What To Do If You Have To Library Folders Mac
The Library folder for the users on a Mac is always hidden as Apple just doesn’t want you to access it as it thinks you don’t need access to it. However, macOS does provide an option to see this folder and access its contents, but you should only do that if you know what you are doing as a single mistake may mess-up everything in there.
We already have a guide that shows how you can quickly access the Library folder on your Mac, but what it doesn’t do is it doesn’t let you unhide the folder. That way, you can access the folder, but it will not always be visible in the file explorer – the Finder app – on your Mac.
So, if you really want to open the Library folder using the Finder quickly, you can’t do as the folder is not visible anywhere in the app. If you happen to access the folder occasionally, you should not have any issues as you can just use any temporary method to get access to the folder, however, if you happen to use the folder now and then, you will need a permanent solution to quickly accessing the folder.
Within this LaunchAgents folder is likely a bunch of stuff, most of which you do not want to mess with. If you don’t know what something is, do a web search to find out before you get rid of it.
In the guide below, we’re going to show you how you can unhide the Library folder on your Mac. That way, the folder will start to appear in the Finder beside the other folders, and you should be able to access it with a single click.
Before going ahead with the steps to Access the Hidden Library Folder on your Mac, you need to be aware that /Library Folder contains important Data and Files related to Mac User Accounts. Hence, make sure that you are accessing the Library Folder for a good reason and you do know as to what you are trying to achieve. The network library, /Network/Library would store settings shared by all computers in a network domain - if a network domain admin set one up, which nobody does anymore; The system library, /System/Library, stores the base settings, resources, etc that come with OS X. In theory, you shouldn't change anything in here. Unhiding the Library folder is easy enough, but why bother? Let's look at an example. If you have followed my article for setting up VoIP on your Mac, you may have noticed, in one of the screenshots, that there is the ability to customize the incoming ringtone. To do this, you need to have access to your user /Library folder. If you are new to Mac, it may be difficult to understand how the macOS file system is organized and what a Home folder on Mac is. But don't worry! In this article, we will explain the Mac folder structure in detail: what files the Home folder stores, how to rename the Home folder.
If that’s what you would like to do, here’s all you need to do to get that:
Using the Shift key to Launch the Folder
One of the ways to access the Library folder is to use the Shift key. When you hold down Shift on your keyboard, some extra options appear in your regular menus that let you access to some special content such as the Library folder.
Here’s how to use this method:
Get inside a Finder window so that you can access its options. Going to your Mac’s desktop is the best way to do that.
Once you are on the desktop of your Mac, you should see the Finder options on the top of your screen. What you need to do is find the menu labeled as “Go” and click on it.
As you can see above, the Library folder just doesn’t exist there although it does exist on your system. To enable it in this menu, hold down the “Shift” key on your keyboard, and the folder will appear in the menu. Clicking on the folder will take you to the current user account’s Library folder.
So, that was a nice way of accessing the Library folder as all it needed was a press on the Shift key and you were ready to go.
Unhiding the Library Folder Permanently on Your Mac
While the method above lets you access the Library folder for your user account, the option for the folder will go away as soon as let go of the Shift key. If you would like for the option to continue to be there, you need to do the following procedure to make it stick there:
Go to the desktop area of your Mac so that you are inside a Finder window.
Click on the “Go” menu at the top and select the option that says “Go to Folder.” This option allows you to jump to any directory on your Mac and you just have to input the path to the directory.
How to Combine Multiple Photos Libraries Into a Single Library Saturday, July 1st, 2017 Author: Tom Nelson. If you’ve been working with the Mac’s Photos app (or even the older iPhoto or Aperture apps) for any length of time, there’s a good chance you have multiple image libraries to. Oct 25, 2019 How to switch between Libraries in Photos for Mac. When you create a new library, you may still want to go back to a previous library for something. Fortunately, it's easy to switch between multiple libraries. Make sure that Photos is not open (quit if it is). Hold down the Option key on your keyboard. Double-click on Photos. Photos library mac combine albums. Mar 18, 2020 Use these steps on your Mac to combine photos and videos from separate Photos libraries into one library. Use these steps on your Mac to combine photos and videos from separate Photos libraries into one library. Drag the items onto My Albums in the Photos sidebar. Mar 18, 2020 Your Photos library holds all your photos, albums, slideshows, and print projects. If your library is large, and you want to free up storage space on your Mac, turn on iCloud Photo Library and use Optimize Mac Storage, or move your library to an external drive. Before you start, be sure to. Photos for Yosemite is finally out! And that’s a real “finally” given how long we’ve all been wrestling with the limitations of iPhoto in OS X and Apple’s early announcement of its.
Enter in the following path into the box on your screen and hit “Go” to go there. Make sure to replace Mahesh with the username of your Mac’s account.
/Users/Mahesh/
When the user folder opens, and you can see your files, click on the “View” menu at the top of your screen and it will reveal the Finder’s view options. Click on the option that says “Show View Options” to see the settings that control what should be shown in the Finder windows. Alternatively, you can press the “Command + J” key combination to access the option.
The view options will appear on your screen, and you can now modify them however you want. What we’re interested in is the option that says “Show Library Folder.” You need to checkmark this option and it will make the Library folder to appear in the regular menu of the Finder app. Just checkmark the box and close the panel.
From now on, you should be able to access the Library folder from any window of the Finder app. To do that, you just have to pull down the Go menu and click on “Library,” and you should be inside the Library folder for your user account.
So, that was a permanent method to enable the Library folder in the Finder menu on your Mac. The option for accessing the folder should now always be visible in the Finder, and you are just a click away from getting to that folder on your machine.
Unhiding the Library Folder Using Terminal on Your Mac
Another way to enable the Library folder in the Finder is to use a command in the Terminal app. The command does exactly what you did in the above section, but this uses fewer steps as you just have to enter the command in the Terminal app and hit Enter and you are all set. Here’s how to do that:
Launch the Terminal app on your Mac by clicking on Launchpad in the Dock and searching for and clicking on “Terminal.” The app should launch.
When Terminal launches, type in the following command and press Enter.
chflags nohidden ~/Library/
As soon as you press Enter, the command will get executed, and it will unhide the Library folder in the Finder menus on your Mac.
You are all set.
So, above were some of the ways to access the Library folder on your Mac. The last two methods let you permanently enable the folder in the Finder, so you don’t need to hold down Shift key or do anything else to access the folder as the folder is now always visible in the Finder menus.
You might also be interested in:
Have something to say? You can contribute to this tech article by leaving a comment below.
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:
Transfer photo library from old mac to new mac 2017. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What To Do If You Have To Library Folders Mac App
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:
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.
Mac Show Library In Finder
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.