How To See Users Library Dir On Mac

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While many Mac users may never need to access their User Library folder while running macOS Sierra — some advanced users, may need to get in there and access support data and such when troubleshooting. The folder is hidden by default in macOS Sierra, but it only take a few moments to access it, or make it so that the folder is always visible.

Before we begin, we want to say that it’s usually a good idea to leave things in the users ~/Library folder alone, unless directed to by support personnel. The folder contains caches, application support data, and preference files, and if you screw around in there too much, you could really screw things up. We DO NOT recommend it. Now that our butts are covered, here’s how to find and display your User Library folder.

  1. Jul 23, 2011  in this video i talk about how to find your library folder in the new mac osx lion. In this video i talk about how to find your library folder in the new mac osx lion. Show The Users Library.
  2. Jan 12, 2020  How to Make the Library Visible Permanently. Launch Terminal, located in /Applications/Utilities. Enter the following command at the Terminal prompt: Press Return. Once the command executes, you can quit Terminal. The Library folder will now be visible in the Finder. Should you ever wish to set.
  3. Can't see user library files in macOS X 10.7 and later - Method 2 Hold down the Alt (Option) key when using the Go menu. The user Library folder is listed below the current user's home directory. Note: After you open the Library folder, you can drag the Library icon from the top of that window to.
  4. Mac OS X doesn’t have an obvious way to view the exact text based path to a folder (otherwise known as a directory) in the finder window. You can have it show a graphical path, but getting just the text based path to a directory (for use in the Terminal for example) requires a couple of extra steps.
  5. Method 2: Go to the Finder (or desktop). Hold the Option key on your keyboard, and click the Go menu at the top of the screen. With the Go menu open, you'll notice that pressing and releasing Option will display or hide the Library choice in this menu. Select Library from the Go menu (while.
  6. Dec 12, 2016  If you access user /Library often you might want to just enable it permanently as a visible folder in the user home directory. This is a simple settings change that will cause MacOS Finder to always show the Library folder in the user home: From the Mac OS Finder, go to the Users home folder; Pull down the “View” menu and choose “View Options”.

Dec 04, 2017  /Users/ insert your MacOS username here /Library/ With that in mind, go back to Finder’s Go menu and at the bottom, you’ll see this option: Choosing “Go to Folder” will bring up a box where you can type the path to the Library folder.

Opening the User Library Folder in macOS Sierra

If you just need to access the user ~/Library folder on occasion, you can get into it by using the Finder “Go” menu.

  1. From the Finder in macOS, (Click anywhere on the Desktop where there isn’t already an app window, and you should see “Finder” appear in the upper left hand corner of your display, up near the Apple icon), click the “Go” menu item, and then hold down the SHIFT key on your Mac’s keyboard.
  2. Click on “Library” in the drop-down list. (If you release the SHIFT key, the “Library” option will disappear from the menu. Now you see it, now you don’t.)

If you’re not much of a mouser, you can just hit the key combo of Command + Shift + L, and a Finder window will appear showing the ~/Library directory of the active user account.

Always Show the User Library Folder in macOS Sierra

If you are an advanced user, you might want to always display the user ~/Library folder in your user Home directory. It just takes a few clicks to enable this option.

How to see user library folder mac

How To Access User Library Folder On Mac

How to show user library folder mac
  1. In Finder, go to the Users’ home folder
  2. Click the “View” menu and then click “View Options”
  3. Click the “Show Library Folder” option in the Settings options for the User home folder, as shown below.

Following the above steps will change the settings for only the current user. Any other users will also have to follow the above steps while logged into the machine.

These steps also work with Mac OS X El Capitan and Yosemite. In earlier versions of OS X, a command line entry was required to perform the same magic.

(Thanks to OS X Daily)

Look at the folder structure of a typical OS X installation. Open a Finder window and click the icon for your hard drive (which is typically called Macintosh HD) in the Sidebar. You should see at least four folders: Applications, Library, System, and Users. Within the Users folder, each user has his own set of folders containing documents, preferences, and other information that belongs to that user and account.

From the top: The Computer folder

The Computer folder shows all the storage devices that are currently connected to your Mac. The following steps show how you can start at the Computer folder and drill down through the folder structure:

  1. To find the Computer folder, choose Go→Computer or press Shift+Command+C.

    The Computer folder in this example is called Bob L’s MacBook Pro, and it contains a hard-drive icon (Mavericks HD) and a Network icon, with which you can access servers or other computers on your local network.

  2. Double-click the icon that holds your OS X stuff.

    Technically, this drive is called your boot drive. If you haven’t changed it, it’s probably called Macintosh HD.

  3. Check out the folders you find there.

    You should see at least four folders (unless you’ve added some; if you installed the Xcode programming tools, for example, you have more).

The Applications folder

You can access the Applications folder, located at the root level of your boot drive, by clicking the Applications icon in the Sidebar, by choosing it in the Go menu, or by pressing Shift+Command+A. In this folder, you find applications and utilities that Apple includes with OS X.

Fonts (and more) in the public Library folder

The Library folder, at the root level of your OS X hard drive, is like a public library; it stores items available to everyone who logs into any account on this Mac.

Leave the /System/Library folder alone.Don’t move, remove, or rename it, or do anything within it. It’s the nerve center of your Mac. In other words, you should never have to touch this third Library folder.

By and large, the public Library subfolder that gets the most use is the Fonts folder, which houses many of the fonts installed on the Mac

Finally, the Library in the Users folder is where OS X stores configuration and preferences files shared by all users.

How To See Users Library Dir On Mac Download

If your Mac is set up for multiple users, only users with administrator (admin) privileges can put stuff in the public (root-level) Library folder.

The System folder

The System folder contains the files that OS X needs to start up and keep working.

How To See Users Library Dir On Mac Windows 10

Leave the System folder alone.Don’t move, remove, or rename it or anything within it. It’s part of the nerve center of your Mac.

The usability of the Users folder

When you open the Users folder, you see a folder for each person who has a user account on the Mac, as well as the Shared folder.

The Shared folder that you see inside the Users folder allows everyone who uses the Mac to use any files stored there. If you want other people who use your Mac to have access to a file or folder, the Shared folder is the proper place to stash it.

There’s no place like Home

From the Users folder, you can drill down into the Home folder to see what’s inside. When the user logs on to this Mac, his Home folder appears whenever he clicks the Home icon in the Sidebar, chooses Go→Home, or uses the keyboard shortcut Shift+Command+H.

Your Home folder is the most important folder for you as a user — or at least the one where you stash most of your files. It is strongly recommend that you store all the files you create in subfolders within your Home folder — preferably, in subfolders in your Home/Documents folder.

When you open your Home folder, you see a Finder window with a little house icon and your short username in the title bar. Seeing your short username in the title bar tells you that you’re in your Home folder. Every user has a Home folder named after his or her short username.

If your Mac has more than one user, you can see the other users’ Home folders in your Users folder, but OS X prevents you from opening files from or saving files to them.

By default, your Home folder has several folders inside it created by OS X. The following four are the most important:

How To See Users Library Dir On Mac

  • Desktop: If you put items (files, folders, applications, or aliases) on the Desktop, they’re actually stored in the Desktop folder.

  • Documents: This is the place to put all the documents (letters, spreadsheets, recipes, and novels) that you create.

  • Library: This Library folder is invisible in Mavericks. Rest assured that even though it’s hidden, it’s still one of the most important folders in your Home folder, containing Preferences, fonts available only to you, and other stuff that you expect to use.

  • Public: If others on your local area network use file sharing to connect with your Mac, they can’t see or use the files or folders in your Home folder, but they can share files you’ve stored in your Home folder’s Public folder.

You can create more folders, if you like. In fact, every folder that you ever create (at least every one you create on this particular hard drive or volume) should be within your Home folder.