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Whenever I restart the OS or even after it locks, files are hidden again. I have selected to show hidden files numerous times but it always reverts back. I really have no desire to hide files and I spend a lot of times in hidden files. I have not been successful in making the setting persist at all.

I have tried using:

gsettings set org.gtk.Settings.FileChooser show-hidden true

But this eventually just returns to false.

Is this possible?

I have went through numerous topics of this same question here but very few discuss permanently toggling this. The only article that seems to have something useful was this but it doesn't work either...

I'm thinking of writing a shell script to just run that command every 5 mins but I really don't want to go that route.

For some insight, I this is a problem on 3 different computers all different brands and 2 are custom. This doesn't persist on a fresh install with nothing installed yet. Since 20.04 was released, this has never worked, I have to show hidden files numerous times per day while I am working. I never had this issue with any other version asides from 20.04.

Jeremy
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  • Hiding files is protecting you from yourself and I personally I can not think of any reason to see all the hidden files all the time. Not an answer to your question but maybe something to think about. – David Aug 19 '21 at 06:34
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    @David While I understand the purpose of this feature, it is not needed for everyone nor should it be assumed we are not competent enough to have to be protected from ourselves; this is one of the reasons people use Linux. As I stated already, I work a lot in hidden files and this is not only unnecessary, it is beyond annoying since this used to be possible to show them permanently. – Jeremy Aug 19 '21 at 13:32

2 Answers2

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For me selecting the GUI option did not stick even closing and re-opening the file manager would reset it to hidden. However this worked for me.

  1. Close the file manager.
  2. Edit ~/.config/gtk-2.0/gtkfilechooser.ini and set ShowHidden=true.
  3. Open the file manager, you'll notice the setting did not stick, so now select the Show Hidden Files option on the GUI.
  4. Close the file manager.
  5. Re-open the file manager, it should now show the hidden files.
deadParrot
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In ubuntu it's quite straightforward to show or hide hidden files persistently.

Open Files and then select the three line hamburger menu (arrow #1)

enter image description here

This will open the Nautilus menu

enter image description here

where you can check the option Show Hidden Files.

This will show hidden files as shown by arrow #2 (dot files and folders).

This setting persists after a system reboot.

If you wish to hide the files once more, just reverse the process.

Additional reference

graham
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    This is what I have been doing since 20.04 was released and it never persists after a reboot and it even resets itself during the day. This does not work at all and I have tried this on 3 different machines. – Jeremy Aug 19 '21 at 13:26
  • Strange as I am using 20.04 installed from scratch without modifications with the GNOME DE and do not experience the problem you outline. After obtaining the graphics for the answer I provided, I performed a reboot to check it out and the setting persisted. – graham Aug 19 '21 at 14:14
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    Very strange indeed. I have this same issue on 3 machines too. I reported a bug to Ubuntu and am following that now. Thanks for your assistance – Jeremy Aug 19 '21 at 18:56
  • It does not persist in Ubuntu 21.10 for me. Have you found a solution? – U. Bulle Feb 07 '22 at 10:23