Unhide Library Folder Mac 10.7

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Jul 04, 2011 Modern Mac OS releases from Mac OS X 10.7 & OS X 10.8 onward default to hiding the users Library directory, this is probably to keep people from accidentally deleting or damaging files that are necessary for OS X Lion & Mountain Lion to function properly. That is fine for novice users, but for some of us, we want to be able to access /Library/ at will. Jul 23, 2012 Question: Q: How To Unhide the Library Folder in Mac OS X Lion. How To Unhide the Library Folder in Mac OS X Lion. Mac OS X (10.7.2) Posted on Jan 17, 2012 10:33 PM. Reply I have this question too (13) I have. How do you unhide in a Time Machine File?

Context

Beginning with Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or later, the Library folder located in a user's home folder ~/Library is hidden by default.
This tutorial covers several methods to make the Library folder visible again.

Instructions

Method 1: Using the Finder's Go menu

Hold down the Option key and open the Go menu in the Finder
Select Library from the list of places

Your Library folder will open and you can use it as you normally would. Note that it will not be visible when you close the folder window, but you can always get to it again using Option-Go. Where is photos library on mac. This method will always work and requires no system modification.

Method 2: Using the Favorites section in the Sidebar

Finder windows have a sidebar with a list of Favorites, Devices, and other items. (Hint: if the Sidebar is not visible for you in Finder windows, select Show Sidebar from the View menu in the Finder.) If you use the Library folder frequently you can add it to your Sidebar like this:

Hold down the Option key and open the Go menu in the Finder
Select Library from the list of places
Click-and-hold on the title bar of the open Library window and drag it to the Favorites section in the Sidebar

It will stay there even if you close the Library folder, and you can quickly jump to it by clicking on the favorite. If you ever need to remove it, you can Ctrl-Click on the icon in the Sidebar and select Remove from Sidebar.

Method 3: Using a Terminal command to 'unhide' the Library folder

Open Terminal.app. It is located in /Applications/Utilities/. You can quickly open it by selecting Utilities from the Go menu in the Finder, or by searching for Terminal using Spotlight search.
Unhide the Library folder using a Terminal command. At the command prompt (usually $) enter
and press the Return key. You should get the command prompt back, and your Library folder will now be visible in the Finder.
Result:

Caveat to the Terminal command method

While it quickly restores the Library folder to its pre-Lion behavior, Apple's system updates will revert the folder to 'hidden' and you will have to run the command after a system update to unhide it again. This can be quite cumbersome. To avoid this and to fully embrace the Apple lifestyle, we recommend you stick with the Go menu or Sidebar methods described previously.

Method 4: Using a Terminal command to make a persistant alias

There is another option that is persistent after OS X updates. Launch Terminal and run the following command:

This will make an alias in your home directory titled 'LibrarE' that will take you to the ~/Library folder. Note the intentional butchering of the word 'LibrarE'; you can change 'LibrarE' to anything other than 'Library'.

Advanced tip: make it permanent

If you are a rebel at heart and refuse to play by Apple's rules, you can save command to a file and add it to your login items, so it will be run whenever you log in. A system update usually requires a logout and log in, so the Library folder will be automatically unhidden again after a system update. Note that this requires some familiarity with the command line and editing text files using a text editor such as BBEdit, TextWrangler, oremacs; or at least knowing how to save as plain text from Word or Notepad.

Create the command script
Open your text editor and create a file that contains the line chflags nohidden ~/Library. Save it with the file name unhideLibrary.command. The file name is not important, but the .command extension is, as that will default to being interpreted as a command script that opens with the Terminal program.
Change permissions to make it executable
Open Terminal.app and go into the folder you saved your script to. Run the command
This will make the file executable. You can test the script by double-clicking on it in the Finder. It should briefly open a Terminal window and run the command. The Library folder should be unhidden if it was hidden before.
If your Terminal window stayed open..
By default 'Terminal.app' will leave its window open even after the command shell exits. You will want to change this behavior, or you'll always be left with an open but unusable Terminal window after login. Open Terminal.app and select Preferences from the Terminal menu. Then click on the Settings button and go to the Shell tab. Change the setting for When the shell exits: to Close if the shell exited cleanly. Close Settings.
Add it to your login items
Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups. Go to the Login Items tab and click + to add a new item. Find your script, select it, and click Add. Optionally check the Hide box next to it in the list to keep it hidden during login.
Done
That's it. The script will now run every time you log into your account. It is very quick and there's no harm in running it even if it is not necessary (because the Library folder is still unhidden) and it will keep you from having to remember to run it manually after a system update.

Exercise to the reader: there may be a better way to run a shell command at user level at the time of graphical login. If you know of one, please do mention it in the comments!

Permanently Unhide Library 10 comments Create New Account

Click here to return to the 'Permanently Unhide Library' hint

The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

A simple thing I did was to unhide the Library folder and then drag it into my Sidebar. Even if an update hides it again, it's just one click away.

Or make an alias of the '~/Library' folder called '~/Library .'

I thought this was a big deal until I actually got Lion and found that option-clicking on the 'Go' Menu item it was there in the list. that's easy enough for me.

Show Library Folder Mac Mountain Lion

This should be the hint.

I simply can't imagine that a person needs to access that folder often enough to justify un-hiding it. You can easily access the Library when you need it by holding 'option' and choosing Library from the Finder's Go menu.

As a software developer, I definitely need immediate access to this folder, preferable in the way I have always had access to it, by simply double-clicking the folder.

---
Mark
Economy-x-Talk
Have your own custom software created
http://economy-x-talk.com

This is interesting. I made my Library folder visible when I first installed Lion, and it has stayed that way through every update. I can't remember what method I used though.

Here's a launchd plist that will do the same thing, but without the need for AppleScript, login items, etc. Just drop it in /Library/LaunchDaemons and set the permissions properly.
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC '-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN' 'http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd'>
<plist version='1.0'>
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>local.library.nohidden</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/usr/bin/chflags</string>
<string>nohidden</string>
<string>/Users/*/Library</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>EnableGlobbing</key>
<true/>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/dev/null</string>
</dict>
</plist>