- Change Generic Icon On Mac Apps
- Change Generic Icon On Mac App Download
- Desktop Icon Changed To Generic
It is very easy to create a custom icon for any file or folder on your Mac. Changing the appearance of different file or folder icons will help you easily locate and identify your files and folders.
- Jul 16, 2014 Before you get into the steps of how to change a Mac app icon, you obviously need to have a new icon chosen and ready to use. MacOS uses.icns files for application icons, and it’s best to stick with this format if possible, as an.icns file contains multiple sizes of an icon for various uses.
- Nov 02, 2016 Note: While this method changes the app’s icon, if you had already added the app to your Dock, you will have to add the app to the Dock again, in order to see the new icon there. However, don’t worry, the app’s icon has been changed system-wide, and you can check this by going to Spotlight, and typing the app’s name. It will show you.
- Jan 17, 2019 Whether you want to revert to an app’s previous icon, or want to have some fun with customizing a variety of your apps, read on for how to change Mac app icons. Changing Mac app icons is a.
You might want to make sure your app is correctly associated (for that you can use the free RCDefaultApp panel). If you fancy changing icons, you can try the arguably pricey Candybar from Panic inc. Which is excellent if you love playing with your icons, but that's all it does, so for 6 Starbuck's Coffee Latte you can do that:p. Please note that if you change an icon, you will probably have. Aug 26, 2015 There are many people among us who like change, and love to customize their machines. If you’re a fan of customization, or want to give your Mac a refreshing new look, then we have got a neat tip for you. It allows you to change the app icons on your Mac with a simple drag.
Do you see wrong document icons instead of the icon associated with the app / file etc? Sometimes, the icons for your files and folders may appear as generic white documents (blank page image with folded down corner). Sometimes, not all, but some of your folder icons may appear as generic document icons. Some users said that this problem they discovered this problem after upgrading to the latest version of macOS. If you are having this problem, this article teaches you how you can restore your icons.
How to fix Mac file icon problem
Please try each step until your issue is fixed.
1. Update your Mac if there is an update available.
2. The first thing you should try is to restart your Mac in Safe Mode. This will do some system cache cleaning and that may solve your issue. Here is how:
- Turn off your Mac
- Turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold the Shift key
- Release the key when you see the login screen
- Enter your password to log in (you may have to log in a few times)
- Now you are in Safe Mode.
- Are your file icons still generic? Either case, restart your Mac. This time start your Mac normally, without pressing the Shift key.
![Change Generic Icon On Mac App Change Generic Icon On Mac App](/uploads/1/2/6/4/126472173/107604423.png)
3. If you are still having this problem, try the steps below. Here is how:
- Open the Terminal app (Applications / Utilities) and enter the following command:
Change Generic Icon On Mac Apps
- Press enter
- It may take some time, wait for the cursor to return normal.
- And then restart your Mac.
4. If Safe Mode does not work, let’s try to rebuild macOS’s Launch Services. This is because what Launch Services do is to manage app and document associations. Here is how:
- Open the Terminal app. (Applications / Utilities, or you can use Spotlight)
- Enter the following command and hit enter:
- It may take a few minutes so just wait.
- When it is done, restart your Mac
5. If you are having this problem with apps, meaning if you see generic icons for some apps, here is what you can do:
- Go to Finder
- Click Go and then Go to Folder
- Type the following command and then hit go
- ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.finder/Cache.db
- Drag Cache.db to the Trash and then restart your Mac.
If you are still having issues, contact Apple Support.
![Generic Generic](/uploads/1/2/6/4/126472173/882934408.jpg)
Identifying files by their icon is perhaps more important than being able to locate the programs you use, since for the most part you will likely be browsing your files when using the Finder on your Mac. However, there are some instances where the icons for your files will just appear as generic white documents, leaving you unable to distinguish them and less likely to identify them. This may happen for a number of reasons, including using incompatible third-party cleaner tools for your Mac, or problems with restoring from backups. If you are finding yourself in this situation, then there are several things you can do to restore your icons.
Rebuild OS X’s Launch Services
OS X associates programs and files with the system’s launch services, which gathers a list of the programs on your system and the file types that they can handle, and then links them so when you open a file, the appropriate program is launched to handle it.
As part of this association, OS X will adopt icons within the handling program to use with these files. If this association is broken in the launch services, then the system may not know what files your programs are capable of opening, which in turn may have OS X resort to a generic icon for these files.To fix this specific problem, you can try resetting the system’s launch services, which can be done by running the following command in the OS X Terminal. Note that the command is buried deep in the system so it is very long; however, you should be able to copy the following multi-line version of it and paste it into the Terminal to run it:
In addition to launch services, OS X contains a few system caches that handle application icons so the system does not have to constantly pull them from programs you have installed. These are buried in the system’s temporary folder structures for the system and user accounts, but can be found and removed by running the following command in the Terminal
When done, reboot your Mac into Safe Mode (hold the Shift key at startup) and then restart normally. Note that after removing these caches and rebuilding the launch services, that you may have to open the programs again before the files these programs handle will regain their icons.
The info window’s Open With section contains an option to “Change All” documents of this type to open with the selected program.
Specify the handler for the files
Change Generic Icon On Mac App Download
Another quick option that may reset the file’s status in the system’s launch services is to re-associate it with its handling program, which can be done in the information window for any file of its type:
- Select the file and press Command-i to get information on it
- Expand the Open With section
- Choose any program from the drop-down menu other than the current one, even if the current is the desired one.
- Click the “Change All” button and confirm this action
- Re-select your initial (or desired) program, and again click “Change All.”
Uninstall duplicate applications
Conflicts for handling different files may occur if you have (or have had) multiple versions of the same program on your system. For instance, if a program was at version 1.0 and you installed a separate instance of version 2.0, then files associated with version 1.0 may not open if you remove this program, even though version 2.0 is present. Granted specifying these files to open within version 2.0 should have the system make the proper association; however, an easy way to avoid such conflicts is to remove older software versions unless you absolutely need them.
Sometimes applications may not be in expected places, two of which are the Macintosh HD > Applications folder, and the Users > username > Applications folder (not created by default); however, they can be anywhere else if you have moved them, even on external hard drives.
Desktop Icon Changed To Generic
Reinstall the application for the affected file types
Finally, you might try reinstalling the programs you have for handling these files. If there is damage to your files’ current installations, then the system might not be able to access the icon resources for them. A quick solution to this and similar problems is to re-download the program, or otherwise reinstall it.