MacOS – Missing Mail.app in Finder, but exists in /Applications folder

findermacosmail.appterminal

I've not ever wanted to use the Mail app on my Mavericks machine, but recently I decided I'd give it a shot. However when I went to Applications in Finder, I couldn't see it. Nor was it in ~/Applications (which is completely empty anyway).

Missing Mail Image

When I did a search from Terminal (find . -iname Mail.app), I discover that it is in the /Applications folder after all.
I checked the permissions, but have never seen the "@" before:

drwxr-xr-x@  3 XXXX   admin    102 21 Feb  2014 MacX Free AVI Video Converter.app/
drwxr-xr-x@  3 root   wheel    102 16 Jul  2014 Mail.app/
drwxr-xr-x   3 root   wheel    102 16 Jul  2014 Maps.app/

The only way I could seem to open it was via Terminal (open /Applications/Mail.app).

Does anyone have any idea on why it might not be visible in Finder?

Note: The app itself is running fine after opening from Terminal…
& I've since marked it as "Keep in Dock".

Many thanks,
Craig.

Best Answer

Thanks to the hint from @Zero, there is a way to Hide and Show individual files, including applications from Finder by using Terminal.

To Show individual files:

sudo chflags nohidden Mail.app/

To Hide individual files:

sudo chflags hidden Mail.app/

Depending upon the file, you may not need to use sudo, but it won't hurt in any case (other than needing to type in a password).

Disclaimer: I found the key to my answer mentioned in a comment here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/65175/84492

Related Question