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Viewing hidden files

B

BadlyDrawnGirl

macrumors member
Original poster
Hi guys...I am trying to get my iBook to display hidden files and folders, which I am using the following command for in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

The message that comes up when I try this is "Command not recognized." The only problem I can think of is that I don't have Internet access at home at the moment, but I have no idea why that would make any difference. Does this mean that I need to reinstall my OS or something?
 
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

then

killall Finder

To hide the files again replace "YES" with "NO"
then kill the finder again.
 
The proper command is:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
then
killall Finder

Are you on an Administrator login? or Standard user?
 
ggjstudios said:
The proper command is:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
then
killall Finder

Are you on an Administrator login? or Standard user?
Click to expand...
I only have one login so I presume it is Admin. I have tried copying and pasting that exact command about a thousand times and it keeps coming up as not recognized.
 
BadlyDrawnGirl said:
I only have one login so I presume it is Admin. I have tried copying and pasting that exact command about a thousand times and it keeps coming up as not recognized.
Click to expand...


Be carefull in there

If you are in admin, which is the first account you create at your first install, your prompt should look like this:
---

Welcome to Darwin!
Victoria:~mcd$ defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES [restart finder]

[invisible>visible -to make invisible again:]

Victoria:~mcd$ defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles NO [restart finder]

to restart finder: hold down [cmd-opt-esc] all at once. a box will appear asking if youd like to relaunch finder?: Relaunch

Edited
 
seashellz said:
Be carefull in there

If you are in admin, which is the first account you create at your first install, your prompt should look like this:
---

Welcome to Darwin!
Victoria:~mcd$ defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES [restart finder]

[invisible>visible -to make invisible again:]

Victoria:~mcd$ defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles NO [restart finder]

to restart finder: hold down [cmd-opt-esc] all at once. a box will appear asking if youd like to relaunch finder?: Relaunch
Click to expand...
When I open Terminal, I do not get the "Welcome to Darwin!" message. This is what made me think something was wrong with my OS.
 
TinkerTool has an option which allows you to view hidden files without mucking with default writes and that sort of thing. It also has a few other cool tweaks in it as well.
 
Str8edgepunker said:
TinkerTool has an option which allows you to view hidden files without mucking with default writes and that sort of thing. It also has a few other cool tweaks in it as well.
Click to expand...
I suppose I can try that, but I was hoping to be able to do this without downloading too many apps (the real reason I'm trying to do this is so I can transfer my music from my iPod to my computer, which it looks like I'll have to download an app for ANYWAY if I can't figure out this Terminal issue). I was just wondering why a seemingly basic, simple command wasn't working and if this indicated a problem with my system.
 
Onyx is another one that lets you view hidden files in the finder.

And when I open Terminal, I don't get Welcome to Darwin either. That's normal I think. Maybe you can provide a picture so we can see what you are typing and what command is not recognized?

The command that works for me is

Code: 
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

and then type

Code: 
killall Finder

Then all types of files start to appear on my desktop and in the Finder: transparent images and .DS_Store files.
 

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