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Hi there,
I did a Mac-to-Mac migration using migration assistant. The problem is on my new Mac many of my normal document files are now suddenly hidden files on my Mac. How did this happen and how can I make the files not just visible (I already did) but how do I turn them into normal visible files again as they were before?
Thank you very much for helping me with this!
Remco
MacBook Air 15″
Well, that's all pretty crazy! I have no idea what's going on, but try these things:
Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support
The idea is to find out if the problem is with the iCloud, with your account, or with caches and login items, and stuff like that. One of these steps may fix the problem, but their failure to work also helps figure out what's happening.
Dear Richard,
Sure, here you go with the answer to your questions:
It did not happen to all files in the documents folder, but to many (maybe around 30% to half) with some folders having invisible files and some not. Frequently it is everything in a folder but sometimes it can also be a few documents that are invisible in the folder and a few not.
Really dont know what caused this and how this could have happened.
Using the "chflags nohidden" command in terminal makes files visible again, but its a lot of work to do them all (have to go through all folders).
Hope this helps.
Yes indeed. They are just normal document files, like word documents I work in. Its therefore very strange that they became invisible files after migrating, while on my old mac they were not invisible files.
I don't really get it. Can you give details? What OS on the two Macs? Do the files disappear when you do the command-shift-period thing? And re-appear? Where to you see these files? Are these files on your internal drive or an external drive or a network? What happens if you open and save the file? What happens if you move the file to a different folder? What happens if you change the name of the file? What apps do you use to work on these files?
Seriously, what have you done so far to track this down, and what results did you get?
You can see these invisible files because you did the command-shift-period thing, right? Can you give us some examples of the invisible files you want to be visible?
I meant file names. The detail in the name can be important.
Just normal files names such as Invoice Google Workspace.pdf etc., no preceding dots or anything.
I tried all those things but doesn't help (still the same).
I guess the only thing I can do now is to make everything that needs to be visible manually with chflags nohidden, right?
I guess-- try it and make sure it works the way you expect, and then keep going.
Mac to Mac migration normal files became hidden files - how to change them back
