View hidden folders on MacOS Mojave? cmd+shift+. does not work [duplicate]

apple.stackexchange https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/396683

  •  29-05-2021
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Question

Since I'm not really great with using the terminal, I would like to see hidden folders on my Mac through the regular user interface. However, I cannot show my hidden folders. I tried things I found on the internet but they did not work for me. I tried

  1. cmd+shift+dot - nothing happens

  2. settings > Keyboard > turning on and off "Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys"

  3. settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Restore Defaults

  4. terminal.app > defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles ["yes"/"YES"/" "] source

  5. at the folder I want to view the hidden contents of, I pressed Alt while clicking Go. after the "Library" folder showed up in "Go," I clicked it and saw many folders in Library, but still didn't see any folders with . in front. source

My main goal is to copy and paste into a .gitignore file that is stored in a specific folder on my desktop. I am having troubles doing it through the terminal so I thought this would be easier but it is apparently not. :)

Question: How can I fix this issue and allow myself to see hidden folders on my Mac?

I don't have a strong background in this stuff and am not trained in computer science/tech stuff.

I have macOS Mojave.

Was it helpful?

Solution

There are two types of hidden items (files or folders) on macOS:

  • Those which start with . whose hidden bit it set by default.
  • Those with no starting ., but chflags set to hidden. Run man chflags to see more info.

I clicked it and saw many folders in Library, but still didn't see any folders with . in front

Those folders are of the second type.

However, I cannot show my hidden folders.

Let's see if there's a problem with hidden files itself. In Terminal, run :

cd ~/Downloads
mkdir test_hidden && cd test_hidden
touch empty
touch .empty_h
open .

In this folder that opens, do you see files (dis)appearing if you toggle command+shift+. ?

Update: Restarting and running killall Finder helped.

For the .gitignore file, use ls -a command to list all items in a directory. If there is a .gitignore file there, you can run

open .gitgignore

to open it with default text editor. Or nano .gitignore. Or specify a text editor:

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