Ubuntu – How to hide files without renaming them in Ubuntu 18 Nautilus

Tested under Nautilus 3.4.2 on Ubuntu 12.04/12.10 (but works in almost all scenarios)

Open gnome-terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T).

Type ls /.

Copy the name(s) of the folder(s) you want hidden.

Press Alt+F2, then type in gedit.

Paste all the names you want hidden like so:

^{Image excerpted from Another Way to Hide Files Folders in Ubuntu by Meilin}

Save the file (Ctrl+S) in the directory / with the name .hidden (no asterisk, as seen in the image above).

Refresh the page, and they are gone.

^{Image from How to hide files and folders - EuroBytes}

If you want them unhidden later...

To unhide the folders, you can either:

• remove there names from the .hidden file, or
• just press Ctrl+H to view all hidden files and folders.

Reference:

• Meilin, "Another Way to Hide Files Folders in Ubuntu," Ubuntu Sharing (ubuntuguide.net).
• How to hide files and folders - EuroBytes

This is a bug in nautilus, since the same doesn't happen in Trusty (as you found out by yourself); the explanation for this behavior might be that nautilus always tries to delete the files reached through the /home path as being physically located in the /home partition even when they're reached through a symbolic link to a folder physically located in another partition: in this case "trashing" the file like usual fails because the target file cannot be be moved to the user's Trash, hence the prompt to delete it immediately instead.