Private folders: hide folders from Spotlight and Finder

Private folders keeps folders you choose out of Spotlight search, out of Finder's Recents and out of view in Finder — and brings them back exactly when you remove them from the list.

Make a folder private

1. Open Browse all and pick the Finder chip. Find Private folders — “Keep folders out of Spotlight and out of sight.”
2. Click Add…, choose one or more folders, and click Make Private. Or drag folders from Finder onto the card — it's outlined while you drag over it.
3. Finder restarts and the folders disappear. The card now reads, for example, “2 folders hidden from Spotlight & Finder”.

What Mainspring does to the folder

Two things, both undone when you remove it from the list:

1. Renames it by adding .noindex — Taxes becomes Taxes.noindex. That ending is the signal Spotlight reliably honours for “don't index this folder”.
2. Sets its hidden flag, so Finder doesn't show it.

The rename stops Spotlight indexing new files, but files it had already indexed would linger in search results and Recents. So Mainspring also refreshes each file inside, which makes Spotlight forget them. On APFS — the standard format for Mac drives — this is instant and uses no extra space, and your files' contents are untouched. On drives that can't do this, files are left as they are, so ones Spotlight had already indexed may still turn up.

Manage the list

Click the arrow on the card to show your private folders. Each row shows the folder's name and location, and:

The magnifying glass — Reveal in Finder

Opens the folder in Finder even while it's hidden, so the card doubles as your map to your private folders.

The × — Unhide and reindex

Removes the folder from the list: takes .noindex off, clears the hidden flag, and lets Spotlight index it again.

Re-apply

Appears if the folder has been renamed back or un-hidden outside Mainspring. Click it to make it private again.

No permission

Your account doesn't have permission to rename or hide this folder.

“— can't find this folder”

The folder was moved or deleted, or it's on a drive that isn't connected. The × then reads “Forget this folder”.

Mainspring re-checks every folder on the list each time it starts.

What it won't hide

To keep your Mac working, Mainspring won't hide the whole disk, /System, /Applications, your Home folder or your Library folder, and it only hides folders, not single files. If you try, the card explains why.

Worth knowing

• The path changes while it's private. Because the folder is renamed, shortcuts, aliases and apps pointing at its old path won't find it until you remove it from the list.
• If a file called Taxes.noindex already sits beside the folder, Mainspring stops and asks you to move it aside first. If a folder with that name is already there, Mainspring treats it as the private copy: it hides that folder and leaves Taxes visible. Rename one of them before you add it.
• This keeps a folder out of search and casual view. It isn't encryption: anyone using your Mac account who knows where it is can still open it.
• No administrator password is needed.