MacOS – Unable to show hidden files on Mac

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I just received a new MacBook, running OS X El Capitan 10.11.5, from my new employer and I am unable to force hidden files to show in Finder. This is my fourth MacBook, and in the past I have always used defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES to show hidden files; however, on my new Mac, this is not showing the hidden files. I also tried defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE but still cannot see hidden files in Terminal or in Finder. I restarted my computer, but that didn't solve my issue either. Any ideas on how to show my Mac's hidden files?

Best Answer

After you run the defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES command, hold the 'option/alt' key, then right click on the Finder icon in the dock and click Relaunch.

Related Solutions

MacOS – AppleShowAllFiles does not show hidden files

The bundle identifier is com.apple.finder in lowercase.

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES would also write the setting as a string, but it doesn't usually matter though.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true
osascript -e 'quit app "Finder"'

MacOS – AppleShowAllFiles Command not working in Mavericks OS X 10.9

It worked for me in 10.9. You should be using -bool TRUE (not just TRUE), although it worked for me either way. Also, are you running it as two commands (killall Finder is a second command)? The only other thing I can think of is that cfprefsd might have the old setting (or lack therof) cached, so you may have to shut it down it first. If I understand the setup right, that shouldn't be necessary, but just in case:

killall cfprefsd
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool TRUE
killall Finder

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MacOS – AppleShowAllFiles does not show hidden files

MacOS – AppleShowAllFiles Command not working in Mavericks OS X 10.9

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