Blurry/pixelated icons at random in Finder windows

even though I do use CandyBar I never had a problem that was directly correlated with it ... Graphic Converter on the other hand (which I used to use to create custom icons for images) was a different story, I could reliably repeat the icons becoming corrupt after creating roughly 20 or so icons with it (though that number was an average not always the same) .... now I just use the "show icon preview" option from the system (I zapped all the custom icons made in Graphic Converter ... which wound up being over 100,000 ... yikes) and the problem has subsided quite a bit ... albeit not completely because I still create custom folder icons which sometimes causes corrupt icons to happen.

Oh yea, I also was experiencing the docked folders problem you mentioned as well.

I can understandably see why not many people have run into this issue because I'm betting not many people create custom icons using GC ... but I'm also betting (not guaranteeing) I'd be able to replicate this problem on any computer running snow as I was able to do this on my other 2 machines and three of my friends machines as well. I'm not saying this is the one and only cause but like I said I've been able to reliably replicate it across several machines.

FWIW, I also have pixelated icons in my Finder and in my Dock. I, too, have 30 to 40 custom icons (created primarily with Img2Icons app) that looked fabulous until recently. Annoying. Really liked the look of customized folder icons; makes finding things visually much easier if you're looking through lots of folders. Looks like custom icons may be associated with problem?

Looks like custom icons may be associated with problem?

associated, sure ... but not the cause ... I have standard system icons that still blur and pixelate to this day

I've pretty much given up on this issue myself but just stopped by to see if there were any new posts of revelation 🙂

I've been noticing this issue for a couple weeks now, and finally found this discussion. Today I finally found what I think is a (possibly only temporary) fix. It seems to be related to messages I've been seeing in the console similar to:

2/3/10 6:15:28 AM /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/OSServices.framewo rk/Versions/A/Support/CSConfigDotMacCert[465] MDS Error: unable to create user DBs in /var/folders/Ha/HaPCwT7uETKlKwNbvL85e ++TM/-Caches-//mds

I deleted all the subfolders of /var/folders and logged out then back in--icons are beautiful again. While I haven't looked too closely yet, it appears that permissions are somehow breaking on one of those directories and processes can no longer write to them. Since that seems to be a common place for cache databases (and relevant to this problem, you may notice a "com.apple.dock.iconcache" file in there) that would explain why older apps seem to do fine but newly installed and updated apps have bad icons.

You probably don't want/need to delete every folder in /var/folders like I did; since each folder seems to be user-specific, you should just delete your specific one. Using Console, search for "unable to create user DBs" entries and delete that specific subfolder. In my log example, it would be:

sudo rm -rf /var/folders/Ha

Hope this helps, and hope this sticks.

pg

MY blurry/pixellated icons occur in the Dock. Sometimes throwing it away and dragging it anew solves the problem. Sometimes when I quit the app it becomes clear, sometimes it does not. The poor image also shows up in command-tabbing through open apps. Sometimes restart does it. Not a major problem; apps still open, behave properly. Tends to happen with Mail and Thunderbird.

I have the same problem with dock icons. It's usually itunes or the address book that randomly gets blurry. If I remove the app from the dock and then re-install it in the dock the problem goes away, usually for month or so, when I just repeat this step. HTH.

Just re-checking this post to see if any news about the blurry icon issue. Looks like some of the problems are being identified. I find that a restart sometimes seems to help. I've also been having all kinds of problems with my Finder acting wonky (will post on that in a more appropriate forum), which gets somewhat better after relaunching Finder. I've also done the usual remedies such as trash prefs, run Onyx, etc. I really find the fuzzy icons annoying (that's one step below "irritating"; the Finder issues are full blown irritating). Is this icon problem not an issue that Apple should address and correct?

Thanks pgor for your insight! I tried using Console to search for "unable to create user DBs" and find nothing. Only thing I found was Weatherbug "unable to load data". A question: is it OK to delete the files in var/folder?

BTW, this forum is marked as "answered". Doesn't seem to be answered to me. Am I missing something here?

Re "answered."

I've been wondering about that, too. I don't know if a poster did that or Apple, but I went through all ten pages to see if I could tell when it got marked as answered, but I could not.

I have stopped "worrying" about it, since it does not affect the operation of anything. I just figure that it's reading a file that got corrupted and replacing the icon in the dock or re-starting causes that data to be rewritten correctly.

I'm chiming in on a blurry address book, itunes and dictionary. It didn't help to remove the icons from the dock and then reinstall.
Annoying is right ...

Im having the same problem too! Im running the latest version of SL on my New MAC Mini (4weeks old).

The Frostwire icon is fine in the dock, but when i minimize frostwire, the minimized icon changes from the "preview mode" to just a blurry frostwire icon!

This is the only problem im having.

Just checking in to see if anything new. Should be start a new post about this subject, since it's been marked as "answered?"

I first transferred all my Applications and settings to my new Imac from a time machine back-up. I could not get Photoshop CS3 to work after that so I reverted to an earlier CS version that did work. All my icons were perfect little copies of the originals. After having other application problems I decided to erase, and reinstall snow leopard, then individually reinstall each Application. CS3 now worked, but now more than half of my jpeg icons are barely identifiable blurs.