How to Make an Invisible Folder (Mac)

Last Updated: January 26, 2018

Have you ever wanted to hide a folder in plain site? Maybe a folder with some inappropriate pictures that you don't want your boss or parents to see? Are you always frustrated by the amount of PC articles on this? Well here's a Mac tutorial for you!

Steps

1
Make a new folder. If you already have one prepared, skip this step.
2
Take a screenshot of any part of your desktop using [Command+Shift+4] and then dragging to form an area.

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3
Open this picture up in preview. Now here's where it gets complicated.
4
Open up the toolbar in Preview and select the 'Instant Alpha' function.
5
Click and drag with Instant Alpha on until the entire picture is red, then release. It will select the entire picture.
6
Press delete and then once you can no longer see the picture, type [Command+A]. This will select the blank space where the picture used to be.
7
Type [Command+C] to copy that area. You can now exit out of Preview.
8
Right click on the folder you just made / had and select Get Info.
9
In the top left hand corner there will be a Folder Icon. Click on this. It should be highlighted in blue.
10
Now (with the icon selected) type [Command+V] to paste the blank picture in. There will no longer be an icon visible, and the folder will disappear from your desktop.
11
Now all you have to do is rename the folder (highlight the folder and press Enter) to several spaces (press the spacebar a couple times) and there will be no trace of it on your desktop.
12
The only thing you have left to do is to left click and drag your mouse over the vicinity that the folder was in, drag the folder over to a corner of your desktop where you hardly put files, and then deselect it.
13
When you want to open it again, just select the vicinity again and double click the area where the name of the folder would be.

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Community Q&A

Question

I followed the instructions step by step, but I can go only up to step 9. Step 10 where I press [command+v] does not seem to work. What can I do?

Community Answer

Make sure you have the tiny icon in the "Get Info" window highlighted with a blue outline. Also make sure you pressed Cmd+A and Cmd+C on the Preview window.
Question

It disappears did I do something wrong? When I finish it and it is invisible, I click off and it disappears.

Little Snowball

Community Answer

This is happening because you are not clicking on it, so it will disappear and you cannot see it. However, when you click on the place where it was, you can see the outline again.