How to Unhide Rows in Google Sheets

Google Sheets has a handy feature that allows you to hide rows that you don’t want to show. This allows you to focus on the data you want. However, the hidden rows are not lost - they are still in the background. Luckily, you can unhide rows in Google Sheet with the built-in feature.

This guide presents you with everything you need to know about how to unhide a row in Google Sheets.

How to unhide rows in Google Sheets

As convenient as the feature for hiding rows in Google Sheets is to allow you to concentrate on the important columns, people tend to forget to unhide the rows they have hidden, and what’s worse, they forget which rows they have hidden. This is especially the case if you are working on a big Sheet with hundreds or thousands of rows and large data sets.

The situation is more complicated when you collaborate with someone on the Google Sheet and they have hidden some rows for their convenience, so you don’t know how the rows were hidden.

Fortunately, there is a solution for every case. This is how to unhide hidden rows in Google Sheets

How to unhide rows in Google Sheets if you are working with smaller data sets

If you are working in a Google Sheets file with a smaller data set, it’s straightforward to tell if there are hidden rows and even easier to unhide rows.

First‌, you’ll notice that certain consecutive row numbers are missing. Secondly, you’ll notice two upward and downward-facing arrows on the consecutive rows, indicating hidden rows in between them.

To unhide the rows, just click on one of the two arrows and the hidden rows should now become visible again.

How to unhide rows in Google Sheets if you are working with larger data sets

The previous method works well if you can clearly see which rows are hidden. However, if you are working with a larger data set, it may be difficult to tell which rows are hidden.

In this case, this is how to unhide all hidden rows in Google Sheets:

1. Select the row numbers for all the rows in the range by dragging the cursor.
2. Right-click the row headers and choose ‘Unhide Rows’ from the pop-up menu.

3. All the hidden rows will appear at the same time.

If there are multiple hidden groups of rows in Google Sheets, this is how to unhide them:

1. Highlight the rows range you want to show by dragging the cursor over them. Alternatively, manually select the range by clicking a row above the first hidden group, then hold the ‘Shift’ key and select a row below the hidden group range.
2. Or you can select the entire sheet by pressing and holding Ctrl + A on Windows/ChromeOS or Command + A on macOS.
3. Next, Right-click on the selected range and choose the ‘Unhide rows’ option from the menu.
4. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + Shift + 9 on Windows/ChromeOS or Command + Shift + 9 on MacOS.

How to unhide rows hidden in Google Sheets hidden by filters

Often you may not see rows because there is a filter applied in the sheet. In this case, you can see that there are hidden rows, but can’t unhide them with the previous method.

This is how to tell if a filter is hiding the rows and to unhide the rows:

1. There’s a filter icon next to some of the column headers.
2. Row numbers and column headers are colored in a different color (light blue).
3. Row numbers are missing.
4. If you go to ‘Data’ in the main bar menu, you see the option ‘Remove filter’.

To unhide the rows hidden by a filter, click on the ‘Turn off filter’ option. This will remove any filters and the hidden rows will appear.

Bonus reading: How to Use Google Sheets Special Characters

How to unhide rows in Google Sheet hidden by a filter view

Another reason why rows may be hidden is that a filter view has been created. This is how to see if a sheet is in the filter view.

1. The row numbers and column letters will be a different color (dark gray).
2. There will be filter details above the column header colored dark gray.
3. There will be rows missing.

To unhide the rows, you need to disable the filter view:

1. You should see an ‘x’ at the top-right corner of the sheet if a filter view is created.
2. Click on the cross to disable the filter view.
3. Alternatively, click on the ‘Filter views’ icon in the main bar menu (funnel icon) and select ‘None’ in the drop-down menu.

This will disable the filter view and bring back the original spreadsheet view, which will also show the previously hidden rows.

You might be also interested in learning how to color every other row in Google Sheets.