How to Unhide & Access the Hidden Library Folder in your Mac

After installing OS X Lion on your Mac, have you found something missing? Is that your Library folder? Possibly it is your Library. Operating System X Lion hides the Library folder on the Mac. Before OS X Lion, the Library folder was present in the user account. For accessing it, you’ll need to go through the following path: Users/[YOURACCOUNTNAME}/Library. Library folder has lots of data for the application installed on your Mac. These include application support files, app preference files, plug-in folders, and more.

 

What does the Library folder consists of?

The library folder is the place where you can troubleshoot various issues of an individual application or a component shared by several applications. You may also have heard the refrain “Delete the app’s plist”. If you haven’t, then either you’re new to Mac computer, or you’re lucky enough to not meet with an application behaving badly. It is not clear why Apple hides the Library folder, but you have multiple ways to access it. Though, few techniques are provided by the Apple itself (according to the OS X version). You can choose whether to unhide the folder permanently or when you want to access it. Here are the methods to access the hidden Library folder on your Mac.

How to unhide the Library folder permanently in Mac

Folders in Mac have a visibility flag associated with them that decide the visibility of that particular folder. Apple has also used this to hide the Library folder; it has just set the visibility flag off for it. To unhide Library folder permanently, you’ll have to use a command in the Terminal. Here is how.

1.    Open the ‘Terminal’ by navigating to /Applications/Utilities.

2.    In the Terminal window, enter the given command,

chflags nohidden ~/Library

You can type the command with your keyboard or simply copy-paste it there.

3.    Press ‘Return’.

Command will run and unhide the Library folder on your Mac. Now, you can quit the Terminal and go to the Finder to view the Library folder. It will remain unhidden until you hide it again.

To hide the Library folder:

If you want to hide the Library folder again, then you’ll need to run this command in the Terminal.

1.    Open the Terminal window again, if you’ve closed it.

2.    And then enter this command:

chflags hidden ~/Library

3.    Press ‘Return’.

As soon as the command runs, the Library folder will go back to its default hidden state.

How to unhide the Library folder with Apple’s method

It is another method to reveal the hidden Library in Mac. This doesn’t require you to run a command or use Terminal. Also, it will not make the folder visible permanently. This will only make it visible until the Finder window is open. This method is useful when you don’t want to take out the folder permanently.

1.     Either on the desktop or Finder window, press and hold the ‘Option’ button.

2.    Then click on the ‘Go’ tab in the top menu. This opens the dropdown Go menu with various options, including the Library.

3.    Go to ‘Library’ and select it. This opens the Finder window with the data stored in your Library.

4.    View, open, access or do whatever you want in the Library.

Once you close the Finder window associated with Library, the folder will again hide as earlier.

How to unhide and access the Library folder in Mac OS X Mavericks and newer

If your Mac is running on OS X Mavericks or newer, then you’ve got the easiest way to unhide and access your hidden Library. This method also makes the folder visible permanently. Here is how.

1.    Open ‘Finder’ and go to the ‘Home’ folder.

2.    In the Finder menu, click on the ‘View’ tab

3.    And select ‘Show View Options’ from the view dropdown. This opens a small menu box on the desktop.

4.    Click and checkmark the box of “Show Library Folder”.

The library folder is now visible in your Mac and remains visible until you uncheck the “Show Library Folder” box again.

Howdy, I’m  Lily Johnsol. I’m a software engineer living in Manhattan, New York. I am a fan of technology, photography, and design. I’m also interested in music and blogging. You can visit my website office.com/setup.

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