# Lion Tip: Bring back your hidden ~/Library folder



## Guest (Jul 21, 2011)

Annoyingly Apple apparently decided that users shouldn't need to see their ~/Library folder so it's now hidden by default. Didn't notice that until I just went to navigate to it in Finder and it wasn't there.

TidBITS Problem Solving: Dealing with Lion's Hidden Library

( long story short: in terminal run chflags nohidden ~/Library )

I can sort of understand why they did this in one way, but in others I don't understand the need to start hiding things. Hopefully we are not going to end up like in windows where it tries to say "You don't want to look at these files, these are not files you are looking for" when you try to look at what's on your hard drive.

Not sure how that hidden ~/Library folder is going to work out as tech support will almost always say 'trash your prefs' ... but now they are going to have to spend time telling people how to find them in the first place, let alone trash them


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Onyx won't work on Lion yet so no unhiding from that angle


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## cap10subtext (Oct 13, 2005)

Hmmm... I'm not sure how annoying this is going to be in my day to day but my spidey sense is tingling.


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

Anyone who has run Photoshop intensively for any number of years knows that occasionally your preferences file can get corrupted and then Photoshop goes all wonky. 

The fix to this is to delete the Photoshop preferences file from the Library and restart Photoshop so that it builds a new clean preferences file. So no access to the Library or having to use the terminal to unhide it is definitely not a welcome change on that front.


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## Guest (Jul 21, 2011)

The same is true for lots of Apps screature, also some other applications ask you to actually put content into your Library folder as well. Really don't understand why Apple decided to hide that one (but not hide any of the system folders). Maybe people were deleting their Library folder or something silly? I've never really heard a complaint like that on here ...

EDIT: apparently autocorrect thinks your name should be scripture screature ... today I will find out how to disable autocorrect!


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## Guest (Jul 21, 2011)

Ahhhh much better ... to disable auto correct:

System Preferences->Language & Text -> Text -> and uncheck "Correct spelling automatically"


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

Apple did this because I regularly charge customers money to fix items they move/remove from their Library folders which leaves their units non-bootable or their user account non-functional. Believe it or not, people enjoy mucking around with what they don't know more than you might think.


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

mguertin said:


> The same is true for lots of Apps screature, also some other applications ask you to actually put content into your Library folder as well. Really don't understand why Apple decided to hide that one (but not hide any of the system folders). Maybe people were deleting their Library folder or something silly? I've never really heard a complaint like that on here ...
> 
> EDIT: *apparently autocorrect thinks your name should be scripture screature* ... today I will find out how to disable autocorrect!


:lmao: I was just ordained as a minister in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. How did it know?


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

Lars said:


> Apple did this because I regularly charge customers money to fix items they move/remove from their Library folders which leaves their units non-bootable or their user account non-functional. Believe it or not, people enjoy mucking around with what they don't know more than you might think.


Too bad for you, Apple just removed part of your revenue stream.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

Lars said:


> Apple did this because I regularly charge customers money to fix items they move/remove from their Library folders which leaves their units non-bootable or their user account non-functional. Believe it or not, people enjoy mucking around with what they don't know more than you might think.


Switchers, you reckon? Trying to customize their machines?


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

screature said:


> Too bad for you, Apple just removed part of your revenue stream.


Nah - these same people will still move apps out of their Applications folder to the desktop and then bring it in to ask why the app won't launch.


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## Guest (Jul 21, 2011)

Lars said:


> Nah - these same people will still move apps out of their Applications folder to the desktop and then bring it in to ask why the app won't launch.


Ya I guess damage control is helpful at that point, if you can't see it you can't move it.

Maybe Apple needs to get a bit more creative when it comes to the arrangement of your home folder. Putting end-user documents beside things that can seriously affect your system's performance if you mess with them might not have been the best design idea (it's not Apple's fault but they could remedy it if they set their minds to it).


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## Adrian. (Nov 28, 2007)

I am not a huge fan of the new finder look. I am nostalgic for SL. It's a good thing I kept it on my MBP workhorse and just put it on the iMac.


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## Chealion (Jan 16, 2001)

Or hold down the option key and go to the Go menu and choose Library. (see attached)


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

Hackinations: 5 really good Lion tweaks | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog


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