I hid a folder on the desktop now I can't find it!

[j4mbo]

Hey guys,

AGES ago, I hid a folder on my desktop of personal files, and I used to access it by going to

Finder -> Go -> Go To Folder

And the folder location was already typed in there. It had a ~ somewhere in the location but recently I accidentally wrote over it and can't for the life of me remember what to type. I know it is on the desktop but how do I locate it? EG if the folder was called Priv1 what would I type in finder?

Thanks!

 

[Partron22]

When you say you hid it, do you mean you made it invisible?
If so, you can just run an AppleScript to reveal all hidden files and folders.
I use this script:

set buttonpressed to button returned of (display dialog "Show Hidden Files?" buttons {"Yes", "No"})

try
	if the buttonpressed is "No" then do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles OFF"
	if the buttonpressed is "Yes" then do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles ON"
	do shell script "killall Finder"
end try

If you don't like Applescript, you can just do the defaults write and killall Finder commands through Terminal.

Then navigate to desktop inside your user folder, and see what shows up.

 

[HexMonkey]

The path to the desktop is "~/Desktop/", so a folder named "Priv1" would be "~/Desktop/Priv1".

The Go To Folder feature supports tab completion, so if you know the start of the folder name that might help you. Most likely the folder name starts with "." (which signifies a hidden file). For example, if the folder was called ".Priv1", you could type "~/Desktop/.P", and it would likely complete to "~/Desktop/.Priv1"

Alternatively, you can get a full list of all items on the desktop (both visible and hidden) using the Terminal. Open the Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and type the following:

ls -a ~/Desktop

Once you determine the folder name, you can append it to the path for the desktop in the Go To Folder dialog (as above).