~/Library
), accessible only to you, that's used to store your personal application-support files and, in some cases, data. The files and folders in ~/Library
are generally meant to be left alone, but if you’ve been using Mac OS X for a while, chances are you’ve delved inside. Perhaps you wanted to tweak something using a tip from Macworld, Mac OS X Hints, or elsewhere on the Web. Or maybe a developer asked you to delete a preference file, or grab a log file, while troubleshooting a program. Whatever the case may have been, you simply opened your Home folder to access the Library folder.~/Library
and start rooting around, moving and deleting files, only to find later that programs don’t work right, application settings are gone, or—worse—data is missing. This is the same reason Apple has always hidden the folders containing OS X’s Unix underpinnings: /bin
, /sbin
, /usr
, and the like.~/Library
but not /Library
, the similar folder located at the root level of your drive, which holds systemwide support files? Most likely because only admin users can modify /Library
, and Apple assumes that a user with admin-level privileges will know what he or she is doing. Yes, I realize that’s a questionable assumption, given that the first user account on a Mac is always set up as an admin account. But that's fodder for a different article.)~/Library
—there are plenty of valid reasons a user might need to access their personal Library folder. Luckily, as I mentioned, the folder is just hidden, using a special file attribute called the hidden flag. You just need to know how to access the folder or, if you prefer, unhide it. I've come up with 18 ways to do so; which one(s) you choose will depend on how frequently you’ll need to access the folder and which method better fits your workflow.~/Library
, but you'd like to be able to open it if the need arises, these methods are for you./Volumes
and /usr
; it’s now useful for accessing your Library folder, as well. Just type ~/Library
and click Go to view the folder in the current Finder window.open
command in Terminal Launch Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities
) from within your own account, type open ~/Library
, and press Return to open the folder in the Finder.~/Library
(usually in ~/Library/Application Support
) include a button or menu command for opening that program’s support folder. Do so, and then navigate up the folder hierarchy (by right-clicking the Finder-window’s title-bar icon, by pressing Command+Up, or, in column view, by scrolling to the left) to view the contents of your Library folder. Perhaps the easiest option here is to activate Apple’s Scripts menu (via the preferences window for AppleScript Editor, which is in /Applications/Utilities
); this systemwide menu includes an Open User Scripts Folder command.do shell script 'open ~/Library'
. Save the script in Script file format in your Scripts folder (~/Library/Scripts
—alas, in the Save dialog, you'll need to use the Go To Folder shortcut—Shift+Command+G—just to get to the Scripts folder). If you make the Scripts menu visible, as explained in the previous item, you can choose this script at any time to open your Library folder. Some third-party launcher utilities (see the next item) will even let you run scripts using the keyboard or keyboard shortcuts.~/Library
; press that shortcut at any time to open the folder.~/Library
often enough that they want quick access, but they still want to keep the folder invisible. In order to use one of these options, though, you must first access the ~/Library
folder using one of the procedures in the previous section—you can’t keep the folder accessible until you’ve accessed it at least once.~/Library
folder in the Finder, drag its icon from the Finder window’s title bar into the Dock. (Alternatively, if you’re viewing your Library folder in the Finder’s column view, you can drag its icon from the Finder window to the Dock.)~/Library
folder in the Finder, make sure Finder-window toolbars are enabled (View: Show Toolbar). Then drag the Library folder’s icon from the Finder-window title bar and drop it onto the window’s toolbar. (Alternatively, if you’re viewing your Library folder in the Finder’s column view, you can drag its icon from the Finder window to the toolbar.) Note that you may need to hold the icon over the toolbar for a second or so before you see the green Add (+) icon indicating that you can add the folder.~/Library
folder in the Finder, make sure Finder-window sidebars are enabled (View: Show Sidebar). Then drag the Library folder’s icon from the Finder-window title bar and drop it in the Favorites section of the window’s sidebar. (Again, if you’re viewing your Library folder in the Finder’s column view, you can drag its icon from the Finder window to the sidebar.)~/Library
folder in the Finder, hold down Command+Option and drag the Library-folder icon from the Finder window’s title bar to your Desktop. (If you’re in the Finder’s column view, you can Command+Option+drag it from inside the Finder window to your Desktop.) This creates an alias to your Library folder; you can place this alias anywhere you like and use it to open your personal Library folder.~/Library
, launch Terminal, type ln -s ~/Library ~/Desktop/Library
, and then press Return. This creates a symbolic link on your Desktop to your Library folder. You can move this link anywhere on your hard drive; double-click the link just like any folder to open your Library folder. (If you’re Terminal-averse, there are third-party utilities, such as SymbolicLinker, that let you create symbolic links.)chflags nohidden ~/Library
, and press Return. Your Library folder is now permanently visible. To make the folder invisible again, use the command chflags hidden ~/Library
.tell application 'System Events' to set visible of folder '~/Library/' to true
, and click the Run button in the toolbar. To make the folder invisible again, use the same command, changing true
to false
.~/Library
folder. Copy the following code into a new AppleScript Editor window, then save the new script in Script format, preferably in your Scripts folder (~/Library/Scripts
). You can then toggle the visibility of your Library folder by running the script from OS X’s Scripts menu or a third-party utility such as FastScripts or LaunchBar.~/Library
folder will always be visible…along with the thousands of other files OS X usually keeps hidden. To do this:defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles true
, and press Return.killall Finder
. Alternatively, you can hold down the Option key and right-click (or Control-Option-click) on the Finder icon in the Dock; choose Relaunch from the Dock menu that appears.true
in the Terminal command with false
.chflags
command in Terminal (via LaunchBar) or uses FastScripts to run the toggle-visibility AppleScript.