Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Show hidden files not working in Mavericks

BlueGummiBear

BlueGummiBear

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 15, 2010
544
5
Bouncing here, bouncing there, bouncing everywhere
Curious if anyone else has this issue.

This code:

Code: 
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Is not working for me in Mavericks. Once I restart Finder, the primary drive hangs for a bit and then shows the contents of the folder but does not show hidden files. Reboot doesn't help.

I thought this is more of a system "hack" or "tweak" and not necessarily something that warrants filing a bug report or posting in the Dev Forums so I'm posting here.
 
Interesting, works for me. But then again I am using TRUE/FALSE instead of YES/NO so that might be your problem.

I put this in a service with automator and it works beautifully. You don't even need to restart Finder anymore to apply the change, just refresh the view area.

Code: 
showfiles=`defaults read com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles`
if [ "$showfiles" = "TRUE" ]; then
    say Hidden items disabled
    defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
else
    say Hidden items enabled
    defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE	
fi
 
Well, looks like its gone. At least in DP4. If you check the plist file show all files isn't in there so its gone all right.
 
Ddyracer said:
Well, looks like its gone. At least in DP4. If you check the plist file show all files isn't in there so its gone all right.
Click to expand...

Still exists for me... The command

Code: 
defaults read com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles

returns false, just like it should.
 
Ddyracer said:
Well, looks like its gone. At least in DP4. If you check the plist file show all files isn't in there so its gone all right.
Click to expand...

Interesting, the command still works though.

w0lf said:
Code: 
showfiles=`defaults read com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles`
if [ "$showfiles" = "TRUE" ]; then
    say Hidden items disabled
    defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
else
    say Hidden items enabled
    defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE	
fi
Click to expand...
 
Dalton63841 said:
Still exists for me... The command

Code: 
defaults read com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles

returns false, just like it should.
Click to expand...

This doesn't

w0lf said:
Interesting, the command still works though.
Click to expand...

This works.

Ah figured it out. Don't use capital with Finder. So,

this will work:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

disable: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE

or YES and NO after show all files.
 
Last edited:
Still not working

I have OS X Mavericks Beta 7 and it is still not working.
ShowAllFiles is also not mentioned in the finder plist.
anyone knows about this?
 
andredewaard said:
Yes, and none of it is working for me. So i just asked it.
Click to expand...

This works

Code: 
showfiles=`defaults read com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles`
if [ "$showfiles" = "TRUE" ]; then
    say Hidden items disabled
    defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
else
    say Hidden items enabled
    defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE	
fi

If it's not working then it's a problem on your end.
 
Still not working for me either... FYI just as others have mentioned, it works well on computers where I upgraded to Mavericks, but with a clean install (erase first) it no longer works. I have tried all permutations of caps, no caps (and have read all the threads)
 
Don't you normally have to use "-bool true" rather than just "TRUE"?
Might that be the cause of the error?
 
UPDATE: I was able to get this working using the automator script suggested, but I DID have to insert a killall Finder command after the if loop. All of this seemed to magically start working after a restart of my computer. Handy little service, thanks for the post! This is what I did in automator...
First select New, then Service, then using a "Run Shell Script" action, copy in the text suggested above and save it (it will automatically be saved to your Service folder). Assign a unique key combo and you've got an awesome shortcut.
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2013-10-01 at 7.33.14 AM.png
    Screen Shot 2013-10-01 at 7.33.14 AM.png
    161.6 KB · Views: 1,274
They changed how you supply the arguments. Try this:

Code: 
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean true

killall Finder
 
I had to tweak the $showfiles check to look for "1" instead of "TRUE" but it works good after you import it into automator and save it as a service. Make sure to restart/relaunch Finder so the service shows up.

Code: 
showfiles=`defaults read com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles`
if [ "$showfiles" = "1" ]; then
    say Hidden items disabled
    defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean false
else
    say Hidden items enabled
    defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean true
fi
killall Finder
 
BlueGummiBear said:
Curious if anyone else has this issue.

This code:

Code: 
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Is not working for me in Mavericks. Once I restart Finder, the primary drive hangs for a bit and then shows the contents of the folder but does not show hidden files. Reboot doesn't help.

I thought this is more of a system "hack" or "tweak" and not necessarily something that warrants filing a bug report or posting in the Dev Forums so I'm posting here.
Click to expand...

You need a SMALL f for the word Finder 10.9 and the word TRUE (not YES)!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back