Spotlight is a great tool for finding documents, music, and other files on your Mac, but it won't search for certain kinds of files. If you need to locate a specific hidden, packaged, or system.
Summary :
If you want to see hidden files and folders on Mac computer, you can check the 3 ways below to easily show hidden files and folders on macOS incl. Mojave/Catalina/High Sierra. To recover deleted/lost/hidden files on Mac or other storage devices, you can try the professional Mac data recovery software from MiniTool software.
Like Windows operating system (related: show hidden files on Windows 10), macOS also hides some files and folders from users to avoid some important files from be mistakenly deleted or damaged. If you need to show these hidden files and folders on Mac, you have several ways to do this. You can check the detailed guide below. Also, if you need to recover deleted/lost/hidden files on Mac, this post also attaches an easy guide.
Way 1. Show Hidden Files Mac with Keyboard Shortcut
You can use keyboard shortcut to easily show hidden files and hide them on Mac. In Finder, you can press Command + Shift + . to show hidden files. If you want to hide those files again, you can press this shortcut again. This method applies to macOS Sierra or higher.
Way 2. Unhide Files on Mac with Terminal
You can also use Terminal commands to show hidden files in Mac operating system.
- You can open Terminal from Launchpad or open it from Finder -> Applications -> Utilities.
- Type the following command in Terminal window, and hit Return key: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES.
- To hide the files again, you can type defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO.
Way 3. Check Hidden Files on Mac with Finder
- You can open Finder, hold on Alt (Option) key and click Go icon at the toolbar.
- Click Library in the drop-down list, and you can see the hidden contents of ~/Library.
Aside from using the three methods above to show hidden files on Mac Mojave/Catalina/High Sierra, you can also use a Mac data recovery software to recover and see hidden files on Mac.
Learn how to show hidden files/folders in USB or SD card, and how to recover hidden files USB, pen drive, memory card with best USB/SD card recovery software.
How to Recover Deleted/Lost Files and Recover Hidden Files on Mac
Stellar Data Recovery for Mac, a top data recovery program for macOS 10.7 and higher, enables you to easily recover lost, deleted or hidden files from Mac hard drive and external drives in 3 simple steps.
You can use Stellar Mac Data Recovery to recover any kind of file on Mac computer, external hard drive, USB flash drive, SD card, memory card, SSD, and more. It even supports restoring data from a crashed Mac and recovering data from a corrupted or formatted hard drive.
Another big merit of this Mac data recovery program is that it also includes a video repair and photo repair function. You can also use it to repair corrupt files after recovery.
Go to MiniTool download center to download and install the 100% clean Stellar Data Recovery for Mac, and use it to recover deleted/lost/hidden files on your Mac computer.
Step 1. You can launch Stellar Data Recovery for Mac to enter into its main interface. Then you can select what types of files you want to scan and recover, and click Next.
You can choose Recover Everything, or customize the scan to choose Documents, Videos, Photos, Audio or Emails based on your own need.
Step 2. Next you can choose the hard drive or location where you want to scan for lost/deleted/hidden files, and click Scan button. This smart data recovery software for Mac will start scanning all the data on the selected drive.
Step 3. Wait until the scan process finishes. You can see all detected files incl. deleted/lost/hidden files are displayed in the scan result window. You can browse the scan result to find your needed files and click Recover button. Select a destination and click Save button to store the recovered files to a new location.
Conclusion
This post introduces three ways to help you show hidden files on Mac Mojave/Catalina/High Sierra. You can also use the professional data recovery software for Mac to recover hidden files on Mac as well as retrieve deleted/lost files on Mac or other storage devices with ease.
The Finder is the first thing that you see when your Mac finishes starting up. It opens automatically and stays open as you use other apps. It includes the Finder menu bar at the top of the screen and the desktop below that. It uses windows and icons to show you the contents of your Mac, iCloud Drive, and other storage devices. It's called the Finder because it helps you to find and organize your files.
Open windows and files
To open a window and see the files on your Mac, switch to the Finder by clicking the Finder icon (pictured above) in the Dock. Switching to the Finder also reveals any Finder windows that might be hidden behind the windows of other apps. You can drag to resize windows and use the buttons to close , minimize , or maximize windows. Learn more about managing windows.
When you see a document, app, or other file that you want to open, just double-click it.
Change how your files are displayed
To change how files are displayed in Finder windows, use the View menu in the menu bar, or the row of buttons at the top of the Finder window. You can view files as icons , in a list , in columns , or in a gallery . And for each view, the View menu provides options to change how items are sorted and arranged, such as by kind, date, or size. Learn more about customizing views.
When you view files in a gallery, you can browse your files visually using large previews, so it's easy to identify images, videos, and all kinds of documents. Gallery View in macOS Mojave even lets you play videos and scroll through multipage documents. Earlier versions of macOS have a similar but less powerful gallery view called Cover Flow .
Gallery View in macOS Mojave, showing the sidebar on the left and the Preview pane on the right.
Use the Preview pane
The Preview pane is available in all views by choosing View > Show Preview from the menu bar. Or press Shift-Command (⌘)-P to quickly show or hide the Preview pane.
macOS Mojave enhances the Preview pane in several ways:
- More information, including detailed metadata, can be shown for each file. This is particularly useful when working with photos and media, because key EXIF data, like camera model and aperture value, are easy to locate. Choose View > Preview Options to control what information the Preview pane can show for the kind of file selected.
- Quick Actions let you easily manage or edit the selected file.
Use Quick Actions in the Preview pane
With Quick Actions in macOS Mojave, you can take actions on a file without opening an app. Quick Actions appear at the bottom of the Preview pane and vary depending on the kind of file selected.
- Rotate an image
- Mark up an image or PDF
- Combine images and PDFs into a single PDF file
- Trim audio and video files
To manage Quick Actions, click More , then choose Customize. macOS Mojave includes a standard set of Quick Actions, but Quick Actions installed by third-party apps also appear here. You can even create your own Quick Actions using Automator.
Use Stacks on your desktop
macOS Mojave introduces Stacks, which lets you automatically organize your desktop into neat stacks of files, so it's easy to keep your desktop tidy and find exactly what you're looking for. Learn more about Stacks.
Macos Show Hidden Files Application
The sidebar in Finder windows contains shortcuts to AirDrop, commonly used folders, iCloud Drive, devices such your hard drives, and more. Like items in the Dock, items in the sidebar open with just one click.
To change the items in your sidebar, choose Finder > Preferences from the Finder menu bar, then click Sidebar at the top of the preferences window. You can also drag files into or out of the sidebar. Learn more about customizing the sidebar.
Search for files
To search with Spotlight, click the magnifying glass in the menu bar, or press Command–Space bar. Spotlight is similar to Quick Search on iPhone or iPad. Learn more about Spotlight.
To search from a Finder window, use the search field in the corner of the window:
When you select a search result, its location appears at the bottom of the window. To get to this view from Spotlight, choose “Show all in Finder” from the bottom of the Spotlight search results.
In both Spotlight and Finder, you can use advanced searches to narrow your search results.
Delete files
To move a file to the Trash, drag the file to the Trash in the Dock. Or select one or more files and choose File > Move To Trash (Command-Delete).
Best Macos Apps
To remove a file from the Trash, click the Trash to open it, then drag the file out of the Trash. Or select the file and choose File > Put Back.
Macos Show Hidden Files App Download
To delete the files in the Trash, choose File > Empty Trash. The storage space used by those files then becomes available for other files. In macOS Sierra, you can set up your Mac to empty the trash automatically.