Seems the OS on my Mini is a mess - which folders should be there?

[krs]

I was starting to have problems using image capture.
A few days ago, the scanned images were suddenly save in my pictures folder insread of the folder on the desk top I had specified
Restarting the Mac didn't help
Now the scans using Image Capture are suddenly blurry - they are still fine if I use the Epson Scan software.

So when I googled to see what to do about the blurry scans with Image capture, the suggestion was made to trash the Image Capture preference file in the user library.
Sounded good to me....except somehow the user library has disappeared.
And when I checked the system library, there was no Image Capture preference file although there was a system library folder.

I think the best option now is to reinstall ElCapitan either from the USB installer I have made a while back or using restore.
Any preference there?

But when I check the files and folders in my user account, there are files and folders in there that I don't think should be there.

Attached is a screen shot of the hard drive user folder from a 2015 back up (on the left) and the current 2019 one on the right
Should all these folders on the right be there? Like Pando Packages, RightFont, SoftMaker, Ultimate USB Specs, test.txt?

Sort of a mystery to me how Image Capture even works t all with no preference files, at least not one I can find.
Tried FAF, found nothing

 

[ferrarr]

Yes, the User Library folder has been hidden for some time now. I actually drag mine into the Sidebar now, so it is still easily accessible.

Here are some solutions, Your Mac Is Hiding Your Library Folder

 

[Rod]

Handy little article ferrarr, I use two of the methods listed, one I wascaware of but have never used and one I did not know at all.


Sent from my iPad using Mac-Forums

 

[pine man]

Yes, the User Library folder has been hidden for some time now. I actually drag mine into the Sidebar now, so it is still easily accessible.[/url]

I am still learning something every day and it's simple things like this that really help

Thanks ferrarr

 

[krs]

Yes, the User Library folder has been hidden for some time now. I actually drag mine into the Sidebar now, so it is still easily accessible.

Here are some solutions, Your Mac Is Hiding Your Library Folder

Many thanks, ferrarr - that is a great article.
I never knew Apple decided to hide the user library.

I just used the third option in the article - turns out I had four different image capture preference files, two from 2010.
So I trashed all those (well right now just moved them to the desktop), launched Image Capture, that created just a single preference file for Image Capture and also seems to have solved two problems
1. Scans were saved in the pictures folder rather than the folder I had selected. That started about a week ago
2. Scan ended up being quite blurry. That started yesterday (But that could have been a reset by IC to a 50 dpi resolution which I didn't notice and saw just now)

The other difference is now that the scan window looks totally different.
It's now the same as if I scan from Preview, before it looked like the scan window of the old macOS

Thanks again - made my day.
I was already dreading having to spend Saturday morning reinstalling the OS - now I can do something more enjoyable.