Finder - how to hide system files / folders????

I did something (which I can't recall) and now there are a lot of system folders showing up in Finder windows. Examples:
.DS_Store

Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal, copy the blue text in, and press enter:
defaults delete com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles;killall Finder
That deletes the preference entry to show all files, then restarts Finder.
Good luck!
Message was edited by: joshz

Similar Messages

How to hide system files in finder

Is there a way to hide .? files and systems files that are grayed out in finder?

Open the Script Editor or AppleScript Editor in one of the subfolders of Applications and run the following:
tell application "Finder" to quit
if (do shell script "defaults read com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles") is "1" then
do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 0"
else
do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 1"
end if
delay 2
tell application "Finder" to run
If you change your mind later, run the script again.
(70820)

How to access system files

How to see system files in Finder (e.g. the main mail data file) ?

Not sure what "system files" you mean, but you might find it when you have Finder opened and look in your Menu bar (which starts with the  logo).
Then you find "Go" to the right.
1. For the system files -> Click Computer in the list, then Macintosh HD (Or what ever your hard disk is named) and then there is a folder name "System".
You might also mean that you are trying to find the library, which is located there also.
2. If it is the library you are seeking, you might need the "User Library" which is hidden by default.
To get that, open the "Go" menu again and then press and hold the "Option(or alt)" on your keyboard.
Then "Library" will show up in the middle of the list, and that is your user library.
I hope I was a bit of help, please do note that these folders contain very important information.
I strongly advise you to only adjust anything in there, if you perfectly know what you are doing.
Cheers~

How to hide system tables when using the Oracle SQL Developer?

Hi,
I would like to know how can I show only the tables that I created under the Tables tree? I didnt find a way to create a separate database using the Oracle Sql Developer. I see all the tables together, and would like to differentiate between different databases.
Can anyone explain to me how to do these things?
Thanks,

Hi,
I would like to know how can I show only the tables that I created under the Tables tree? Your posting is not clear,again tell something more on tables tree,what u want to achieve with it.
How to hide system tables when using the Oracle SQL Developer? if u connected with sys, system or user with dba role then u have a privilege to see these tables,so revoke the privilege/role from ur user to view this tables if ur connected other then sys,system,
I didnt find a way to create a separate database using the Oracle Sql Developer. DBCA is a tool for creating the new database.
Kuljeet

How do I zip file folders to send to Windows users? They can never open!

How do I zip file folders to send to PC users, they always have problems and can't open.

Are you trying to use one of the stuffit formats (like .sitx as you said) or do you actually want to make a .zip file which would be more logical if you are giving it to a windows user (unless they too have stuffit to stuffit expander of course)?
If you do a search for "zip" at macupdate.com you will find a whole bunch of zip tools, some of which advertise they make windows compatible zip files. For example BetterZip and WinZip Mac Edition can make windows-compatible zip files.
As I initially mentioned if you have stuffit and the windows receiver has stuffit (or stuffit expander) I don't know why there would be a problem creating a stuffit file on a mac and expanding it on windows (ignoring any possible problems introduced in the method of transmission).

Hide system files on mavericks

Hello! Can anyone help me? I can't hide system files on Mavericks with command
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
Is there an alternative?
Thank you so much!

The example shown did not work for me.... but I found the answer searching and testing... Here is what worked for me:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true
Reverting to the default of NOT showing hidden files:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool false
This will only take effect after you restart finder.
To restart Finder use:
killall Finder

I have a new iMac cannot find how to access my files in Dreamweaver

I cannot find how to access my files, as I am now using Yosemite and it is all a different layout .
can anyone get me started please
Clicking on the cloud icon is no help

Copy the entire /Music/iTunes folder to /Music/ on the new computer.
That is all you need to do.

How to hide the file name (the bizarre number assigned by the camera) when exporting an image version in aperture from an album. Pl understand I want to keep the file name in the project library version.

how to hide the file name (the bizarre number assigned by the camera) when exporting an image version in aperture from an album. Pl understand I want to keep the file name in the project library version.

Within Aperture you have Images, which are constructed on-the-fly from two files (the Master and the Version). You get an image-format file _only_ when you export an Image. You select the file name (usually a scheme) when you create an image-format file (that is, when you export). Look under "Aperture→Presets→File Naming" for built-in Presets. You can, of course, create your own or customize any provided.
The Preset is applied to only the file newly created by your "export" command. It is not applied to the Image in Aperture (unless you rename your Versions or your Masters).

How to Hide "Hidden Files"??

This is a question that has stumped AppleCare when I called them last week, and the "Geniuses" at my local AppleStore yesterday....So, throwing it out here. On upgrading my new 17" MBP last week to Snow Leopard I discovered the Finder was showing a lot of System files that normally are "hidden". IE: bin, cores, etc, mack kernal, tmp, usr, var. The regular way of dealing with these files is to make them "hidden" with a Terminal command, but that didn't work. I reinstalled Snow Leopard twice, that didn't work, the Genuis applied a Widget to hide the files, that didn't work either. Somehow the Snow Leopard installation has labelled these files as visible and will not allow Terminal to re-label them so that they go back to their proper "hidden" state.
I cannot with Snow Leopard find a way to "Archive and Reinstall" so that I could sort of shove aside the troubled system and put another clean one in place like we could with Leopard and previous OSX installations. So does anyone have any ideas what may have happened here and how I can address it without the painful solution of wiping the HD and reinstalling and re-registering everything like Photoshop, FCP, Lightroom, Aperture and a host of other software? Something I am trying to avoid. Thanks............

Peter Mullett wrote:
This is a question that has stumped AppleCare when I called them last week, and the "Geniuses" at my local AppleStore yesterday....So, throwing it out here. On upgrading my new 17" MBP last week to Snow Leopard I discovered the Finder was showing a lot of System files that normally are "hidden". IE: bin, cores, etc, mack kernal, tmp, usr, var. The regular way of dealing with these files is to make them "hidden" with a Terminal command,
which terminal command are you talking about? the regular fix is this
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071107023334449
it's for leopard but I believe it works for snow leopard too.
but that didn't work. I reinstalled Snow Leopard twice, that didn't work, the Genuis applied a Widget to hide the files, that didn't work either. Somehow the Snow Leopard installation has labelled these files as visible and will not allow Terminal to re-label them so that they go back to their proper "hidden" state.
I cannot with Snow Leopard find a way to "Archive and Reinstall" so that I could sort of shove aside the troubled system and put another clean one in place like we could with Leopard and previous OSX installations. So does anyone have any ideas what may have happened here and how I can address it without the painful solution of wiping the HD and reinstalling and re-registering everything like Photoshop, FCP, Lightroom, Aperture and a host of other software? Something I am trying to avoid. Thanks............

How to hide (make invisible) folders in Boot camp windows partition

I just bought my parents a mac mini core duo and set up boot camp on it. I used FAT32 so the windows partition shows up in OSX as a volume called "NO NAME". I can also see all of the files and system directories in the volume as one would expect. I have 2 questions.
1. can I rename the "NO NAME" partition from within osx to something more like "WINDOWS" or "XP"? or am I stuck with "NO NAME"?
2. How Can I hide all of the system files and directories? I don't want other people in the house to be able to see anything on that partition except for 1 directory called "DropBox" (or something like that). This will protect the windows partition from being tampered with, and any files that need to be moved across partitions can just be placed in the "DropBox" folder.
I would appreciate any help with this.
thanks,

Do you have the "Developer" folder on the main level of your hard drive? If not, you can manually install the Developer Tools from the install disk(s) that came with your iBook.
I would be more than just a little worried about using the Terminal and command line codes to start hiding files & folders on your Mac if you're not already familiar with those tools.
-Doug

How can I copy file/folders from and to hard drives? How can I have two or more windows of explorer so that I can drag and drop from one hard drive to another?

Hi,
I am a new customer (purchased last week) of MacBookPro (latest) and its my first ever Apple laptop.
I am almost lost to find the operating tools.
1. How can I copy files from hard drive to computer and vis-a-versa?
2. Only can browse one but how can I have two or more browses at the same time like in MS windows?
3. No right click works on track pad?
4. Is there application/ program compatible to MS office? If so how much and how can I purchase?
5. Is there AutoCAD program that is compatible to MS Window AutoCAD? and if yes how much and how can I purchase?
I will very much appreciate if you could email me the with the solution/answers please.
Regards,
Khagendra Limbu

1) For some reason this happens once in a while with FAT32 enabled external harddrives. I have no idea why this happens but it most easily solved by reformatting the drive. First make sure you've copied everything from the external drive to your internal harddrive. You've done this earlier so I assume you know how to do this.
Now the reformatting part. Open Finder and go to Applications. Look for the folder called "Utilities". Click on it. In it you find a program called "Disk Utility". Click on it. Now look for the external drive. You probably see two entries for the disk. Click on the one that contains the name of the drive NOT the one that describes the disk (Like for example 320.07 GB Samsung S2 Portable Media).
Now you see four tabs in the righthand part of the window. They're called "First Aid", "Erase", "RAID" and "Restore". Click on "Erase". This opens the tab with (amongst others) a dropdownbox (Format) and a textbox (Name) . In the dropdownbox select "Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Take note! This selection disables usage of the drive with Windows PC's. If your goal is to share the drive with Windows PC's select the MS-DOS FAT option.
Enter a label for the drive in the textbox Name. Now click on the button "Erase". This will format the drive.
Now when it's done you can copy back all the items you've copied to your internal harddrive earlier.
2) Opening two windows like Explorer on Windows is opening two Finder windows on the Mac. Simply click on the background. In the menubar you items like 'Finder", "File", "Edit", "View", et cetera. Click on "File" and "New Finder Window". Do this two times. Alternatively you can click on the background and press CMD-N two times.
3) You can right click on the trackpad. This however depends on if you've enabled the feature in System Preferences. In the topmenubar click on the Apple icon and select "System Preferences". Now look for Trackpad in Hardware. Click on it. You see three tabs with the names "Point & Click", "Scroll & Zoom" and "More Gestures". Select "Point & Click" and look for "Secondary Click'. Make sure it is checked and make sure it has written "Click or tap with two fingers" written beneath "Secondary Click". When you're done exit System Preferences. Now select the background and tap with two fingers on the trackpad. This should open the contextuel menu with options like "New Folder", "Get Info" et cetera.

How to hide hidden files in Java Browser

My application has a browser. I use the following method from FileSystemView
public File[] getFiles(File dir,
boolean useFileHiding)
with false as the second argument so that the browser doesn't display hidden files.
It doesn't work completely.
I found out there are two types of hidden files in Mac. the ones that being with "." (unix based) and the ones that have an invisibility attribute for the meta of the file (folders like /usr, /bin, /tmp, /etc).
The getFiles filter works only for hidden files that start with "." but it still shows the second type of hidden files.
For the second type of hidden files in Mac, how can I get the invisibility file attribute information in Java so that I can hide them from the file browser?
I am aware of GetFileInfo and the SetFile tool allows setting those flags. But how can I call those functions from java? And once i get the attributes of a file I don't know how to apply a filter to FileSystemView?
thanks,

The GetFileInfo tool that ships with the XCode Tools can display the file's information. Additionally, the SetFile tool allows setting those flags. How you use java to implement those, I suggest you ask at the Unix forum under OS X Technologies.

How to hide hidden files using java FileSystemView

My application has a browser. I use the following method from FileSystemView
public File[] getFiles(File dir,
boolean useFileHiding)
with false as the second argument so that the browser doesn't display hidden files.
It doesn't work completely.
I found out there are two types of hidden files in Mac. the ones that being with "." (unix based) and the ones that have an invisibility attribute for the meta of the file (folders like /usr, /bin, /tmp, /etc).
The getFiles filter works only for hidden files that start with "." but it still shows the second type of hidden files.
For the second type of hidden files in Mac, how can I get the invisibility file attribute information in Java so that I can hide them from the file browser?
thanks,

The GetFileInfo tool that ships with the XCode Tools can display the file's information. Additionally, the SetFile tool allows setting those flags. How you use java to implement those, I suggest you ask at the Unix forum under OS X Technologies.

I have a new ipad and want to create files for my documents I brought over from my Mac. How do I create file folders?

I would like to create file folders for my documents I brought over to my ipad from my desktop Mac. I downloaded pages and neu.annotate. My files synced without a problem. PDF articles I put in neu.annotate and pages documents into pages but I would like to organize into folders like on my desktop. How can I do this on the ipad3?

Unlike a 'normal' computer the iPad doesn't have a file system and everything on it has to be stored/associated within an app, you can't have separate folders of documents/files on your iPad's homescreens. If the apps that you have support it then you could possibly use Dropbox to store your documents within a folder structure, but you'd then need internet access in order to access them.

How do I add files/folders from school to my Dropbox on iPad

I've emailed downloaded lectures for school to myself...Dropbox says I can create files/ folders and I am at a loss as to how to do this. I want to save all lectures/ material to my iPad and move them to Dropbox...I have win zip and iCab too...just don't have the knowledge to use them

With Dropbox installed, Go to the mail that you received, click and hold on the attachement and you will receive an Open in ... dialog, select Dropbox or folder in dropbox.
Go to Dropbox App and verify.

Finder - how to hide system files / folders????

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for