Suddenly seeing hidden files

Question

Suddenly seeing hidden files

I had an issue with a SSD boot drive a month ago. All is working fine after the use of Disk Utility, but suddenly I saw a bunch of what I assumed were hidden files in the first directory. All sub-folders are normal, but when I open the drive I see a dozen 0kb files that I don't recognize, as well as a few preferences files that I don't believe were there.

Everything showed up on 12/2/2019 at 9:12am.

I tried using a terminal command to hide invisible files, but that doesn't work.

Can I delete these without risk?

Mac Pro, OS X 10.11

Posted on Jan 3, 2020 8:58 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Jan 3, 2020 1:29 PM in response to LouIsFatAndSassy

Press shift+command+period to alternate between showing/hiding hidden dot files in the Terminal window.

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 4, 2020 5:15 AM in response to LouIsFatAndSassy

It would have worked had you been on Sierra or later. Open the Terminal, and type the following, which reverses showing your hidden files:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO

Then right-click on the Finder icon in the Dock, and select Relaunch. Recheck your Finder list view for hidden files. They should not show now.

Reply

Answer 3

Jan 6, 2020 5:48 AM in response to VikingOSX

Yes, I tried that originally to no avail. I assume this means they aren't invisible files, but how did they all get created in one day and are they necessary?

I guess I can compress them all into one ZIP, delete the originals, reboot, and test iTunes. Any other recommendations or explanations?

Thanks

Reply

Answer 4

Jan 8, 2020 7:12 AM in response to LouIsFatAndSassy

Deleting these had no ill effects. I am keeping the .zip in the meantime.

It turns out these were not invisible files, but I have no idea what created them or placed them in my root folder.

Reply

Answer 5

Jan 3, 2020 1:55 PM in response to VikingOSX

That has no effect.

Reply

Suddenly seeing hidden files

Similar questions