How to Hide Folders on Mac Desktop

Computers are mostly personal and sometimes contain much privacy. This tutorial will tell you how to hide folders from the desktop of your MacBook, iMac or Mac Mini so that you can make them invisible for your collegues, friends or familiy members who may use your Mac.

Here will show you how to hide any folder from the desktop with the FonePaw Hidata app. You can simply drag and drop a folder into the Hidata app to create a secret folder on your Mac.

Also, this article will cover how to hide icons from Mac desktop, including the icon of hard disk.

1. How to hide folders on Mac

FonePaw Hidata is a secure and easy-to-use application for Mac to quickly hide the private files or folders that you do not want others to view or access. Let's see how to use it.

Download Hidata on your Mac from here. It is compatible with macOS Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan and more.

Download

Set up password for Hidata

After the installation, you will be required to set a password for Hidata when trying to use the app. The password is needed every time you try to open the app or access the hidden folders inside it, so keep the password in mind. Besides, you can leave a password hint that only you can understand and that reminds you of the password if you forget.

Access Hidata

After setting up the password, you can access Hidata by clicking the icon on the desktop or from the menu bar on the top. Everytime when you try to access the app, you must enter the password.

Hide folders on Mac

On the homepage of the app, there are three folders(All Files, Documents, Media, Others) to organize hidden files to three categories. To hide a folders from Mac desktop, click one of the categories and drag the folder from desktop to the app. The folder will disappear from desktop immediatly. And it is also hidden from Finder, Spotlight, etc. The only way to access the hidden folder is to enter Hidata with the password you have set.

Create secret folder on Hidata

Right click on the left column and select Add Folder, you can create a new folder on Hidata and name it as you like. 

Clicking the folder, you can add new files into it by:

• Dragging files into the selected area; Clicking + icon in the center of a dotted-line rectangle and navigating to the files you want to add.

• Once the files are added to Hidata, the files are hidden automatically from your Mac.

View or unhide folders

Select the folder you just hide, you can view the files in it. When you click the file, you can preview the files of the hidden folder on the right. To open the files, you can toggle the button beside the files to unhide them temporarily so that the macOS can recognize the files again.

Note: Clicking the Hidata on the menu bar will first prompt a simple and small-sized window for you to quickly hide/show the files on the desktop. You can enter into the app by clicking the home icon on the top right. The magnifier icon beside the file can help you locate the file in the MacBook.

2. How to hide desktop icons on Mac

With too many icons on your desktop, your deskop will be messy. Here are tips for hide desktop icons on Mac.

• Create several folders in the Finder and move the files you want to hide from desktop into the folders. By the way, you can classfy these files into different folders.

• To hide the hard disk icons, click the "Finder" on the menu bar and select "Preferences". On the "General" tab, uncheck boxes next to hard disks in which you created folders.

After exiting "Finder", you'll see the hard disk icons disappear on your desktop. Hiding the icons from desktop doesn't make the files or folders invisible from Finder. To keep your files/folders secret, Hidata is recommeneded. With this app, you don't have to worry about your secret folders or files on the Mac any more.