Hide Folders And Show Hidden Files In Ubuntu [Beginner Trick]

Many of us are familiar with the concept of “hiding” a folder or file in Windows. Hiding a folder or file just “removes” the folder from the normal view and then you can choose to display “hidden files” to see it. Let us make me one thing clear here. We are not talking about locking a folder or file here. It is a simple folder hiding. And trust me, even this helps a lot in hiding the porn in your computer :P

If you are a new Ubuntu user, you might be wondering how can you hide a folder or see hidden files or folders in Ubuntu. Let us see how to do it. This works in all Ubuntu version i.e. Ubuntu 10.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 12.10 etc.

Show hidden files in Ubuntu:

To see a hidden file or hidden folder in Ubuntu, go to the file manager (default is Nautilus). File Manager is Ubuntu’s counter part of Windows Explorer. Now go to the top menu->View->Show hidden files:

Alternatively, you can use Ctrl+H to toggle between hide and unhide files.

How to hide files or folders in Ubuntu:

So when we have learnt how to see hidden files in Ubuntu, let us now see how can we hide a folder. Unfortunately/interestingly, there is no similar way as in Windows to hide a folder. In Windows you right click on a file and choose the option of making it hidden. But this option is not available in Ubuntu.

So, how can you hide a folder in Ubuntu then? Very simple! Using the Linux property of hiding a file/folder. In Linux, if a file name starts with . (dot), it is considered as a hidden file. Now if you want to hide a file or folder, lets say MyFolder, just rename it to .MyFolder and it be taken as a hidden file. So by adding dot makes it a hidden folder (including all the sub folders and files inside it).

Voila! Enjoy hiding your secret files.