Chris Gooderham

Wordpress & Apple Training in Peterborough, ON

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Home » News » Show Hidden Files – Folders

Show Hidden Files – Folders

November 4, 2017

How to Show Hidden System Files / Folders on the Mac
for Steph & users of XpdfReader: Nov 4th, 2017

Hidden files revealed
Hidden files and folders revealed

The Issue

The folders that we need to access in order to copy the ‘xpdf-tools’ files into are HIDDEN on the Mac. (This is normally a good thing, because system files and folders are not to be messed with unless a user knows what they’re doing.)

The Solution

We’re going to use the TERMINAL app. to perform a Unix command to show the hidden folders on our Macintosh HD. Once the necessary files have been copied into place, we’ll use TERMINAL again to hide the system files (you otherwise risk seriously messing up your computer).

Instructions

1. Open Terminal

  • Terminal is a utility app that allows you to interact with the command line on your Mac.
  • You’ll find it under Finder > Applications > Utilities

2. Paste the following into Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

This is what your Terminal window will look like

Show hidden files

3. press return

This is what your Terminal window will look like

4. Relaunch the Finder

  • The Finder can’t be quit by default… so instead of restarting the computer Press and Hold the ‘Option/alt’ key, then right-click (Control-Click) on the Finder icon in the dock and click Relaunch the Finder.

This will show all hidden files.

5. View Hidden Files / Folders

Open your Finder window and note that you can now see your Macintosh HD > usr > local folder.

Hidden files revealed

 

6. Follow the xpdf-tools instructions to Copy the necessary ’xpdf-tools’ files

Copy the necessary files into the correct location under the /usr/ directory.

7. Hide system files again

Paste the following into the Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO

8. Repeat step #4 above to relaunch the Finder and complete the process.

Filed Under: Mac Training

About Chris

Chris has been a web designer & developer for almost 20 years. That's crazy! He's a college instructor devoted to helping WordPress users become masters of their own content design workflows on the Mac. When he's not logged in, Chris enjoys cycling, roasting coffee, brewing ale, and being a dad of two awesome kids.

About

Chris Gooderham is a WordPress instructor, Mac trainer, coffee roaster, urban forest advocate, and Dad located in Peterborough, Ontario.Read More…

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