Screenshot by Topher Kessler/CNET The default options for application-hiding in OS X are to press Command-H to hide the current program, or to press Option-Command-H to hide all applications. However, if you are still not convinced and wanted to completely hide desktop icons on Mac, go with Terminal option. Or download the “Show / Hide Desktop icons” app which can toggle the visibility of the icons in just one click. Make sure you allow it to run when your Mac says it is not from App Store or known developer. You can make any app 'invisible' (or at least any Cocoa app) with a little plist editing. Find the application you want to change in the Finder, control-click on it, and select 'Show Package Contents'. Open the 'Info.plist' file in the 'Contents' folder in any text editor. The Dock doesn't actually hold an app or document. Instead, the Dock contains aliases, represented by an item's icon. These icons are shortcuts to the actual apps and documents, which may be located somewhere else within your Mac’s file system. As an example, most apps reside in the Applications folder.
Your Mac has a secret. Thousands of them in fact, in the form of hidden files and folders lurking on its hard drive or SSD. Don’t worry, though. These files and folders are all supposed to be there. In fact, many of them are essential.
Many of these files are in your Mac’s main Library folder or in the ~/Library folder, which is in your User folder. Both these Library folders are hidden, but inside them are folders and files that hold things like preferences for apps.
In this article, we’ll tell you how you can view hidden files on your Mac and make your Library folder visible.
What are the hidden files on Mac?
The hidden files are a throwback to macOS’ Unix roots. In fact, the convention of naming them starting with a “.” comes from Unix. For that reason, you can’t use a “.” at the start of a regular file name, otherwise OS X will hide it.
The files themselves contain data like access rights and privileges for files and folders, application support files, and preferences.
There are a number of reasons files and folders are hidden. Mostly, though, it’s because they contain data critical to the smooth running of your Mac and that you shouldn’t interfere with. In addition, there’s no real reason for most users to see or access them. Also, if they were all visible, your Mac would look horribly cluttered.
How to view hidden files on Mac
Before you make your Mac show hidden files, it’s important to remember they’ve been hidden for a reason. The data they contain could cause havoc if you delete or alter it and don’t know what you’re doing.
If your goal in viewing, for example ~/Library is so you can manually delete application support files for a program you’ve uninstalled, consider using a dedicated uninstaller like CleanMyMac X. That will make it easy to remove all the files associated with an application with one click. You can download CleanMyMac X for free here.
How To Hide Open Apps On Mac Os
CleanMyMac X will also allow you to get rid of all the hidden files you no longer need. Many of these files are created and used then not needed anymore. They just sit there clogging up your hard drive. CleanMyMac X scans your Mac, identifies this system junk and allows you to quickly and easily get rid of it, potentially several gigabytes of disk space.
If you still want to view hidden files on your Mac, you need to go to the Finder and do the following:
- Open a new Finder window and click on the name of your Mac under ‘Devices’ in the sidebar.
- Click on Macintosh HD, or whatever you’ve called your startup drive if you’ve renamed it.
- Press Command-Shift-. (period). You should now see lots of files and folders who’s name starts with “.” become visible.
- To re-hide the files and folders, hold down Command-Shift-. again.
How to view your Mac’s ~/Library folder
There are a couple of methods for making your ~/Library folder visible. Here’s the simplest:
- Click on the Finder in the Dock.
- Open a new Finder window and navigate to your user folder (Tip: if it’s not in the sidebar, go to the Finder menu, choose Preferences, click Sidebar and check the box next to your Home folder)
- Click on the Go menu.
- Hold down the Option (Alt) key.
- You should see that in the dropdown menu, Library appears below Home. Click on it.
Alternatively, do this to view your Library folder:
- Click on the Finder in the Dock.
- Click on the Go menu and choose Go to Folder.
- In the window that opens, type “~/Library”
With both these methods, your Library folder will disappear again when you close the Finder window. It’s easy enough to run through the steps above again to make it visible again when you need to, but if you want it permanently accessible, there are a couple of ways to do it.
The quickest is to drag the Library folder to the Finder’s sidebar. That will create a shortcut to it that will persist. If you want to keep ~/Library visible but don’t want it clogging up the sidebar in Finder windows, do this:
- Click on the Finder in the Dock.
- Click on the View menu and choose Show View Options.
- Check the box labelled Show Library Folder at the bottom of the window.
How to make macOS show hidden files using Terminal
If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you can use the Terminal command line interface to view hidden files and folders. Here’s how to do it:
- Open Terminal from the Utilities folder in Applications, or by searching for it using Spotlight. You can also use the Go menu in the Finder to go directly to the Utilities folder.
- Type, or copy and paste, this command: defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles true
- Press Return
- Type: killall Finder
To hide the files again, repeat the above steps, but replace ‘true’ with ‘false’ at the end of step 2.
How to hide any file or folder using Terminal
Now that you know how to view hidden files and folders on your Mac, you may be wondering how you can hide other files or folders, to keep them away from prying eyes. There are a number of third-party applications and utilities that offer to do this for you, but you can do it yourself in Terminal, like this:
- Launch Terminal.
- Type: chflags hidden
- Press the spacebar.
- Drag the file or folder you want to hide from the Finder onto the Terminal window.
- You’ll see the path to the file or folder displayed in Terminal after the command you typed.
- Hit Return to execute the command.
The file or folder you dragged onto the Terminal window will now be hidden. To see it again, use one of the methods described above to see hidden files.
To make the file visible permanently again, use the steps above, but in step 2 type: chflags nohidden
As you can see, viewing hidden files and folders on your Mac is very straightforward. There are a number of ways to do it, and you can make them visible temporarily or permanently.
However, just because you can view hidden files, doesn’t mean you should — the files are usually hidden because accidentally deleting them or altering them could cause chaos on your Mac. So, while it’s fine to have a peek, don’t do anything with the hidden files unless you know what you’re doing.
If you want to declutter your Mac or uninstall applications, use a dedicated application like CleanMyMac X. It will safely remove all useless files, add-ons, broken login items, caches, large and old files you didn't know about. Most likely, you won't even need to look for hidden files — CleanMyMac will do all the job for you.
We also showed that many of those files are stored in Library folders, including the one in your User folder, ~/Library. That folder is hidden by default, but you can view it or make it permanently visible using the techniques described above.
These might also interest you:
Apps opening automatically during startup on your Mac can slow down your computer. In this article, we are showing you the steps to stop apps from Opening automatically during Startup on your Mac.
How To Download Apps On Mac
Why Stop Apps From Opening Automatically On Mac
Most programs would like to make themselves available to you as soon as you start your Mac. Some programs add themselves to the list of startup programs on Mac or the user ends up adding them to the startup list by innocently clicking on the “Open at Startup” check box.
However, each application that opens at startup with your Mac needs resources and this ends makes the startup process longer on your Mac, resulting in a noticeably slower computer.
Hence, if you are wondering as to why your Mac is so slow to startup, the simple reason is because you have a long list of startup programs, some of which you may not even see because the Hide option is checked in the Settings for the program.
Check Which Apps Are Opening During Startup On Mac
Follow the steps below to take a look at the applications that are opening at startup on your Mac.
1. Click on the Apple Menu icon in the top menu bar on your Mac and then click on System Preferences in the drop-down menu.
2. On the System Preferences screen, click on Users & Groups.
3. On the Users & Group screen, click on Login Items tab to see the list of programs that are opening at startup on your Mac.
In case the programs that are opening at startup are not your favourite or the most commonly used programs, you will need to stop them from opening at startup and slowing down your computer.
Stop Apps From Opening Automatically On Mac Using Dock
Follow the steps below to stop Apps from opening at Startup on your Mac, in case the app that is opening up automatically is located on the Dock of your Mac.
1. Right-click on the App’s icon that you wish to stop from opening at startup.
2. After right clicking on the app’s icon, a menu will pop-up. From the menu, hover your mouse over Options and then click on Open at Login to uncheck this option. (See image below)
After unchecking the option, the next time your Mac starts up, the application will no longer open.
Stop Apps from Opening Automatically on Mac Using Settings
In case the App which is opening automatically during startup is not located on the Dock of your Mac, you will need to go into the Settings Menu of your Mac to disable such apps.
1. Click on the Apple Menu icon in the top menu bar on your Mac and then click on System Preferences in the drop-down menu.
2. On the System Preferences screen, click on Users & Groups option
How To Hide Open Apps On Mac Computer
3. On the Users & Groups screen, click on the current User Account that you are logged into (in case it is not already selected) and then click on the Login Items Tab (See image below)
4. Next, Select the App that you want to stop from opening at startup by clicking on it. Once you have selected the app click on the – button, to stop the app from opening at startup (See image above)
From now on the App will not startup automatically whenever you open your Mac.
Hide Apps Opening Automatically on Mac
Follow the steps below, in case you have no problem with an application opening up automatically with your Mac but want to hide the application from showing up during startup.
1. Click on the Apple Menu icon in the top menu bar on your Mac and then click on System Preferences in the drop-down menu.
2. On the next screen, click on Users & Groups option
3. On the Users & Groups screen, make sure that your current Account is selected and then click on the Login Items tab (See image below)
4. Now, locate the application that you want to hide at startup and simply check the little box next to the application (See image above)
Mac Apps Open On Startup
Now the application that you just hid will continue to open at startup but will be hidden from your sight, allowing you to see your desktop first.