Apple

Avoid gossip on your Mac! Hide the content of your folders like this

Follow these steps to hide files and folders

The first thing we want to talk to you about is the possibility you have to be able to hide files and folders on your computer, that is, make them totally invisible so that no one can access them. However, this has a small drawback, and that is that you will not be able to access the documents or folders that you hide, but you will know how to show them again because we are also going to tell you how to do it. Here are the steps to follow to be able to hide files or folders on your Apple computer.

  1. Open the app Terminal.
  2. Type the following command in the terminal, «chflags hidden » without the quotes. Keep in mind that after the word “hidden” you have to leave a space.
  3. Drag now any folder or document you want to hide. When you finish dragging it, you will be able to verify that the path corresponding to said file or folder will appear in the terminal.
  4. Pusa Intro.

Picture 1.2

With these simple steps you can easily and comfortably hide any file or folder that you have on your computer. As we said, this process will ensure that said content is no longer visible and accessible to any user, including you, so then we also leave you the steps you have to follow to be able to have the content you have hidden again.

  1. Open the app Terminal.
  2. Write the following command without the quotes, «defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool YES«.
  3. Press Intro.style = “display: inline-block; width: 100%;”>Picture 2.2
  4. So far we have managed to show all the hidden files on the Mac, and now we have to access those that were hidden manually, to do this write the following command without the quotes, «killall Finder«.
  5. Press Intro.
  6. Picture 3.2
  7. Write the following command without the quotes, «chflags nohidden «, Bearing in mind that after the word “nohidden” there must be a space.
  8. Drag the file or folder from where you are to the terminal window.
  9. Press Intro.

Picture 4.2

With these simple steps you have the possibility to hide and show different contents of your Mac whenever you want. This comes in really handy especially if you have very important or confidential documents that you work with and you want to hide them for different reasons, but then you have to continue working with them.

Select the devices you want to see on your Mac when you connect them

In relation to the fact of hiding or showing different content, another option that every user can adapt to their tastes or preferences is to show on the desktop and in the Finder sidebar the different devices that you can connect to your Apple computer, such as hard drives, cameras, memory cards or any storage unit.

As we said, this is a point at which the personal preferences of each user come into play and how accessible they want to have the elements that they connect to the Mac in order to work with them. As you will see below, the steps you have to carry out to customize your Finder desktop and sidebar are really simple and, of course, you can always go back to change the preferences that you can set by following the steps below.

  1. In the Finder, select Finder > Preferences.
  2. make click on General, and subsequently, select the items you want to see on the desk.
  3. make click on the Sidebar, and subsequently, select the items you want to see in the Finder sidebar.

Available Devices 2

Customize Finder to your liking

Previously we have told you what are the steps you have to carry out if you want to show or hide the different devices that you can connect to your computer in the Finder sidebar. Now it’s time to really choose and customize everything you have access to from the Finder, from the folders located in the sidebar to the shortcuts that you can use through the toolbar. We will tell you all of this below.

Show and hide options on the toolbar

The Finder toolbar is a place where there are many shortcuts to different functions that, obviously, as a user, you have the possibility to adapt to your liking, and above all and more importantly, to your use, to be able to do and customize your Mac completely according to your needs. Here are the steps you have to follow if you want to modify these shortcuts on the toolbar.

  1. On your Mac, open Finder.
  2. Do any of the following.
    • For hide or show the toolbar select View> “Hide Toolbar” or View> “Show Toolbar.” When hiding the toolbar you have to know that the sidebar is also hidden and the status bar moves from the bottom to the top of the window.
    • For resize toolbar you have to, if you see the button «More items on the toolbar», located at the right end of the toolbar, it is because the window is too small to be able to show all the items that it houses. Expand the window or click the button to see the rest of the items.
    • If you want change the content of the toolbar select View> Customize Toolbar. You can drag items in and out of the toolbar, add a space between the different items and select if you want to display text with the icons.
    • For reorder items on the toolbar hold down the Command key and then drag the item to a new location.
    • In case you want add a file or an app hold down the Command key and drag the item to the Finder toolbar until you see a green plus sign.
    • To delete an item hold down the Command key and then drag the item off the toolbar.

Toolbar 2

Select the folders you need in the sidebar

Turn to talk about the Finder sidebar, that is, the place where you have the folders or shortcuts to the content that you most often access on a daily basis. You can also fully customize this sidebar to your liking, removing or adding to it different folders or locations that you need. Here are the steps to follow.

  1. On your Mac, open Finder.
  2. Take one of the following actions.
    • For hide or show the sidebar select View> “Hide Sidebar”, or View> “Show Sidebar.” If it’s dimmed, choose View> Show Toolbar.
    • In case you want resize sidebar, drag the right side of the divider bar to the right or left depending on whether you want to enlarge or decrease it.
    • If you want change the content of the sidebar select Finder> Preferences> Sidebar and then select or delete the items you want.
    • For reorder items in sidebar drag an item to a new location.
    • If you want show or hide all items in a section of the sidebar Hover over the section header until the Hide or Show button appears, and then click that button.
    • In case you want add a folder or disk to the sidebar Drag the item to the Favorites section. If you don’t see the Favorites section, select Finder> Preferences> Sidebar, and then select at least one item from the Favorites section.
    • If you want add an app to the sidebar hold down the Command key and drag the app icon onto the Favorites section.
    • To delete an item, drag the icon for that item out of the sidebar until you see a delete sign.

Sidebar in finder

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