how to find the library folder on mac osx

Now you should have temporary access, so you should be able to drag it into the Finder favorites if you want it to stay visible.Įither way, now you should be able to gain access to the hidden var folders.

Input the following search: /var or /private/var/folders.

Press Command+Shift+G to open the dialogue box.

Once you are ready to hide them again, go to Terminal and input the following command: defaults write AppleShowAllFiles NOĪnother way to access the var folder is by using the Finder.

Now, this should show every hidden folder, including var.

Now Reinitialize the Finder, either by rebooting or clicking the Finder while holding down the Option key, then selecting “Relaunch.”.

Type in the following command: defaults write AppleShowAllFiles YES.

Go to Terminal - in the Utilities folder.

One of the easiest ways to permanently uncover the var and other hidden folders is to use Terminal. Using the Space Lens tool, you can quickly see what is taking up too much space on your Mac and how to safely reclaim that much-needed space, thereby improving how well your Mac performs. Instead of letting that sit around and take up space, some users choose to locate and delete the cache of data every few weeks or even days.Īnother step you can take if you’re concerned about a potentially enormous store of cache data taking up space is to download and use CleanMyMac X.

You could be at risk of a huge cache of data sitting on your hard drive, and some of that might contain personal user information. Although there are some suggestions that these folders are emptied every three days, other research into this suggests that that isn’t true. It makes cache data more secure and keeps everything in one place instead of scattered around multiple files and folders.

This way, cache data - which Apple is keen to store - is not transferring data over a network. This means that this is a temporary or cache file that is not in the Home folder. According to Apple developer information, the var folder refers to “per-user temporary files and caches.” It was designed to improve permissions (rwxr-xr-x) over previous temp and cache locations, such as the /Library/Caches and /tmp folders.

But to help you do it all by yourself, we’ve gathered our best ideas and solutions below.įeatures described in this article refer to the MacPaw site version of CleanMyMac X.Īlthough there is little in the way of documentation online, it’s clear that the var folder was designed to improve operating security. So here's a tip for you: Download CleanMyMac to quickly solve some of the issues mentioned in this article.

How to find the library folder on mac osx