In the finder, files that begin with a . (dot) are not being shown for me.
How can I configure the finder to reveal all files, including ones that begin with a dot?
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A handy keyboard shortcut to reveal files that begin with a . (dot) in Finder is:
Shift + Command + .
This toggles . (dot) files to show/ hide without needing to restart Finder.
You can also define an alias to quickly toggle hidden files within Finder:
alias AllFilesTRUE='defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE; killall Finder'
alias AllFilesFALSE='defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE; killall Finder'
unknowndomain
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abh
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3The keyboard shortcut is a great tip! I wish I could do that directly in Finder (not just in an "Open" window). – Samuel Bradshaw Aug 26 '16 at 23:21
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This is better. – xi.lin Nov 30 '18 at 08:29
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I have confirmed that this works in any Finder window in Mojave :-) – abh Nov 30 '18 at 14:20
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1I prefer this since I often don't want to see the dot files – Ruan Mendes Apr 16 '20 at 12:32
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2This should be the accepted answer! It works in the finder too. – hasen Mar 24 '21 at 10:25
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1This also works in the System Information app, in the File Browser – dldnh Aug 31 '21 at 20:46
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@abh Where was this documented that you could learn of it? – jsejcksn Feb 10 '23 at 07:30
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Open your Terminal (/Applications/Utilities) then enter,
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
Then restart Finder by holding down Option and Control, or right-clicking on the Finder's icon in your Dock and choosing "Relaunch".
To revert this behavior, simply change the YES to NO in that defaults command.
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1Unfortunately this does not change the behaviour of finder in an Open File window, for example. But see abh's shortcut below – DrGC Jun 04 '17 at 15:38