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I just installed Lion, and I can't find the Library folder in my user folder.

Does the folder no longer exist? If it doesn't, where are my preferences? If it does, how do I get to it?

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4 Answers

up vote 57 down vote accepted

The ~/Library folder still exists, but it is hidden. You can easily unhide it by running the following command in Terminal (/Applicatiions/Utilities):

chflags nohidden ~/Library

Note that you'll have to do this again after each 10.7.X update (credit to Vincent).

If you want to reveal it on a per-use basis, you can get in by holding down option and clicking on the Finder's Go menu.
Or, you can use Go-> Go to Folder and type in the path.
Or, you can open Terminal and type open ~/Library

The app Lion Tweaks gives you an easy GUI way to change this setting, as well as other hidden Lion preferences.

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1  
COOL! One more Lion "feature" to protect such an important folder. – Enrico Susatyo Jul 21 '11 at 8:36
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@the_great_monkey It's something that only geeks like us need and something that we can easily make available, as you see above. It's a folder that people who don't know what they're doing should stay the heck out of, so hiding it in fact does protect a lot of people from screwing themselves. – Matthew Frederick Jul 22 '11 at 13:02
@Matthew but I wonder why /Library isn't hidden? – Enrico Susatyo Jul 22 '11 at 13:16
Ordinary users cannot make changes to /Library ? – GEdgar Jul 22 '11 at 15:22
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Note that you will have to do it again after upgrading to 10.7.1 – Vincent Robert Aug 16 '11 at 22:12
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up vote 5 down vote

Simpler way.

Set the Finder view to Columns (just for this exercise. You can change it afterwards).

Close Finder windows.

Hold Option key while going to Go in menu bar and selecting Library. This opens a Finder window with the word "Library" in the title/name location at top center of window. Release option key.

Click and hold the folder next to "Library" and drag it into your sidebar where you want it. Release.

Done

It will stay there until you Command-Drag it out, no matter how many SU for the 10.7.x OS you get.

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This works, provided that the only way you want to access the Library folder is via the sidebar. – Nathan Greenstein♦ Aug 26 '11 at 23:08
You can do this with any folder (add to side bar). The purpose is to make the ~/Library easily/quickly available. You can even drag it to the Dock. All you do with this routine is create an alias. You could write an Apple script to open the ~/Library and save it as an app, putting it in the Dock. That might keep it a bit more obscure yet readily available. – modelamac Aug 27 '11 at 11:17
I'd be interested in hearing about how else you would want to access the ~/Library. – modelamac Aug 27 '11 at 11:22
Those are all great ways to access it, but to me (someone who uses the ~/Library a lot), they're all a lot more work than just navigating to it in Finder. The Terminal command allows you to see it in Finder and navigate to it normally, which is more convenient for me. Like I said, you ways are good; we just have different approaches. – Nathan Greenstein♦ Aug 27 '11 at 14:31
up vote -2 down vote

Simplest way: download the app 'ShowAllFiles' which lets you toggle this setting when you open it. I think many will find this quicker and easier than the Terminal method in the other answers.

This app can be installed as part of MultiBeast from http://www.tonymacx86.com/downloads - I presume it can be downloaded separately, but a quick search now only turned up outdated versions of it.

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The forum requires to register. – Loïc Wolff Dec 23 '11 at 14:27
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It's one line in Terminal. You don't really need an app for it. I'd say this is more complicated actually and totally superfluous. – cksum Dec 23 '11 at 15:25
up vote 2 down vote

The ~/Library folder is still present but is "hidden" in OS X 10.7 by default, however there are a variety of ways to access ~/Library, depending on how frequently you need to access and on whether you want it to remain hidden.

The best summary of these methods is found at 18 ways to view the ~/Library folder in Lion.

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