Comments on: Hide any File or Folder by making it Invisible to the Mac OS X Finder

By: foo

foo — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:16:11 +0000

* “.” (without quotation marks)

By: foo

foo — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:14:37 +0000

Rename a file/folder with a “.” as first character.

Finder does not allow this, so with the Bash:

mv foo.txt .foo.txt

By: Create a Hidden Folder in Mac OS X

Create a Hidden Folder in Mac OS X — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:50:03 +0000

[...] which allows you to set any directory or file as invisible, you can read more about hiding files and folders with setfile in Mac OS X, but the limitations on visibility are practically identical to the above technique: file is [...]

By: Really Big Word Tech » Blog Archive » Hide any File or Folder by making it Invisible to Finder

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 03:30:35 +0000

[...] at http://osxdaily.com/2009/08/11/hide-any-file-or-folder-by-making-it-invisible-to-the-mac-os-x-finder… March 2nd, 2010 in Macintosh [...]

By: James S.

James S. — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:47:05 +0000

Nice little trick! If one uses this on a folder, one can still access it in Finder using the “goto” command (Shift-Cmd-G) and typing the path.

By: Nevil

Nevil — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:33:08 +0000

I have installed Snow Leopard and have tried typing this SetFile command. It is not an actual command as far as I can tell.

By: Nascondere file al Finder… come? « Ganimede

Nascondere file al Finder… come? « Ganimede — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 08:41:54 +0000

[...] http://osxdaily.com/2009/08/11/hide-any-file-or-folder-by-making-it-invisible-to-the-mac-os-x-finder… [...]

By: Bobby

Bobby — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:31:17 +0000

If I don’t want to share certain files, I use Disk Utility to create an encrypted disk image, then, because no-one likes stuff being kept from them (“I thought you trusted me etc etc?”), I copy-paste a folder icon onto the dmg and give it a system-file-esque sort of name with the extension hidden.

It ends up effectively being a password-protected (yet totally average looking) folder, and there’s not much chance of accidentally leaving it available to others (it clearly mounts on the desktop with the drive icon and only needs ejecting when you’re done with it)

By: Benoit Garbinato

Benoit Garbinato — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:20:17 +0000

It’s SetFile, not setfile…

By: Benoit Garbinato

Benoit Garbinato — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:20:17 +0000

It’s SetFile, not setfile…

By: Benoit Garbinato

Benoit Garbinato — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:20:17 +0000

It’s SetFile, not setfile…

By: Benoit Garbinato

Benoit Garbinato — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:20:01 +0000

It’s SetFile, not setfile…

By: Chris B

Chris B — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 13:38:25 +0000

Wonders if this command can be put into an AppleScript, thus more easily called when one wants to hide/show a certain folder. (And name it something that doesn’t reveal it’s true operation).

An even better way to hide folders from roommates is to set up a ‘Guest’ account so others can use your computer without prying into your files. Simply logging out of your account or set up a screen saver password seems easier than pulling up the terminal, etc.

By: Anton Voloshin

Anton Voloshin — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:19:39 +0000

‘setfile’ is an utility from Apple’s developer’s kit and is not included in default Leopard install.

By: Albert

Albert — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:30:49 +0000

‘setfile’ is not a Leopard command, is it?