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ilesh · Mar 7, 2012, 01:07 AM

Hello. I was using an app called Secret Service (v 1.0) to hide some work docs. Just upgraded to 10.7 and now the app won't launch due to no PPC support. I restored the entire Time Machine backup done prior to the 10.7 upgrade to another mac. Secret Services launches and it shows the path to the hidden folder but is not able to unhide the folder. not sure why this is - time machine does not back up hidden folders?

Is there some way to retrieve the hidden folder without launching that app? searching the forums shows how to bring up hidden files but not folders.

I was not sure about doing a complete restore of the backup to the original computer incase this deletes the hidden folder in the process.

Many thanks for any help you can give.

Ilesh

P · Mar 7, 2012, 05:11 AM

I'm not familiar with that app, but if it has only flipped the visibility bit, you can correct it using the terminal. Open Terminal.app and navigate to where that folder is (easiest is to type cd and then drag the enclosing folder onto the terminal window). Then type

chflags nohidden folder_name

That should make the folder visible again.

OreoCookie · Mar 7, 2012, 05:57 AM

Hiding a folder just flips a switch in the metadata that tells the Finder to not display it. You can still access it via the Finder, though: select Go > Go to Folder ... from the menu and enter the path and the full name of the hidden folder.

To unhide folders, you have several options: if you just want to unhide folders, you can use the Terminal. Or you can use a new app that does the same thing, but is compatible with Lion.

Big Mac · Mar 7, 2012, 06:07 AM

If it's hiding files/folders in any standard way you can see them easily. That's not good security for your work documents. You can open up Terminal, navigate to the folder the docs should be in and type the "ls -a" command to have it show all the files there. Then you can use the mv command to rename the files/folders in question. Alternatively, there's a defaults flag you can set to have the Finder show all hidden files.

Spheric Harlot · Mar 7, 2012, 08:33 AM

I found references online to a program called Secret Service that does encryption.

If that's what was happening, there's nothing you can do except copy the files/folders over to a machine still running 10.6 and decrypting them there.