To use Siri, click the Siri icon in your menu bar.įinder, like Spotlight, is a simple way to find items, but is also a bit more direct for discovering files and folders. For example, "Show me my New York photos" will bring up all photos the Photos app shows were in a ‘New york’ folder, or when the photo geolocation shows it was taken in New York.
Instead of thinking about how to search for a word on Mac, you can also ask Siri to find your files and folders by saying what you're looking for using natural language.
Here, we’ll show you how to search on Mac, the right way to Spotlight search Mac computers, and surface some great apps you may prefer to using Apple’s built-in services. You can also search within documents like PDFs to find phrases or words important to you. All the files and folders should now disappear from the naked eye, but they are still there waiting to be unhidden when needed.We tend to think of the term ‘search’ as a web-only initiative, but your Mac can handle searches, too! Both Spotlight and Finder are excellent resources, and learning the proper ways to use search within those macOS features can help you discover what you’re looking for much faster. On Terminal type the following command: defaults write AppleShowAllFiles NOĢ. Re-hiding All Hidden files and foldersĪfter you are done viewing the hidden files you can re-hide them all at once by simply entering the reverse Terminal command to the one you entered before.ġ. If you don’t then try holding the Option/Alt key from the keyboard and right clicking on the Finder icon from the dock. Now you should see all the files and folders that are hidden on your computer. Once Terminal is loaded copy and paste the following command in it, and then hit the ‘ Return‘ key.
You can also search for it through Spotlight.Ģ. Open Terminal on your Mac, which you can find in LaunchPad > Others > Terminal. Show All Hidden files and folders on the Macġ. How To Show Or Hide Files Or Folders With A Keyboard Shortcut You can reverse this command and all the hidden files will go into hiding again. This command will not ‘Unhide’ the file but it will only reveal them. This command will display all ‘Hidden’ files and folders and even reduce their icon’s opacity so you can tell if a certain file is hidden. If you have forgotten the file or folder path or don’t know which files you have saved as hidden on your Mac, then we have got a simple Terminal command that will show all hidden files or folders on your computer. However the method we shared with you earlier required you to remember the path of the file where it is located, if you lose this information, then you cannot use the nohidden command to retrieve the file. Hiding files through Terminal is easy and safe, and is perhaps the most effective way of hiding files on Apple’s computer. We showed you how you can hide individual files and folders on Mac and how you can unhide them whenever you need them.