Various technical questions to troubleshoot issues on my Macbook Air as an end user

analuciasoler wrote:

Device: Macbook Air, Apple M3

Mac OS: Sequioa 15.6.1

Where can I see my Mac HD?

Launch Terminal.app and enter the following command to see the root of the file system, as it has been assembled:

ls /

As for what you are calling “Mac HD”, the system volume, that is synthesized at boot from the Macintosh HD partition — what Apple calls the signed system volume — and from the Macintosh HD data partition. This constructs a nest of links between these apparently-separate resources, links which the GUI and most of the command line will ignore, presenting the appearance of a classic UNIX file system.

Signed system volume security - Apple Support

Where can I see my Library folder?

The system-wide /Library folder, and the per user ~/Library folder:

ls /Library
ls ~/Library

What are the step by step instructions of deeply uninstalling an application from this device?

For an app bundle, delete the app bundle. For a package installer, reverse-engineer the installer, if the vendor did not already provide a removal tool. The former is widely documented, the latter is very much app-specific.

Things here do get more complex as you look, too. If you look at an app bundle from the command line, you’ll find it is a directory containing the files comprising the app. And if you look st othet common files, you’ll,discover those are actually zip archives containing the manymfiles of the document. Apple Pages, Microsoft Word, Oracle Java jar files, and other tools and environments can use this approach.

Why are there NO articles from Apple on how to do these things and information is shared from 3rd parties only?

The “why?” questions are best directed to Apple.

The file system organization itself has some documentation: File System Basics

For what macOS-internal details are sorta-kinda-available here, Jonathan Levin’s OS X internals book is a good introduction. This if you want to understand how the pieces — those that Apple doesn’t document — fit together.

Now if you don’t really want to know these details of macOS itself (above), then here are some tips around using Finder:

Use the Finder on Mac - Apple Support

…including how to customize what is shown in Finder:

Customize the Finder sidebar on Mac - Apple Support

…also how to view the file extensions:

Show or hide filename extensions on Mac - Apple Support

…and how to get mounted storage volumes visible on the desktop:

See the devices connected to your Mac - Apple Support

As for Command-Option-Shift-Period “hidden” toggle, ~/Library and other files and folders were (presumably) hidden because folks were deleting parts or all of the contents, and corrupting things, and then seeking support.

And for cleanups, for many if not most cases, the effort and risks of finding and removing debris from some busted app installer outweighs the benefits received from deleting those files. Particularly when the app store and the preferred app construction design all use app bundles, not installer packages or other scripts, and those app bundles usually delete directly.

If you should have further questions, ask away.

analuciasoler wrote:

Device: Macbook Air, Apple M3

Mac OS: Sequioa 15.6.1

Where can I see my Mac HD?

Your MacBook Air has a solid-state drive (SSD), not a mechanical hard drive (HDD), but even though Apple no longer uses hard drives in any new Mac, they continue to use the old name.

Originally, the Mac always showed icons on the Desktop for mounted volumes – at first, floppy disks; later, ones associated with hard disks, optical discs, and SSDs. Somewhere along the line, Apple decided to get cute – and hide those icons by default. But you can go into Finder > Settings… (General tab) to restore the icons.

The "Hard disks" item actually refers to any internal drive, and is what you would check to get your MacBook Air's internal SSD (named "Macintosh HD" by default) to show up on the desktop.

There is also a Sidebar tab where you can choose what shows up in the sidebars of Finder windows.

Where can I see my Library folder?

The system-level Library folder is in the top level of the startup drive – in this case, "Macintosh HD."

Apple hid the user-level Library folder a while back, but you can get to it in Terminal, or by holding down the Option key while using the Finder's Go menu. There may be a way to keep the user-level Library folder visible in the Finder, but I have forgotten the details.

Servant of Cats wrote:

Apple hid the user-level Library folder a while back, but you can get to it in Terminal, or by holding down the Option key while using the Finder's Go menu. There may be a way to keep the user-level Library folder visible in the Finder, but I have forgotten the details.

I happened to notice that the "~/Library" folder was visible on the Finder's "Go" menu & within the Finder itself if I toggled Finder to show hidden items:

With the Finder in focus, press the following keys to toggle hidden items on & off:

Shift  +  Command  +  Dot/Period

analuciasoler wrote:

What are the step by step instructions of deeply uninstalling an application from this device?

The process for completely uninstalling an app depends on the app itself. Any app which uses an installer will require an uninstaller app from the app developer....sometimes the app developer places an "uninstall" option within one of the app's menus, other times you may need to search the app developer's documentation for the proper instructions (to find the uninstaller, or to manually remove each item the app has installed).

Generally if you download an app from the developer's website & just drag & drop the app into the Applications folder, or you have an app from the App Store, then you usually can just delete that app from the Applications folder.

Here is an Apple article about uninstalling apps, although I'm not sure it is complete & easy to understand (I find many Apple articles to be confusing):

Delete or uninstall apps on Mac - Apple Support

Why are there NO articles from Apple on how to do these things and information is shared from 3rd parties only?

There are usually some Apple articles, but finding them can be tricky. You may need to perform a general Internet search to find some of those official apple articles on the Apple website if you cannot find the articles when using the search function on the Apple website. If you add "site: apple.com" to your Internet search, then you should get more early hits for the official Apple website, but results can vary. Some days I can find an Apple article with ease, but the next day I cannot find that same Apple article again even after searching for an hour. It can be frustrating.

Plus Apple has some documentation is "duplicated" in other articles so you get bits & pieces from multiple articles before you get a more complete view of the subject. And some things Apple does not document, or documents very poorly. Definitely frustrating.

I find it can be difficult to know exactly what search terms should be used when looking for information, especially for Apple. Some times it takes several attempts to find the correct search terms to locate what I want.

Apple has a very extensive help library.

Here are some links to get you started:

Mac User Guide - Apple Support

MacBook Pro and MacBook Air - Official Apple Support