The Pages application on our 2017 iMac is a white icon with the letter "A". Can I delete it from the Applications folder and re-download it from the App Store to get the icon to look like a Pages.app icon should look like?
iMac 27" 5K, macOS 10.14
Click on the Desktop to get Finder's attention and press shift+command+G (Go to Folder), and enter the following path to the Caches folder in your home Library folder:
~/Library/Caches
Switch to List view in the Finder window, and scroll down looking for com.apple.iWork.Pages. It may or may not be there, and if found, drag and drop it (only) to the Trash. Close the Finder Window. If a normal reboot does not restore your current Pages icons, then you can drag and drop Pages.app from your Applications folder to the Trash. Empty the Trash. Now you can retrieve Pages 8.0 from the Mac App Store again. It is my expectation that you will have proper application icons again. If the Dock icon does not update, drag it out onto your Desktop and release. Then drag the Pages icon from Applications back onto the Dock.
Pages 8.0 is self-contained in the Application folder. I would strongly caution about using any so-called "Mac Cleaner" software, for this problem, or any other — as there have been years of user posts in the support communities where the application, and in many cases, the malware masquerading as "cleaner" software has damaged untargeted applications, and even the operating system. So, don't go there. Please. 😎
Click on the Desktop to get Finder's attention and press shift+command+G (Go to Folder), and enter the following path to the Caches folder in your home Library folder:
~/Library/Caches
Switch to List view in the Finder window, and scroll down looking for com.apple.iWork.Pages. It may or may not be there, and if found, drag and drop it (only) to the Trash. Close the Finder Window. If a normal reboot does not restore your current Pages icons, then you can drag and drop Pages.app from your Applications folder to the Trash. Empty the Trash. Now you can retrieve Pages 8.0 from the Mac App Store again. It is my expectation that you will have proper application icons again. If the Dock icon does not update, drag it out onto your Desktop and release. Then drag the Pages icon from Applications back onto the Dock.
Pages 8.0 is self-contained in the Application folder. I would strongly caution about using any so-called "Mac Cleaner" software, for this problem, or any other — as there have been years of user posts in the support communities where the application, and in many cases, the malware masquerading as "cleaner" software has damaged untargeted applications, and even the operating system. So, don't go there. Please. 😎
This happened to me earlier in the week with Pages 8 and macOS 10.14.5. Uncertain what causes it, and it resolved itself. I did not remove the application and download it again. Is it just the Pages icon in the Dock, or also the Pages icon in Applications?
You might consider booting into Safe Boot Mode followed by an ordinary reboot. You press and hold the shift-key on a fresh boot until you see the progress bar. There is a great deal of operating system house-keeping going on, so this will be a quite long boot process. You will be presented with a login screen, and then a normal Desktop.
Thank you VikingOSX,
Both icons, in the Dock and the Applications folder are affected. And Pages is the only application with the generic icon.
Making a copy of the Pages application produced a perfect Pages icon, both in the Applications folder and the Dock.
BUT, it has the word "copy" in the name: Pages copy. app.
Renaming it to "Pages.app" reverts the name back to the generic version.
Booting into Safe Boot Mode multiple times makes no difference, it's still the same white icon.
Another suggestion that did not work was to reset launch services, that also failed.
Pages still works as expected, it just doesn't have the proper icon, and it's a perplexing problem.
After making the copy of Pages I foolishly deleted the original Pages.app.
Then I made another mistake by changing the name of the Pages copy.app to Pages.app.
Now making another copy won't work.
That's why I asked if the Pages.app can be deleted from the iMac and re-downloaded from the App Store.
Wish I knew what was causing this as I do believe it has something to do with LaunchServices database, but running two different invocations of the lsregister command did not appear to fix the icon issue — until I rebooted.
You can remove the Pages.app from Applications, empty the Trash, and download it again from the Mac App Store, provided we are talking about Pages v8.0. Should not have to do this.
Thanks VikingOSX
Version 8.0
Deleting and replacing will be the next step unless there are more replies with other suggestions.
Hoping that simply sending it to the trash will be sufficient to remove all files connected with the app.
Or should something like App Cleaner be needed?
I don’t know if the re-downloading of Pages will replace every thing if fragments remain from the previous app.
You’re right, all this shouldn’t be necessary.
Thanks again.
Searched for that com.apple.iWork.Pages file in the Library as suggested and it wasn't there.
BUT, trashing the Pages app and downloading from the App Store did the trick.
Back to normal again.
Good. Have a pleasant weekend.
Pages.app icon is white with letter "A"
