How to See Hidden Photos on Mac

What are hidden photos on Mac

In the Photo app, sometimes images might be hidden in your library. Photos can be missing if they’re poor quality, corrupt, or duplicated. However, most hidden images can be recovered.  

If you need to view hidden files on Mac as well as photos, our supporting blog article shows you how to find and recover files you suspect are hidden or missing.

A note from our experts: 

 

When you’re sure images are going missing from your Mac library, it could be due to your device automatically sorting them as duplicates–even if they’re not. To bring these images back, MacKeeper’s Duplicates Finder tool can help. It’ll scan your library for duplicates and allow you to manually manage and delete your photos.

 

Here’s how you can recover hidden images with MacKeeper’s Duplicate Finder:

1. Download, launch, and open MacKeeper.
2. Go to Duplicates Finder.
3. Press Start Scan.
4. After the scan, look through your Duplicates, Similar Photos, and Screenshots.
5. Tick anything you want to remove, and press Remove Selected.

If you share your Mac with others and want more privacy, you can follow our guide on how to hide apps on your MacBook–this is especially useful in households with children who have access to your device. It’s a safe way to protect banking apps or limit access to sensitive content.

How to access hidden photos on Mac

To view hidden photos on Mac, we recommend opening the Photos app and heading over to the menu bar. Look for View > Show Hidden Photo Album. If no luck, try a Terminal command or searching through your Finder contents.  

An extra help from us: 

 

The Photo app isn’t the only place where photos are stored on your Mac; some may be in a third-party cloud-storage app or scattered in your Mac’s library. To help you find them all, our supporting guide can walk you through the retrieval process.

1. See hidden photos via Finder

If you’re struggling to see hidden photos on Mac, we’d suggest looking through Finder first, as this allows you to thoroughly check all your folders manually. It can be a time-consuming recovery process, but no extra software is necessary. Just time and patience.

To help you, here’s how to find hidden photos in Finder:

1. Open Finder.
2. Click on Go > Library.
3. Check each folder for any photos that may have been saved in obscure places, preventing your images from saving in the correct albums.

Another expert’s hint from our team: 

 

You might want to consider changing Mac security preferences if you suspect that malware or a computer virus is the reason behind your images and files going missing or hiding. Our supporting blog will show you how to check and remove suspicious software and threats–to secure your device and recover hidden photos.

2. Use Terminal to view hidden photos

Are you still having no luck in recovering lost photos or images on your Mac? Advanced MacBook users may want to try executing Terminal commands to see if that helps them find hidden photos on Mac.

Here’s how to use Terminal commands to reveal hidden photos:

1. Open Finder.
2. Go to Applications > Utilities and open Terminal.
3. Type in the command: defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES.
4. Press Enter.
5. Type the command: killall Finder, then press Enter to relaunch Finder.
6. Go back through your folders to see if any hidden pictures are now visible.

3. Show your hidden album in Photos

In case you’re still trying to show hidden photos on Mac, we recommend opening your Photos app to allow hidden albums to once again be visible.

Here’s how to uncover hidden albums in Photos:

1. Open Photos.
2. In the menu bar, click on View.
3. Select Show Hidden Photo Album.

How to unhide photos on Mac

If your photos are hidden within a hidden album, you’ll want to reopen the Photos app to be able to unhide them. Here’s how:

1. Open Photos.
2. Click View > Show Hidden Photo Album.
3. In the sidebar, click on Hidden.
4. If asked, unlock with Touch ID or enter Admin Password.
5. Click on the hidden picture and press Unhide Photo.

Uncovering your hidden images with MacKeeper’s help

We hope we’ve helped you find hidden photos on your Mac–via Finder, Terminal commands, or by accessing your Hidden album in Photos. All of these methods offer a quick way to access and manage your pictures securely.

For even easier photo management, consider using MacKeeper’s Duplicates Finder. Our tool automatically sorts your library, deletes duplicates, and keeps your images safe. That way, your Mac can stay organized and secure.