<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"
      type="topic" style="task"
      id="files-hidden">

  <info>
    <link type="guide" xref="files#faq"/>

    <revision pkgversion="3.6.0" version="0.2" date="2012-09-29" status="review"/>
    <revision pkgversion="3.13.92" date="2014-09-20" status="candidate"/>
    <revision pkgversion="3.18" date="2015-09-28" status="candidate"/>
    <revision pkgversion="43" date="2022-09-10" status="candidate"/>
    <revision version="gnome:45" date="2024-04-04" status="candidate"/>

    <credit type="author">
      <name>Phil Bull</name>
      <email>philbull@gmail.com</email>
    </credit>
    <credit type="editor">
      <name>Michael Hill</name>
      <email>mdhillca@gmail.com</email>
    </credit>
    <credit type="editor">
      <name>David King</name>
      <email>amigadave@amigadave.com</email>
    </credit>

    <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>

    <desc>Make a file invisible, so you cannot see it in the file
    manager.</desc>
  </info>

<title>Hide a file</title>

  <p>The <app>Files</app> file manager gives you the ability to hide and unhide
  files at your discretion. When a file is hidden, it is not displayed by the
  file manager, but it is still there in its folder.</p>

  <p>To hide a file, <link xref="files-rename">rename it</link> with a
  <file>.</file> at the beginning of its name. For example, to hide a file
  named <file>example.txt</file>, you should rename it to
  <file>.example.txt</file>.</p>

<note>
  <p>You can hide folders in the same way that you can hide files. Hide a
  folder by placing a <file>.</file> at the beginning of the folder’s name.</p>
</note>

<section id="show-hidden">
 <title>Show all hidden files</title>

  <p>If you want to see all hidden files in a folder, go to that folder and
  either press the menu button in the sidebar of the window and select <gui style="menuitem">Show Hidden Files</gui>, or press
  <keyseq><key>Ctrl</key><key>H</key></keyseq>. You will see all hidden files,
  along with regular files that are not hidden.</p>

  <p>To hide these files again,
  either press the menu button in the sidebar of the window and switch off <gui style="menuitem">Show Hidden Files</gui>, or press
  <keyseq><key>Ctrl</key><key>H</key></keyseq> again.</p>

</section>

<section id="unhide">
 <title>Unhide a file</title>

  <p>To unhide a file, go to the folder containing the hidden file. Press the menu button in the sidebar of the window and select <gui style="menuitem">Show Hidden Files</gui>, or press
  <keyseq><key>Ctrl</key><key>H</key></keyseq>.
  Then, find the hidden file and rename it so that it does not have a
  <file>.</file> in front of its name. For example, to unhide a file called
  <file>.example.txt</file>, you should rename it to
  <file>example.txt</file>.</p>

  <p>Once you have renamed the file, you can either press the menu button in
  the sidebar of the window and switch off <gui style="menuitem">Show Hidden Files</gui>, or
  press <keyseq><key>Ctrl</key><key>H</key></keyseq> to hide any other hidden
  files again.</p>

  <note><p>By default, you will only see hidden files in the file
  manager until you close the file manager. To change this setting so that the
  file manager will always show hidden files, see
  <link xref="nautilus-views"/>.</p></note>

  <note><p>Most hidden files will have a <file>.</file> at the
  beginning of their name, but others might have a <file>~</file> at the end of
  their name instead. These files are backup files. See
  <link xref="files-tilde"/> for more information.</p></note>

</section>

</page>
