my first "for loop" doesn't work.

[rcraighead]

Why doesn't it? It deletes all but one hidden item on the targeted layer then errors here: "if (bkItem.hidden == true){" with "no such element"'.

var aDoc = app.activeDocument;
var bkItem = aDoc.layers["BACK TEXT"].pageItems;
var bkCnt = bkItem.length;//# of items in "BACK TEXT"
var a;//counter
for (a=0; a<bkCnt; a++){
    if (bkItem.hidden == true){
        bkItem.remove();
     }
  }

[pixxxelschubser · Accepted solution]

loop backwards

[rcraighead]

Thanks, pixxxel schubser​

This worked for me. The other key was adding a "=" to the if statement (a = bkCnt - 1; a >= 0; a--).

var aDoc = app.activeDocument;
var bkItem = aDoc.layers["BACK TEXT"].pageItems;
var bkCnt = bkItem.length;//# of items in "BACK TEXT"
var a;//counter
for (a = bkCnt - 1; a >= 0; a--){
    if(bkItem.hidden == true){
        bkItem.locked = false;
        bkItem.remove();
     }
}

[pixxxelschubser]

Yes, because of pageItems[0] is the first pageItem in the "object array".

This also should also work:  a> -1