Show All Files For Mac

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.

  1. Show All Files Mac Finder
  2. Show All Files Mac Os
  3. Mac All My Files
  4. Show All Files Mac Mojave
  5. Show All Files Macbook

The Show All Files application also provides a minimalist interface that allows you to toggle the files visibility with the press of a button. Enables one to create custom lists of files that should stay hidden. The top Show All Files buttons will quickly show or hide the files that are. All My Files is one of the most useful features in the Finder for my virtual dollar. It shows all files on your Mac, defaulting from newest to oldest. The setting for it is slightly hidden. After all, these files are hidden for a reason! See hidden files on Mac via Finder. As mentioned above, it doesn’t take much to make the hidden files on your Mac visible. In fact, you can check out all of the hidden files on your Mac by following just three easy steps: In Finder, open up your Macintosh HD folder; Press Command+Shift+Dot. All I need do now is type showFiles and hideFiles whenever I need to show/hide OS X's hidden files. Here's how you can do it too. The Quickest Way to Show/Hide Hidden Files. Since the release of macOS Sierra, when in Finder, it is now possible to use the shortcut: CMD + SHIFT +. Press once to show hidden files and again to hide them. Hide a File or Folder on a Mac. RELATED: How to Hide Files and Folders on Every Operating System.

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.

Show All Files Mac Finder

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.

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.

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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).

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.

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.

No doubt, macOS Big Sur is one of the current powerful Apple operating systems. So far, Apple included several new features and bug fixes in the arrival updates. macOS Big Sur has tons of new features and certain updates on several applications. Though the stable version will be there soon, and Apple has fixed all the errors that users faced.

If you are running the latest operating system macOS Big Sur, then you might perusal all the features and updates. However, there are such updates that are handy for you.

On macOS Big Sur, you might have those files or data that are significant for you and you don’t want anyone else to touch it. No matter, you have an Android phone, iPhone, Mac laptop, or Windows PC. But, you prefer to hide your personal files and save it separately. In this case, no one can access your serious files.

Later on, you want to find out the hidden files on your device, but you don’t a clue where are the hidden files on macOS Big Sur. Or, how to show all hidden files on macOS Big Sur. However, there is an easy shortcut key that helps you to see all the hidden files on your Mac. But, we will guide you 3 ways to find out all the hidden files.

1: Show Hidden Files using Finder

Show All Files For Mac

There are several ways to show all the hidden files on macOS Big Sur or the previous macOS. But, the easy way to see the files is by using the shortcut key. These shortcut keys can be used to toggle between making the files visible or hiding them again.

Therefore, open Finder and select the folder from the left side that you want to go with. Now, press Command-Shift-. (Dot) to show all the hidden files of this folder. Using these shortcut keys, you can see all the hidden files and you can make visible all the files of other folders using the same shortcut keys.

Remember, you can use this shortcut key to show and hide all the files you want. Therefore, use the same method to hide the files.

2: How to See ~/Library Folder on macOS Big Sur?

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In case, you want to see all the Library folder and files of your macOS Big Sur. Then, follow the below steps.

  • Go to Finder.
  • Hold Down Alt(Option).
  • Now, tap on the Go option from the dropdown menu.
  • Here, you will see all the ~/Library folder listed below the home folder.

3: Show all Hidden Files using Terminal

Using the above two methods can be useful for you and it will help you to show all the hidden files. I know, the above methods will work and you will see all the files. In case, it didn’t work for you then follow the below steps where we are running a command line using the terminal to show all the files.

  • Go to Spotlight and search for Terminal.
  • On the terminal, paste the below code and press the Enter key.
How to show hidden files on mac

Note: The True parameter will show the hidden files and the False parameter will hide the files. If you want to hide the files again, then, instead of True type False.

  • Once you paste the above code then press Enter. Now, cope and paste the below code and press Enter.

Or, you can use the below command lines to show all the hidden files using the Terminal on macOS Big Sur.

Show All Files Mac Os

  • Therefore, go to Spotlight and search for Terminal.
  • Now, copy and paste the below command line on Terminal and press the space bar.
  • Now, Drag and Drop the folder or file you want to unhide from Finder and press the Enter key.

What are Hidden Files on macOS Big Sur?

The hidden files are those that start with a full stop like .htaccess file, .bash_profile, or .svn directory. Moreover, the /usr, /bin, and /etc are the hidden files too. Plus you can say the Library folder that contains the applications support files and other data are the hidden files.

Why the Files are Hidden on macOS Big Sur?

Mac All My Files

The reason behind the hiding files or folders on Mac is shown below.

  • They contain crucial data important for working for macOS.
  • If they are visible, your Mac might look cluttered.
  • No reason for users to view them

Read Next:

Show All Files Mac Mojave

Conclusion

Show All Files Macbook

Using the above method you can unhide or hide your personal files and folders on Mac. Though, you don’t need to set a password in order to not access someone else. But, remembering the password can be a challenge for you and it will be hard to recall the password. Therefore, the Mac will give you the best and easy ways to show and hide the files.