secure (no use compromising two accounts if your password gets stolen).

Here’s what’s going to happen if you use the local recovery key method: you will be taken to another dialog box where you will be going to see a system-generated code.

It looks very much like a Windows or antivirus activation key. Put this code in a new document or something. That the recovery key you’ll be using in case you don’t remember the password.

Step 8. Click on Continue.

Step 9. Click again on the Continue button to finish the process.

That’s it! Now FileVault will begin encrypting all the data on your drive. Depending on your specs, this process can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a few days.

Don’t worry too much about ending up with a potato computer; you’ll still be able to surf the web, watch movies, or play games because everything happens in the background.

One more thing: don’t forget to hook up your Mac to the power outlet. You really wouldn’t want to run out of juice in the middle of a procedure involving the drive on which your entire data is stored.

How to hide folders on Mac using Terminal

There’s also a way to hide folders on Mac, but it involves using the Terminal. Don’t worry; it’s just a couple of command lines. Nothing too fancy or complicated. So, here’s how to hide files/folders using Terminal.

Step 1. Click on Finder.

Step 2. From the left panel, select Applications.

Step 3. Scroll down until you see Utilities. Double-click to enter the Utilities menu.

Step 4. Double-click on Terminal.

Step 5. Type in the following line:

Step 6. Create a new folder on your desktop. Fill it with stuff that you want to hide.

Step 7. Drag-and-drop the folder on to the Terminal window. If you look closely, you’ll see that the folder’s path has appeared.

Step 8. Press Return to hide the folder.

Great! Now that your folder’s out of sight, out of mind, let’s see how we go about accessing it. There are three ways to access hidden files and folders.

Method 1 – Using the Go to Folder function

From the Go menu, select Go to Folder. In the dialog box that appears on your screen, type in the path of your hidden folder. Don’t forget to include the “~” sign before the path.

It should look something like this: “~/Desktop/MyHiddenFiles”

Method 2 – Using the Open/Dialog function

Double-click on Finder and select Desktop from Favorites. Press the Show items as icons, in a list, in columns, or in the library (the pictogram looks like a rectangle divided by to straight lines). You may need to perform this operation a couple of times before the folder becomes visible.

Method 3 – Show hidden files in Finder

It’s possible to see a hidden file in Finder, but you will need to tinker a bit with Terminal. So, fire up your Terminal, and type in the following line:

Press Return to continue. After that, please type in or paste the following line:

Again, press return, go to Finder, and there you are – what was once hidden, can now be seen. Enjoy!

How to hide folders on your Mac by using Terminal Aliases

Aliases are macros or shortcuts to various commands. Albeit temporary, we can easily turn this into a more permanent solution. Again, you will need to fiddle around with the Terminal. So, here’s what you’ll need to do:

Step 1. Open the Terminal.

Step 2. Type in or paste the following line:

Step 3. When prompted, type in the username and password associated with your active admin account.

Step 4. Press Return to continue.

Step 5. Scroll down to the end of the open .bash_profile.

Step 6. Type in or paste the following line:

Step 7. Navigate to the following line and type in or paste the following:

Step 8. Save the file.

Step 9. Exit Terminal.

That’s about it. Now, the next time you will launch Finder, all desired folders will be hidden.

Even more ways to hide files and folders on your Mac

As they say, there’s more than one way to skin something (please don’t say “cat”). So, if you found that the methods described are much too difficult, here are a couple of more ways to hide folders on Mac.

Using the “mv” command

The “mv” command in Terminal moves a file or folder from one place to another. How does this help you? Here’s the trick: the “mv” command moves the folder from its original location to a period folder.

Now, by default, period folders are hidden because they contain system-critical information. Basically, it’s the same thing as moving files or folders to your System32 folder in Windows.

To make files invisible in this manner, open Terminal and type in mv filename .filename. Replace “filename” with the name of the file you want to hide and the “.filename” parameter with the name of the system-protect file.

Deploy Apple’s Developer Tools

If you’re in the mood to do a bit of tweaking, download and deploy one of Apple’s Dev Tools and enter the following command in Terminal: setfile -a V <name of the file you want to hide>. The name of the file should follow the “V” parameter without the “<>”. This command will set the file’s attribute to invisible.

Dump everything in the Library folder

When everything else fails, try the Library folder. It’s hidden by default, making it the ideal place to store top-secret stuff. Just fire up your Finder, navigate to Finder, right-click, create a new folder, and drag all the files in there.

Use third-party file-hiding software

You can also use special software to keep your folders away from prying eyes. The best ones are Altomac and Hide Folders. However, there are also open-source alternatives such as AES Crypt, Axcrypt, or File Lock PE. Give them a try if you’re looking to beef up your account’s privacy.

Wrap-up

That’s it on how to hide folders on Mac computer. Know any more methods? Hit the comments section and let me know.

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When you look at your desktop, or inside any folder for that matter, on your Mac you’ll see a number (one that will vary depending on how well-organized you are) of file and folder icons. What all of us have in common, however, is a huge range of system files that are hidden just out of view.

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Try Setapp to make all your files visible on a Mac. With the tools we offer, nothing gets lost in the shuffle.

Those of us who have lived online for long enough will remember the Delete System32 hoax, with which trolls encouraged naive PC users to delete their Windows 2000 system directory. It’s not a shock that, since those days, developers have taken more care to hide away files that are essential to their operating systems.

There are, however, times when you need to access those files. Most of them are hidden away in the ~/Library folder, but the truth is that the average Mac holds a treasure trove of files and folders that you either no longer need or may want to access for troubleshooting purposes.

Is it normal that 'System' takes up 90GB+ of storage? What does it contain? How to get your System folder under control?

Three Ways to See Hidden Files on Mac

There’s good news for anyone out there who’s looking to access hidden files on their Mac: you can do exactly that, in a number of different ways, by arming yourself with a little bit of knowledge. There are a couple of Finder augmentation and replacement apps, for example, that make the process as easy as clicking a single button.

Before kicking off, however, it’s important to highlight that you should play it safe when digging through hidden files on your laptop or desktop. Unless you know exactly what you’re looking for you can do some serious damage to your operating system, so you’ll want to proceed with caution. After all, these files are hidden for a reason!

See hidden files on Mac via Finder

As mentioned above, it doesn’t take much to make the hidden files on your Mac visible. In fact, you can check out all of the hidden files on your Mac by following just three easy steps:

1. In Finder, open up your Macintosh HD folder
2. Press Command+Shift+Dot
3. Your hidden files will become visible. Repeat step 2 to hide them again!

This process will also work elsewhere, including your Documents or Applications folders. However, if you know what you’re looking for is in your ~/Library folder and would rather jump straight into that then you can take the following steps instead:

1. In Finder, hold down Alt and click Go at the top of your screen
2. Click on Library to open up the, normally hidden, folder

Be prepared for one very cluttered looking Desktop if you decide to uncover all the hidden files there. If you’re anything like the average Mac user, most of what you’ll find will be made up of system files and autosaved Microsoft Word documents!

Some users have reported success finding documents that they thought were lost forever after their Mac crashed without saving, which is always a useful tip to have in the back pocket.

Unhide files on Mac with Terminal commands

Terminal, a Mac command-line interface, is included in macOS by default and allows you to use command prompts to control your Mac instead of following a potentially complex series of instructions to do the same thing in Finder.

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If you’re already familiar with using Terminal, then you might prefer to run the following script to reveal your hidden files:

1. Open Terminal
2. Enter the following: defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles true [Press Return] killall Finder
3. To hide files again, change the “true” in the step above to “false”

It doesn’t matter too much whether you use Terminal or Finder to make the hidden files on your Mac visible, though you might prefer the latter if you’ve never run scripts on Terminal before, as both routes accomplish the same thing.

One reason you might opt to use Terminal is that it allows you to hide any file or folder on your Mac, which is a great way to avoid that sense of residual curiosity felt by others should they come across a password protected .rar on your desktop! To hide files, just:

1. Open Terminal
2. Enter the following: chflags hidden [Press Space]
3. Drag files or folders to be hidden from Finder into the Terminal window, which will display their paths in Terminal
4. Press Return to hide

To make your files visible again, just repeat the above steps using “chflags nohidden” in place of “chflags hidden.” Of course, the fact that anyone else who knows this trick can also use it to unhide your files means that this isn’t an adequate substitute for other security measures.

Use file managers to access hidden files

How to find the path of a file in Mac? Apps like DCommander and Forklift, both of which perform like native macOS apps and function as extensions of Finder, represent great choices if you’re at all uncomfortable using Terminal or digging around in your ~/Library folder.

Because these apps allow you to make hidden files and folders visible (or invisible) using shortcuts or clicking buttons within the apps, they make the whole process incredibly simple. In Forklift, for example, you can show hidden files by:

1. Clicking View
2. Selecting View Options towards the bottom of the dropdown menu
3. Checking the box next to Show Hidden Files

There’s also a button in the toolbar to show and hide hidden files. DCommander has a similar function available, with a Show System Files command, but you need to add it manually to the app’s toolbar:

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As you might guess from those subtle differences in terminology, we would suggest that Forklift is more suitable for someone looking for something that really looks and acts like Finder. DCommander, with a larger range of features and toolbar buttons enabled by default, is still intuitive but feels a little more dense.

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Whichever you settle on remember that just because these apps make accessing hidden files easy it doesn’t mean that you can’t do some real damage if you start messing around with the wrong thing!

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Leave hidden files to automatic cleanup

For some Mac users, the question of how to see hidden files is nothing more than succumbing to curiosity. For others, it’s a necessity for troubleshooting a piece of software or device that’s not performing as it should.

Somewhere in between are those in the pursuit of a few spare gigabytes as their hard drive rapidly fills up. If you’re one of those people looking to clean up useless hidden data then an app like CleanMyMac X might be exactly what you need:

1. Open up the app and select Smart Scan
2. Hit Scan
3. Select Review Details underneath Cleanup to see how much System Junk you can safely delete
4. Hit Run to remove those unneeded files

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An app like CleanMyMac X will free up space just as effectively, probably more so, than you’ll be able to by randomly deleting hidden files and hoping for the best. If you do end up going this route then don’t consider learning more about hidden content a waste of time — at least you know what to watch out for if someone tries to troll you into deleting vital system files!

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Best of all, DCommander, Forklift, and CleanMyMac X apps mentioned above are all available for a free trial through Setapp, a collection of more than 150 macOS apps from top developers all over the world.