

- #Viewing hidden user library on mac how to
- #Viewing hidden user library on mac password
- #Viewing hidden user library on mac mac
#Viewing hidden user library on mac mac
Select that menu item and a window similar to the one seen below opens on the Mac screen:Įver since Lion (OS X 10.7), Apple has hidden your personal Library folder (/Library) by default. In this case, Option-clicking the Go menu in the Finder adds a new menu item - Library - that opens the ~/Library folder (see image below):Īs you can see from the image above, holding down the Option key while clicking on the Go menu in the Finder adds one item as seen on the right - the Library folder. The first and easiest way is to use a trick that gives many of the items in the macOS menu bar “super powers” - hold down the Option key while clicking on a menu. In any case, it’s best to remember what your parents told you when you were a kid and were in a place filled with expensive and breakable things - “Look, but don’t touch!” Maybe you want to clean out the remnants of an app that you haven’t had on your Mac for several years. When would you want to poke around in ~/Library? Perhaps you’re gaining knowledge about macOS as a developer and want to know how the operating system stores information.

Deleting individual files or folders found within ~/Library can cause individual applications or the operating system to malfunction. Don’t throw away or change anything in the ~/Library folder unless you know what you’re doing. Warning: Don’t play with the ~/Library folder if you don’t need to!īefore we go any further, it’s time for a warning. Today we’ll show you a few ways to view the ~/Library folder. Thanks to the importance of this folder, it’s normally hidden from view. Inside this folder are many subfolders that contain preference lists (“plists”), database files storing a variety of important information, and many other files that maintain the state of macOS and of the individual apps that run on a Mac. Of the many files and folders that make up macOS Sierra, there’s probably none so important to maintaining the “personality” of your Mac than the ~/Library folder. If you repair a library that's automatically updated with iCloud Photos, the entire contents of the library re-updates with iCloud after the repair process completes. When the process is completed, Photos opens the library. Depending on the size of your library, this might take some time. The repair tool analyzes the the library's database and repairs any inconsistencies it detects.
#Viewing hidden user library on mac password
You might be asked to type in your user account password to authorize the library repair.
#Viewing hidden user library on mac how to
How To Open User Library On Mac Sierra Driveįollow these steps to use the Photos library repair tool:.How To Open User Library On Mac Sierra 2017.Note: After you open the Library folder, you can drag the Library icon from the top of that window to the Dock, sidebar, or toolbar to make it readily accessible. The user Library folder is listed below the current user's home directory. Hold down the Alt (Option) key when using the Go menu. While the 'Library' folder is hidden by default, you can prompt it to appear both temporarily.


This wikiHow teaches you how to force your Mac's user 'Library' folder to show up in the Finder window. But if you consider yourself an informed user, and want to open your Library folder, here’s how. That makes sense: messing with this folder can break programs pretty quickly, so it’s not something you want every user finding. Some settings can only be changed by editing files in the Library.
