How to show hidden files and folders on macOS High Sierra

If you are bit more hands on like me, then you’ll most likely benefit from being able to see hidden files and folders, on your Mac.

There isn’t a small setting for this so the easiest way is to run a simple command in terminal. Don’t worry, it’s not hard or complicated.

First up let’s find and open the Terminal app. You can find it few ways, either go to Mission Control or spotlight search.

Now we simpley open it up and run the following command to show all hidden files on macOS High Sierra! (will also work on older versions)

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Hit enter! That’s all we need to do in terminal, The last thing is to relaunch finder. Which you can find below.

If you want to hide hidden files and folders again, just run the below command. the only difference is the NO at the end.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO

The changes will take affect as soon as we “relaunch” finder. To relaunch finder and show the hidden files, do the following.

Hold option/alt while right clicking on the finder icon. Select “relaunch” option. That’s all, the settings should now be applied to High Sierra!