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2020-4-6  Access Library Folder On Mac. The Library Folder on your Mac contains Preference Files, Caches, and Application Support Data. While regular Mac users may not find the need to access the Hidden Library Folder, advanced Mac users will at times come across the need to access files inside the Library Folder for troubleshooting and other purposes.

  • 2012-11-9  How to Reveal Your Library Folder in Lion or Mountain Lion by Johnny Winter 9 Nov 2012. However, occasions when you may need to access the User Library folder (also known as /Library) and this article will show you how. And if you want to get more out of your Mac, have a look at some of the Mac apps available on Envato Market.
  • In macOS, the library folder is used to store user account settings, preference files, app support files, caches, and other important data that allows your Mac to function as it should.

As an Apple Music subscriber, you're just a few taps or clicks away from accessing millions of songs across multiple devices. Apple Music's 'Add to Library' button makes adding those songs to your overall music library incredibly simple. To identify those songs, you can create a Smart Playlist.

To identify your songs from Apple Music requires creating a Smart Playlist in the Music app on macOS or iTunes on Windows. Once synced with iCloud, the Smart Playlist is then accessible across all of your Apple devices, including iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.

Apple Music Subscription

Apple Music is Apple's massive music service, comprising a subscription music catalog, iCloud Music Library syncing across your devices, Beats 1 live and algorithmic radio, customized playlists, and more artist exclusives than you can shake a stick at.

Beginning with macOS Catalina, iTunes is replaced by the Music app on Mac.

How to create a Smart Playlist on your Mac

To get all of the songs you've added to your playlist from your Mac's library to your iPhone or iPad, you'll want to first create a smart playlist on your Mac.

  1. Launch iTunes (or the Music app in macOS Catalina) on your Mac.
  2. Click File on the app menu bar in the upper left corner of your Mac.
  3. Select New.
  4. Choose Smart Playlist.

  5. Select All media next to Matched.
  6. Change the categories to: 'iCloud Status' 'is' 'Apple Music'.
  7. Make sure Live Updating is checked.
  8. Press OK.

  9. Tap the name Playlist in the created playlist.
  10. Change the name of the playlist to something like Apple Music Playlist so it's easier to remember.

You can now use the new Smart Playlist on your Mac.

How to use the new Smart Playlist on iPhone or iPad

Once the new playlist syncs with iCloud, it becomes available across your other Apple devices. To find the playlist on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:

  1. Tap on the Music app on your mobile device.
  2. Under the Library tab, tap Playlists.
  3. Select the playlist you created above.

Use the playlist just as you would other playlists in the Music app.

Enhance your Mac with these solutions

Your Mac could be even more useful with one of our favorite accessories.

Move your iTunes library to another computer. If you get a new computer, you can transfer your iTunes library by connecting computers or by using iPod or a portable drive. See the Apple Support article Back up and restore your iTunes library on your PC. How to move itunes library onto new mac. Import media from a computer to iTunes on Mac. If you have audio or video files on your computer, you can import them into iTunes so they appear in your iTunes library. Open iTunes for me. There are a few ways to transfer your iTunes library from one computer to another: When you get a new Mac, use Setup Assistant (or Migration Assistant, if you’re switching from Windows) to move files — including your iTunes files — from your old computer to the new one. See the Apple Support article Back up and restore your iTunes Library. Jan 04, 2020  How to Move Your iTunes Library. You can move your iTunes library to a different folder, computer, or drive. Here's how to do it, even in macOS Catalina, which ditches iTunes for the Music app. There are a few ways to transfer your iTunes library from one computer to another. When you get a new Mac, use Setup Assistant (or Migration Assistant, if you’re switching from Windows) to move files—including your iTunes files—from your old computer to the new one.

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Apple's official Bluetooth keyboard is a great basic option that provides a consistently solid typing experience and pairs easily with your Mac or iPad.

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This solid state drive from Samsung is speedy, tiny, and portable. It also connects using USB-C, making it a perfect companion for your new Mac.

Questions?

Do you have any other questions about Apple Music? Let us know in the comments below.

Updated August 2019: Includes latest macOS information.

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Money well spent

You can save the cost of a MacBook Air by buying a refurbished Mac Pro

Apple's current Mac Pro is now available as a refurbished item from apple.com.

Your Mac has a secret. Thousands of them in fact, in the form of hidden files and folders lurking on its hard drive or SSD. Don’t worry, though. These files and folders are all supposed to be there. In fact, many of them are essential.

Mac Library Not Loaded

Many of these files are in your Mac’s main Library folder or in the ~/Library folder, which is in your User folder. Both these Library folders are hidden, but inside them are folders and files that hold things like preferences for apps.

In this article, we’ll tell you how you can view hidden files on your Mac and make your Library folder visible.

What are the hidden files on Mac?

The hidden files are a throwback to macOS’ Unix roots. In fact, the convention of naming them starting with a “.” comes from Unix. For that reason, you can’t use a “.” at the start of a regular file name, otherwise OS X will hide it.

The files themselves contain data like access rights and privileges for files and folders, application support files, and preferences.

There are a number of reasons files and folders are hidden. Mostly, though, it’s because they contain data critical to the smooth running of your Mac and that you shouldn’t interfere with. In addition, there’s no real reason for most users to see or access them. Also, if they were all visible, your Mac would look horribly cluttered.

How to view hidden files on Mac

Before you make your Mac show hidden files, it’s important to remember they’ve been hidden for a reason. The data they contain could cause havoc if you delete or alter it and don’t know what you’re doing.

If your goal in viewing, for example ~/Library is so you can manually delete application support files for a program you’ve uninstalled, consider using a dedicated uninstaller like CleanMyMac X. That will make it easy to remove all the files associated with an application with one click. You can download CleanMyMac X for free here.

CleanMyMac X will also allow you to get rid of all the hidden files you no longer need. Many of these files are created and used then not needed anymore. They just sit there clogging up your hard drive. CleanMyMac X scans your Mac, identifies this system junk and allows you to quickly and easily get rid of it, potentially several gigabytes of disk space.

If you still want to view hidden files on your Mac, you need to go to the Finder and do the following:

  1. Open a new Finder window and click on the name of your Mac under ‘Devices’ in the sidebar.
  2. Click on Macintosh HD, or whatever you’ve called your startup drive if you’ve renamed it.
  3. Press Command-Shift-. (period). You should now see lots of files and folders who’s name starts with “.” become visible.
  4. To re-hide the files and folders, hold down Command-Shift-. again.

How to view your Mac’s ~/Library folder

There are a couple of methods for making your ~/Library folder visible. Here’s the simplest:

Mac Os Library

  1. Click on the Finder in the Dock.
  2. Open a new Finder window and navigate to your user folder (Tip: if it’s not in the sidebar, go to the Finder menu, choose Preferences, click Sidebar and check the box next to your Home folder)
  3. Click on the Go menu.
  4. Hold down the Option (Alt) key.
  5. You should see that in the dropdown menu, Library appears below Home. Click on it.

Alternatively, do this to view your Library folder:

  1. Click on the Finder in the Dock.
  2. Click on the Go menu and choose Go to Folder.
  3. In the window that opens, type “~/Library”

With both these methods, your Library folder will disappear again when you close the Finder window. It’s easy enough to run through the steps above again to make it visible again when you need to, but if you want it permanently accessible, there are a couple of ways to do it.

The quickest is to drag the Library folder to the Finder’s sidebar. That will create a shortcut to it that will persist. If you want to keep ~/Library visible but don’t want it clogging up the sidebar in Finder windows, do this:

  1. Click on the Finder in the Dock.
  2. Click on the View menu and choose Show View Options.
  3. Check the box labelled Show Library Folder at the bottom of the window.

How to make macOS show hidden files using Terminal

If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you can use the Terminal command line interface to view hidden files and folders. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Open Terminal from the Utilities folder in Applications, or by searching for it using Spotlight. You can also use the Go menu in the Finder to go directly to the Utilities folder.
  2. Type, or copy and paste, this command: defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles true
  3. Press Return
  4. Type: killall Finder

To hide the files again, repeat the above steps, but replace ‘true’ with ‘false’ at the end of step 2.

How to hide any file or folder using Terminal

Now that you know how to view hidden files and folders on your Mac, you may be wondering how you can hide other files or folders, to keep them away from prying eyes. There are a number of third-party applications and utilities that offer to do this for you, but you can do it yourself in Terminal, like this:

  1. Launch Terminal.
  2. Type: chflags hidden
  3. Press the spacebar.
  4. Drag the file or folder you want to hide from the Finder onto the Terminal window.
  5. You’ll see the path to the file or folder displayed in Terminal after the command you typed.
  6. Hit Return to execute the command.

The file or folder you dragged onto the Terminal window will now be hidden. To see it again, use one of the methods described above to see hidden files.

To make the file visible permanently again, use the steps above, but in step 2 type: chflags nohidden

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As you can see, viewing hidden files and folders on your Mac is very straightforward. There are a number of ways to do it, and you can make them visible temporarily or permanently.

However, just because you can view hidden files, doesn’t mean you should — the files are usually hidden because accidentally deleting them or altering them could cause chaos on your Mac. So, while it’s fine to have a peek, don’t do anything with the hidden files unless you know what you’re doing.

If you want to declutter your Mac or uninstall applications, use a dedicated application like CleanMyMac X. It will safely remove all useless files, add-ons, broken login items, caches, large and old files you didn't know about. Most likely, you won't even need to look for hidden files — CleanMyMac will do all the job for you.

We also showed that many of those files are stored in Library folders, including the one in your User folder, ~/Library. That folder is hidden by default, but you can view it or make it permanently visible using the techniques described above.

Mac Library Updates

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