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How to Hide or Show the Dock on a Mac Whether you prefer an always-on Dock or one that goes away when you don't need it, the System Preferences on the Mac is where you make it happen. Select System Preferences from the Apple menu or click the System Preferences icon in the Dock. A small freeware to show and hide invisible files and folders on your mac and ipod. The 1.1 version of Show & Hide for Mac is available as a free download on our website. The application can also be called 'Show Hide'. This free Mac app was originally created by sidkortu. The most popular version of the tool is 1.1. The software lies within System Tools, more precisely File Managers.

Sep 28, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions

'How can I hide desktop icons on Mac? There are too many shortcuts and icons on my Mac desktop and I wish to get rid of them – but I don't know how to do it!'

This is one of the queries that I have recently read on an online Mac community. Since I also use a Mac, it made me think of ways to change icons on Mac or hide them altogether. I realized that just like Windows, Mac users can also customize their desktop icons or completely get rid of them if they wish to.

In order to help you do the same, we have come up with this complete guide on how to remove icons from the desktop on Mac. Apart from different solutions to hide desktop icons on Mac, we will list some other techniques to manage your desktop as well.

Solution 1. Use the Finder Preferences to Hide Desktop Icons on Mac

If you are a regular Mac user, then you must be aware of the System and Finder Preferences. It involves all kinds of settings and options that can help us customize the way we use our Mac. If you wish to know how to remove icons from the desktop on Mac, then follow these simple steps:

  1. To start with, just go to the Finder option on your Mac, which is on the top left corner. Click on it to get its context menu and choose the 'Preferences' option.
  2. This will open the Finder Preferences tab on the screen. From here, you need to go to the 'General' section, if you aren't there already.
  3. Here, you can view an option for 'Show these items on the desktop'. Just disable (uncheck) the feature for all the options here like hard disks, external disks, etc.

In the end, just close the tab and go to the desktop to verify. You will see that all the icons on your Mac desktop would be hidden now. You can follow the same approach and enable their options to unhide them. Although the same technique will work on every leading macOS version, the interface might differ from one version to another.

Solution 2. Use Terminal to Hide the Icons on Mac Desktop

Apart from the Finder Preferences, the system also allows us to hide desktop icons on Mac via the Terminal. The Terminal app works similarly to that of Command Prompt in Windows. Users can just enter certain commands to the Terminal and run it to complete a relevant operation. If you know the right commands, you can simply type them correctly and perform almost anything on your Mac. For instance, if you wish to learn how to hide desktop icons on Mac via Terminal, then follow these steps:

  1. Firstly, you need to access the Terminal app on your Mac. To do this, just go to the Spotlight and look for 'Terminal'. Just make sure that you are logged in as an administrator before running any command.
  2. Once the Terminal app is opened, just type the following command and press enter: defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false
  3. After that, simply type 'killall Finder' and press enter. This will hide all desktop icons on Mac in one go.

This simple step would work seamlessly on every major macOS version. If you wish to show the hidden icons on your desktop again, then follow the same process. Just enter the following command instead and your hidden icons will appear again on Mac's desktop: defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true; killall Finder

By following either of these two methods, you can easily learn how to hide desktop icons on Mac like a pro. While the Terminal command will hide all icons in one go, you can customize things via Finder Preferences. That is, you can handpick and select the icons you wish to show or hide. You can follow your preferred approach to change icons on Mac and customize your desktop. Besides that, there are so many things that you can do on your desktop. Here are some of these bonus tips that will let you manage your desktop like a pro.

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Bonus 1. Change the Mac App Icons on the Desktop

By default, Mac displays all the icons on the desktop in a certain way, which would vary among different macOS versions. Though, if you want, you can change any icon on Mac and customize your overall experience. While the process is a bit different than learning how to hide desktop icons on Mac, you can easily get a hold of it. When you change an icon on Mac, it will reflect it everywhere, including the desktop.

  1. To start with, just go to the Finder and open your Applications to view all the installed apps.
  2. Simply select the app that you wish to customize and right-click it. From the context menu, click on the 'Get Info' section. You can also just press the Command + I keys as well.
  3. Make sure that you already have the new icon image that you wish to change. For instance, you can keep it on the desktop on a temporary basis.
  4. Copy the new image by pressing the Command + C keys and then click on the small icon of the existing image.
  5. Now, just press the Command + V keys at the same time to paste the image.
  6. Save your changes after the image is posted and close the screen. You can go to the desktop and view the changed icon on Mac.

While the solution to change icon on Mac would work smoothly, make sure that the image format you are taking is compatible. In most of the cases, JPG or PNG formats work quite smoothly.

Bonus 2. Make the Desktop Icons Smaller on Mac

  1. To change the size of icons on Mac, firstly go to its desktop and press the Command + J keys at the same time.
  2. If you want, you can also go to the 'View' menu on the top and click on the 'Show View Options' feature.
  3. This will open view options for desktop on the screen. Here, you can see a slider for 'icon size'.
  4. You can simply move the slider towards the left to make the icons smaller (and right to make them larger).

Once you are happy with an icon size, just close the screen. You can also alter the text and grid size from here as well.

Bonus 3. Recover Missing Desktop Files on Mac

This is one of the most important things to note if you do not wish to suffer from an unforeseen loss of data on your Mac. In case if you have accidentally deleted files from Mac's desktop or the files have been corrupted, then take the assistance of Recoverit Data Recovery software. It is a complete data recovery tool for Mac that can extract all kinds of files from your system, lost under numerous conditions.

Recoverit - The Best Word File Recovery Software

  • Recover Word documents from all storage devices like Mac.
  • Recover 1000+ types and formats of files in different situations.
  • Scan and preview the files before you recover them from MacBook hard drive.

If you have deleted a partition on Mac or have lost it due to any other reason, then you should use Recoverit Data Recovery. It can help you restore partition data on Mac by following these easy steps.

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Step 1: Select a Source Drive

To start with, just Launch Recoverit Data Recovery on your Mac and select a source drive to scan. In this case, it will be the native drive of your Mac.

Step 2: Scan the Location

As the scanning for the lost and deleted content will progress, you can just wait for a while for it to be finished.

Step 3: Preview and Recover

When the recovery process is finished, you can just preview your files on the interface and select the ones you wish to get back. Click on the 'Recover' button in the end and save them to a secure location.

Conclusion

Now when you know how to hide desktop icons on Mac, you can easily customize your desktop as per your requirements. We have also provided a quick solution to change icons on Mac and even alter their size. Apart from that, you can also consider using Recoverit Data Recovery application too. As a remarkable tool, it will make sure that you never suffer from any unforeseen data loss on Mac ever again.

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Hello guys, today we would discuss one of the most frequently asked topic for those who are new to the usage of Mac OS that is, how to show and hide the hidden files in Mac OS X? Before we commence with the stupefying elaboration of WHAT TO DO? Let’s have a brief discussion on the aspect of this hidden folders and files in Mac OS X.

Actually by default, Mac OS prefers to hide confidential files and folders away from users. In case they delete or change any of those essential files mistakenly, then it would bring about serious changes to the system’s operating system which may turn out to be disastrous on many cases. Hence , here in this article we would discuss 2 mighty methods which are basically based on running certain commands, one via long way, and another using short cut aliases which are outlines below.

Don’t miss: 3 ways to reset Mac login password without install disk Galaxy kies for mac.

Part #1: To Show Hidden Files on Mac using Terminal Command

Similar to the command prompt, Terminal is also a command line interpreter, which provides an interface to control the UNIX-based operating system which is in this case, is Mac OS X. Usually we deploy a bit lengthy commands in this interface to carry out the necessary modifications to show/ hide files. Go through the steps outlined below for the following method:

Step 1. Click on “Finder” from the upper left corner of the home screen, and select “Applications” folder.

Step 2. Click on “Utilities” folder and open “Terminal”.

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Step 3. Once the Terminal dialog box turns up, input the following command and then press “Return” key:

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defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Step 4. Now; hold the “Option or Alt” key, and simultaneously right-click on the “Finder” icon in the upper left corner of the screen. Click on “Relaunch” from the drop down menu.

Step 5. Once you are done with this much, you can go to user deger and you will be shown all the hidden folders of the Mac OS X.

Also read: 2 Ways to Boot Your Mac in Safe Mode

Part #2: Hide Hidden Files on Mac using Terminal Command

If you wish to hide the files once again to their restricted locations, simply follow the steps from 1-5 and replace the previously entered command with the following new command in the Terminal dialog box:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO

You should see the hidden files/folders are not shown.

If you’re using Windows 10, it also easy to show and hide file/folders on Windows 10

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Part #3: Show/ Hide Hidden Files on Mac/ Using Terminal Aliases

As per the instructions of the aforementioned method, you need to enter the commands every time you wish to show or hide the hidden security files which at times prove to be a bit hectic. Since you cannot memorize the entire code, you have to retrieve it every now and then to do your job.

Now Alias is a shortcut command for a single or multiple commands designed to render the same changes as the long commands, with an exception of cutting short your valuable time.

Step 1. From the “Finder” context menu, select “Applications” folder, and then “Utilities” folder. Inside the “Utilities” folder, you get to see “Terminal” option. Click on it to launch the “Terminal” feature.

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Step 2. From the Terminal interface, type in the following command:

sudo nano ~/.bash_profile

Step 3. Enter you Mac’s admin password if required and press “Enter”.

Step 4. Now; at the bottom of the opened .bash_profile file, paste the following command:

alias showFiles=’defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES; killall Finder /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app’

Step 7. Just below the recent command, enter this additional command also:

alias hideFiles=’defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO; killall Finder /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app’

Step 8. Press “Ctrl+O” key combination and hit “Enter” to save the file which is currently modified.

Step 9. Now; press “Ctrl+X” key combination to close the particular file and return to the Terminal command line dialog box again.

Step 10. In Terminal dialog box, type in the following command for it would make your alias available by refreshing your profile:

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source ~/.bash_profile

Step 11. Now; if you want to make the hidden files available enter in Terminal showFiles and then hideFiles when you want to make them unavailable again.

Conclusion:

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As you can see, the methods mentioned above mainly involve running commands, and thus following the 1st method often proves to be a bit time consuming, but creating the Terminal Alias would save you the trouble of cramming all the lengthy commands. To be enable to hide/ show hidden files/folder on Mac is of utmost importance if you are going to use your Mac OS X on a daily basis.

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