2020-4-3 Or you might be customising your Mac, which will need access to certain library folders. Here is how to get there and not cause your Mac to collapse in a cloud of dust in the process. What Is The Library Folder On MacOS? The library folder is the area of.
- 2020-2-12 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.
- 2020-4-2 Hold down the Alt (Option) key when using the Go menu. The user Library folder is listed below the current user's home directory. 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.
- 2020-4-4 In this Tip's N Tricks article, I want to point out a very important tip for getting around one of Apple's more peculiar security precautions in Mac OS X Lion and Mountain Lion. By default, the User Library folder is hidden in Mac OS 10.7 and above. We'll cover a few different methods to easily access this hidden folder.
- Sep 27, 2016 A lot of Mac tutorials mention the Library folder, which is where your macOS applications store things like settings and caches. Some settings can only be changed by editing files in the Library. But the Library is hidden by default.
- There are actually three Library folders on the Mac. The Library folder you can see contains files that are accessible to all users but only changeable by administrators. Then there is the.
The invisible Library subfolder of your Home folder is the repository of everything that OS X needs to customize your Mac to your tastes. If you want to add something to a Library folder, it’s usually best to add it to your Home/Library folder.
You won’t spend much time (if any) adding things to the Library folder or moving them around within it, and that’s probably why it’s now hidden from sight. Still, it’s a good idea for you to know what’s in your Home/Library.
The public Library folder is used to specify preferences for all users on this Mac. This Library folder, however, is all about you and your stuff.
Be cautious with all Library folders. OS X is very persnickety about how the folders and files within it are organized. You can add items to and remove items safely from most public or Home Library folders, but leave the folders themselves alone. If you remove or rename the wrong folder, you could render OS X inoperable.
It’s like the old joke about the guy who said to the doctor, “It hurts when I do that,” and the doctor replies, “Then don’t do that.”
To find your hidden Home/Library folder, do this:
Hold down the Option key on your keyboard.
Click the Go menu.
The (formerly) invisible Library folder appears in the Go menu as long as the Option key is pressed.
Select Library and release the mouse button.
You should see several folders in the Home/Library folder; the exact number depends on the software that you install on your Mac. You probably have folders called Mail, Safari, Logs, and Preferences, for example.
If you don’t want to have to do this dance every time you want to open your Home/Library, select your Home folder in the Finder and choose View→Show View Options (or press Command+J). Enable the Show Library Folder check box and your Home Library will be visible evermore (or at least until you deselect the check box).
Some of the most important standard folders in the Library folder include the following:
Application Support: Some applications store their support files here; others store theirs in the main (root-level) public Library folder.
Fonts: This folder is empty until you install your own fonts here. The easiest way to install a font is to double-click its icon and let the Font Book utility handle it for you. Here’s how to install a font manually:
To install a font that only you can use: Drag the font file’s icon to the Fonts folder in your Home/Library. The font is available only to this user account (because other users can’t use fonts stored in yourHome/Library folder).
To install a font for all users of this Mac: Drag the font file’s icon into the Fonts folder in the public Library folder — the one at root level that you see when you open your hard drive’s icon.
Preferences: The files here hold the information about whichever things you customize in OS X or in the applications you run. Whenever you change a system or application preference, that info is saved to a file in the Preferences folder.
Don’t mess with the Preferences folder! You should never need to open or use this folder unless something bad happens — say, you suspect that a particular preferences file has become corrupted (that is, damaged). Just forget that you know about this folder and let it do its job.
If you don’t know why you’re doing something to a folder (other than the Fonts folder) in your Home/Library, don’t do it. There must be some good reasons why Apple decided to hide the Home/Library folder in OS X Yosemite, and one of them is to keep you from accidentally screwing something up.
The Library directories are where the system and your code store all of their related data and resources. In macOS, this directory can contain many different subdirectories, most of which are created automatically by the system. In iOS, the app installer creates only a few subdirectories in ~/Library (such as Caches and Preferences) and your app is responsible for creating all others.
Table A-1 lists some of the common subdirectories you might find in a Library directory in macOS along with the types of files that belong there. You should always use these directories for their intended purposes. For information about the directories your app should be using the most, see The Library Directory Stores App-Specific Files.
Subdirectory | Directory contents |
|---|---|
| Contains all app-specific data and support files. These are the files that your app creates and manages on behalf of the user and can include files that contain user data. By convention, all of these items should be put in a subdirectory whose name matches the bundle identifier of the app. For example, if your app is named MyApp and has the bundle identifier Resources required by the app to run must be placed inside the app bundle itself. |
| Contains programs that assist users in configuration or other tasks. |
| Contains audio plug-ins, loops, and device drivers. |
| Contains app-specific autosave data. |
| Contains cached data that can be regenerated as needed. Apps should never rely on the existence of cache files. Cache files should be placed in a directory whose name matches the bundle identifier of the app. By convention, apps should store cache files in a subdirectory whose name matches the bundle identifier of the app. For example, if your app is named MyApp and has the bundle identifier |
| Contains resources for picking colors according to a certain model, such as the HLS (Hue Angle, Saturation, Lightness) picker or RGB picker. |
| Contains ColorSync profiles and scripts. |
| Contains system bundles and extensions. |
| Contains the home directories for any sandboxed apps. (Available in the user domain only.) |
| Contains plug-ins for extending system-level contextual menus. |
| Contains data files with web browser cookies. |
| Contains data used by Xcode and other developer tools. |
| Contains language dictionaries for the spell checker. |
| Contains documentation files and Apple Help packages intended for the users and administrators of the computer. (Apple Help packages are located in the |
| Contains device drivers and other kernel extensions. |
| Contains aliases to frequently accessed folders, files, or websites. (Available in the user domain only.) |
| Contains font files for both display and printing. |
| Contains frameworks and shared libraries. The |
| Contains plug-ins, libraries, and filters for web-browser content. |
| Contains keyboard definitions. |
| Specifies the agent apps to launch and run for the current user. |
| Specifies the daemons to launch and run as root on the system. |
| Contains log files for the console and specific system services. Users can also view these logs using the Console app. |
| Contains the user’s mailboxes. (Available in the user domain only.) |
| Contains plug-ins for the System Preferences app. Developers should install their custom preference panes in the local domain. |
| Contains the user’s preferences. You should never create files in this directory yourself. To get or set preference values, you should always use the |
| In the system and local domains, this directory contains print drivers, PPD plug-ins, and libraries needed to configure printers. In the user domain, this directory contains the user’s available printer configurations. |
| Contains QuickLook plug-ins. If your app defines a QuickLook plug-in for viewing custom document types, install it in this directory (user or local domains only). |
| Contains QuickTime components and extensions. |
| Contains screen saver definitions. See Screen Saver Framework Reference for a description of the interfaces used to create screen saver plug-ins. |
| Contains scripts and scripting resources that extend the capabilities of AppleScript. |
| Contains system alert sounds. |
| (Deprecated) Contains system and third-party scripts and programs to be run at boot time. (See Daemons and Services Programming Guide for more information about starting up processes at boot time.) |
| Contains web server content. This directory contains the CGI scripts and webpages to be served. (Available in the local domain only.) |
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