By default, Apple’s macOS hides file extensions to make your computer look cleaner and less cluttered. When you look at a document on your desktop, you might just see “Budget Report” instead of “Budget Report.xlsx”.
While this looks nice, it can be incredibly frustrating for power users, developers, or anyone who frequently works with different file formats. If you have an image, it is often critical to know at a glance whether it is a .jpg, .png, or .heic file.
Fortunately, you can force your Mac to display file extensions for every file on your system.
How to Show File Extensions for All Files
You can change this setting universally through the Finder preferences.
- Click anywhere on your desktop, or open a Finder window, to ensure Finder is the active application.
- Click on the word Finder in the top-left corner of the menu bar (right next to the Apple logo).
- Select Settings (or “Preferences” on older versions of macOS) from the drop-down menu.
- In the Finder Settings window that appears, click the Advanced tab (the icon that looks like a gear).
- Check the box next to Show all filename extensions.
The change is instantaneous. You will immediately see the .pdf, .docx, .mp4, or other relevant extensions added to the end of every file on your desktop and inside your folders.
How to Show or Hide Extensions for a Single File
If you prefer to keep extensions hidden globally but want to reveal the extension for one specific file, macOS allows you to do that via the “Get Info” panel.
- Locate the file you want to inspect.
- Right-click (or Control-click) on the file.
- Select Get Info from the pop-up menu.
- In the Get Info window, look for the section labeled Name & Extension (you may need to click the small arrow next to it to expand the section).
- Here you will see the full filename including the extension.
- Directly below the text box, you will see a checkbox labeled Hide extension. Uncheck this box if you want the extension to be visible in Finder, or check it to hide it.
Note: If you enabled the global “Show all filename extensions” setting using the first method, this individual “Hide extension” checkbox will be ignored by the system, ensuring complete visibility across your Mac.