Hidden Items In Sitecore? Where Are They?

Hidden Items In Sitecore As An Editor Or Content Author

When signing into a Sitecore environment for the first time as a Content Author or Editor, it may seem like there are items "missing" in the Content Tree.

Don't worry, they're not missing, only hidden!

In this blog, I'm going to tell you how to show hidden items in the Content Tree, why items can be hidden, and how hiding items can be useful.

Why Can't I See Items In The Content Tree?

Admin roles have the ability to hide items from different roles within Sitecore. Any item in the content tree can be hidden, but that doesn't mean that a user can't have access to that item.

Hidden items can be confused with not having user permissions to those items altogether. This isn't true. Hidden items are only hidden and can be shown if that user role has access to the item.

Why Are Items Hidden To Begin With?

There are a few reasons why items might be hidden for Editors and Content Authors:

• The items are unrelated to editing or authoring
• A cleaner and easier to navigate Content Tree
• The items are not often needing to be accessed

How Do I Know If There Are Hidden Items?

When accessing a component of a page as an editor/content author and you don't see the Data Source Folder, there are likely hidden child items.

How To Show Hidden Items

You can access hidden items by navigating to the 'View' tab in the Content Editor top menu and ticking off the 'Hidden items' box.

You should now be able to see the hidden items under that page (Data folder + components).

To re-hide items, simply uncheck the 'Hidden items' box in the View menu.

Summary

If you can't find an item in the Content Tree, don't panic! Refer back to this blog and make sure you have the 'Hidden items' box ticked.

Happy authoring!