Score:0

Unhiding hidden files does not persist

ng flag

In the Gnome file manager, I can check the "show hidden files" box, but after the next reboot, this setting is lost again. Additionally, when using an editor (VSC or ST3), the "open file" dialog does not list hidden files at all, which is pretty annoying.

Does anyone know how I can enable the listing of hidden files in general in Ubuntu 21.10 and make this setting last?

vanadium avatar
cn flag
Turn off all your gnome shell extensions, log out then back in and check whether this problem persists. If not, then enable the extensions one by one until you find the one causing the issue.
RBloeth avatar
ng flag
Oh, you make me feel like a noob, since this is the first time I hear about "Gnome shell extensions" - I don't even know what the Gnome shell should be. I don't even use Gnome, but still KDE, as I have an NVIDIA graphics card. Only the file manager installed with my Ubuntu seems to be the "Gnome file manager" - it's simply called "Files". I do not believe the issue is with "Files". In the Ubuntu version I had before the recent update, showing all hidden files was no issue at all. Now I have the problem on my Athlon Rizen desktop computer as well as on my Intel i7 laptop.
RBloeth avatar
ng flag
Thx @vanadium - your answer led me to a google search that finally pointed me to the right page. See my answer below.
Score:0
ng flag

On the official Ubuntu website, there is this help page about hiding and unhiding files in Ubuntu 21.10.

It says that in order to showing all hidden files in a folder, you simply press the key combination Ctrl+H - and press it again for hiding them again.

This not only works in the default file manager that comes with Ubuntu 21.10, but also in "open file" dialogs of other programs, e.g. text editors like Sublime Text or Visual Studio Code.

Unfortunately, this setting does not persist, but at least it enables the user to not only show hidden files in the file manager, but also to open hidden files in text editors and other software.

It seems to be on purpose that this setting can not be changed persistently, which is kind of an annoyance at least for programmers, who probably more likely also want to edit hidden files, like e.g. the .bashrc file, as it is the case for me.

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