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# Show Invisible Files with this Simple Alfred Workflow
- URL: https://birchtree.me/blog/show-invisible-files/
- Published: 2015-12-23T06:30:49.000Z
- Updated: 2015-12-23T06:30:49.000Z
- Author: Matt Birchler
- Tags: #Import 2023-06-01 22:41, #Import 2025-03-29 19:29

I'll keep this short and sweet. You want to see invisible files in the Finder and you don't want to waste any time. All you have to do is run a Terminal command to show them and another one to hide them again (because you really don't want to see these all the time!).

## The Easy Way: Alfred Workflows

[This workflow](http://d.pr/f/rUoG?ref=birchtree.me) will show all invisible files (trigger with the word "show") and [this one](http://d.pr/f/1dKfA?ref=birchtree.me) will hide all invisible files again (trigger with "hide").

For those curious, each workflow will launch the Terminal app, run the command, restart the Finder, and close Terminal.

## The Harder (but still easy) Way: Terminal Command

Show invisible files:

`defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES`

Hide invisible files:

`defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO`

Just a friendly reminder that you'll need to restart the Finder for these changes to take effect. To do so, simply run:

`killall Finder`