Once you mount your iPod on your Mac's desktop, you would reasonably expect to be able to use the Finder to browse through its files. But if you double-click the iPod icon on your desktop, you will see just three folders listed: Calendars, Contacts, and Notes. Where are the music files?
Apple chose to hide the folders that contain an iPod's media files, but you can easily make these hidden folders visible by using Terminal, the command line interface included with OS X.
Terminal Is Your Friend
- Launch Terminal, located at /Applications/Utilities/.
- Type or copy/paste the following commands. Press the return key after you enter each line.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder
The two lines you enter into Terminal will allow the Finder to display all of the hidden files on your Mac. The first line tells the Finder to display all files, regardless of how the hidden flag is set. The second line stops and restarts the Finder, so the changes can take effect. You may see your desktop disappear and reappear when you execute these commands; this is normal.
