Your Mac has a few secrets, hidden folders and files that are invisible to you. You may not even realize how much hidden data there is on your Mac, from basic things like user data and app preference files to core system data that your Mac needs to function properly. Apple hides these files and folders to prevent you from accidentally changing or deleting important data that your Mac needs.

Apple’s reasoning is sound, but there are times when you’ll need to delve into these outlying corners of your Mac’s file system. You’ll find that accessing these hidden corners of your Mac is a step-by-step guide in many Mac troubleshooting guides, as well as guides for backing up important data like email messages or Safari bookmarks. Fortunately, Apple includes ways to access these hidden goodies in OS X and more recent macOS. This guide will focus on using the Terminal app, which provides a command-line-like interface to many of your Mac’s core functions.

With Terminal, you only need one command to make your Mac reveal its secrets.

Launch Terminal, located at /Applications/Utilities/.