When I go to my Finder app and Hit Go To Folder I always got ~/Library. Now I just get Library with no tilde or backspace and it's different in it's content too. Does anyone know if this matters or why this happened? Any info about the Library in Finder would help me. Thank you all, Lisa I'm so Confused 😕
iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), using WiFi Connection
If you are looking for .plists, almost all of the ones you need are in your user Library. If your are using OS 10.9 or later, go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder.
~/Library is the library folder in your user area (Home). Each user will have one in their home folder.
Library is the main top level Library folder for all users on the computer.
I use an older OS version. For me Go To… just offers whichever folder I happened to last use it to open. I also have it set to show my library folders (something Apple disabled in newer OS versions because it is easy to do harm).
Your user Library folder is hidden by default. to see it permanently open a new Finder window, select your home from the sidebar click on View in the menubar, click on Show View Options and on the panel the pops up select Show Library Folder.
Thank you so much for your answer, however prior to my question I did what you said and it always went to ~/Library then I did some Apple Updates only, I didn't install a new version at all, as a matter of face I can't, my computer won't let me. I tried it again looking for some .plist files and it just comes up Library? Is that unsafe. I know you answered my question but is it OK without the ~/ cause I noticed it has different content and YES i did load it from my home page with the house and I'm the only user.
Thank you Limnos for taking time to answer. I understand what you said however, in my case I used to be able to access the “tilde/library from go to In Finder, something changed and it seems I can only access the original Library. I searched and searched for the ”home” Library but I don’t know why it isn’t anywhere I can find. Even when I try from different user or a guest account. Is it possible I somehow deleted it or did something to cause that. I’ve been using that Libray for yrs. only now, in the past 2-3 mos. I just can’t locate it. Is there any other way I can determine if I still have the library with the tilde and / (I couldn’t locate the tilde on this iPad keyboard)
The ~/Library is where per user information is kept. For example, your email, your application preferences, iPhone/iPad backups, browser bookmarks, etc... That way your settings are separate from other users that may share your Mac (think a family sharing the same Mac).
The /Library is for common to everyone things, such as fonts, browser extensions, application shared code libraries, system wide network preferences, etc...
The ~/Library was hidden because too many users would go mess with thing in there, or delete things, and then call customer support or go to the Genius bar complaining they lost important things. ~/Library is still there, it is just less likely to have customers do things in there that will damage their system because they do not understand.
You can access ~/Library by using Finder -> Go menu -> Hold Option Key -> Library
What is the difference between ~/Library and Library?
