Apple hides certain files and folders; this is normally a good thing because tampering with hidden system files could crash your Mac if you don’t know what you’re doing. However certain circumstances require access to the hidden files & folders, luckily there are a few easy ways to show all the hidden items.
Below are 3 ways to show the hidden files & folders. The Automator script is a simple script I made myself that will quickly and easily show or hide the hidden items; all you have to do is download and run it. If you feel more comfortable using an application built specifically to show and hide the hidden files and folders, then you can use the free Revealer App. The terminal method is pretty much the exact same thing as the Automator Script and Revealer app, the only difference being that you manually enter the code instead of automatically having it done by the script or app.
Automator Script

Automator – Click Run
To use the Automator script, simply download and open it. Automator, an application that comes pre-installed on Macs will open. Click the “Run” button located on the upper right of the application window. A message will pop-up asking if you’d like to show the hidden files & folders. Click “OK”. This will cause Finder to close and then relaunch.
To reverse the effect, hiding the files & folders, simply run the Automator script again. Each time you show or hide the hidden items Finder will have to relaunch.
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Revealer App
Revealer is a free, nifty little app that has one simple purpose; to show and hide the hidden files and folders as well as the hidden ~/Library folder. The app is extremely light, weighing in at under 1MB. This is a good thing, because it makes it very, very fast.
At the top of the app there are two tabs, “Show Hidden Files” and “Show ~/Library”. It can’t get any easier than that.
This app comes in especially handy if you are an app developer, web developer or someone who needs to show and hide the hidden files on a daily basis. The Revealer app can be stored in the Dock for quick access. The App itself is nonintrusive, loads up practically instantly, and has 1 button under each tab; an on and off switch. Simple and straight forward.
Want to use the Revealer app? Get it here : http://trcdatarecovery.com/software-apps/revealer-app
Each time you show or hide the hidden items Finder will have to relaunch.
Terminal
*UPDATE* – 10/31/2013 – The following codes have have been updated to successfully show hidden files & folders on OS X Mavericks.
Terminal is an App you can find in your Applications/ folder or by searching for it in Spotlight. Simply copy and paste the codes below into Terminal and press the Enter key. (Watch the upper case and lower case letters)
Enter this code to show the hidden files & folders:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
Finder has to be restarted. To do this enter:
killall Finder
Enter this code to hide the hidden files & folders:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO
Finder has to be restarted. To do this enter:
killall Finder
The above codes work perfectly fine for me on every test I’ve run however it has been reported that the last part of the code, “YES” and “NO” does not work for some people. If showing or hiding the hidden files with “YES” or “NO” does not work for you then replace it with “TRUE” or “FALSE”.
Permanently show the Hidden Library Folder
When Apple released OS X Lion they decided they wanted to hide the Library folder. If you want to get it back permanently, it’s incredibly easy to do. Open Terminal and enter:
chflags nohidden ~/Library/
Press Enter. Now your Library folder will be shown in your Home folder.
To go back to the default setting of having the Library folder hidden enter this into Terminal:
chflags hidden ~/Library/
Quick temporary access to the Hidden Library Folder

Option Key
If you’re simply looking for a quick way to get into the hidden Library folder located in your Home folder, simply hold down the “Options” key on your keyboard while selecting “Go” in Finders Menu Bar options. Normally Library is hidden in the menu, letting go of the “Options” key will immediately hide the folder again.
This will not show all the hidden files & folders like the above methods, it will simply grant you access to the hidden Library folder.
Awesome! Will try the Revealer app. Thank you!
Want to thank you for the excellent information on showing hidden files/folders. I do have one question tho, is there a way to show the hidden files/folders for just one folder/directory ?
Thanks for reading
No, I don’t there there is a way to just show one specific folder. I could be wrong, however I think it’s all or nothing.
Ok thank you
Thank you!
how can i get finder to stop showing the backup files for page and numbers?
pls how do i see files hidden in my flash drive?
Alright, well here’s my story: It may be a bit irrelevant to this but my friend (he’s good with computers) told me I need to unhide my drivers so he can fix this app I downloaded called steam..the steam dmg makes my computer lag a lot and basically he’s trying to get rid of it..and to do so he needs to see my drivers and whatnot. However, I hided my drivers awhile ago and didn’t realize their importance. If the apps you stated above will help me in my problem, please let me know? My email is gohuchiha21@gmail.com.
Also, I tried the terminal codes and nothing happened. Again I apologize if this is irrelevant to this page!
If you need to drivers that came with the .dmg file, you could just re-download the .dmg file and grab the drivers from there. Also you may be interested in this app, that helps in fully unistalling apps: http://appducate.com/2013/01/how-to-fully-uninstall-an-application/
Works great! Thank you.
This allowed me to “find” several artist directories that were hidden in my iTunes Media/Music directory. Any idea why some are hidden (the music is still available in iTunes) and what causes it? Using Get Info, I don’t see any difference in the settings between those that are hidden and those that are not. Thanks again.
Glad to hear it worked for you. Unfortunately I don’t have an explanation as to why some of your iTunes music files were hidden. I’ve never heard of iTunes doing that. If you happen to find out why, let me know. I’d be interested knowing.
Not working for Mavericks :-(
That’s strange Balaji, I am currently running the latest version of Mavericks, and I just tested out the Automator Method, Terminal and Revealer App method. They all worked perfectly fine for me.
You can also use a simple free third-party app Funter ( http://nektony.com/products/funter ) Saves much time and is very useful for developers.
Thanks for letting us know about Funter, I’ll check it out. Looks good.
Thank you very much !!