If you need to see the hidden files of a USB in MacOS, but you don’t know how, because you don’t know what option, configuration or command to use, this small and practical guide will help you to achieve it in a few simple steps.
Many times, operating systems hide important files or folders as a security measure, thus protecting them from being accidentally deleted.
MacOS is no exception, each of the versions of this sophisticated system has security parameters very similar to those of Windows or Linux, in which certain files or folders are hidden.
Even external storage devices do not escape this measure that involves hiding things inside them to protect them.
There may also be an attack by a computer virus whose function is to hide our documents stored on the pen drive or USB memory.
Several of these malicious software can also attack less prone OS such as Apple brand system.
How to View Hidden USB Files on Mac
From your personal Mac, you are going to go to the “Go” tab, then select the “Applications” section, click on the “Utilities” option and finally on “Terminal”.
This terminal, as in other operating systems, is a console that allows us to carry out actions through a series of commands, which are specific to each situation.
In this case, in order to see hidden files on a USB drive in MacOS, it is necessary to change a default value of the operating system that does not allow us to view them.
This is done by writing the following code, as is: defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE. And consequently, we press “Enter”.
Then the team will proceed to change the value to “True” or “Valid” that will allow us to see the hidden files.
But before we can do that, we need to complete the next step. Once we have performed the console action, we press the “ALT” key and right click on the “Finder” icon.
We choose the option “Force Restart”. Immediately, all the files and folders on our USB storage device will be displayed.
After they appear, one way to identify which of the files were hidden is by the transparent hue of the icons, as opposed to the ones that weren’t.
How to View Hidden USB Files on Mac from a Shortcut
Although the previous method allows you to see hidden files on a USB in MacOS, it is possible that not all users are so given to making configurations through the console.
Whether they’re not comfortable making these types of changes, confused by following the steps, or simply wanting a more direct way to do it. Well, there is, you won’t have to look any further.
We bring the fastest and easiest way to make the hidden files on the external storage drive visible, this is through a keyboard shortcut.
Which consists of, after opening a Finder window, the keys “Command” + “Shift” + “” must be pressed together. (point).
This joint choice of keys will cause the hidden files to appear. Being able to distinguish them by the low intensity that both their icon and the text will show, as in the previous case.
Rehide files on USB
If what you want is to hide the hidden files or folders on your storage device again, either because the appearance of the icons bothers you visually or for another reason, it’s simple, you just have to open the console again and type the following:
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE. In this way, what we will do is change the display configuration to its previous value. If you liked this article, you might also be interested in How to hide folders and view hidden files on your PC.
