Custom icons for folders have disappeared and cannot be re-entered!?!

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Level 1

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Custom icons for folders have disappeared and cannot be re-entered!?!

I've had custom icons for my own folders forever. Now they have all turned a uniform, boring blue.

I've tried, repeatedly, the same old procedure of copying the image into the folder's Get Info panel. The image appears for a split second in the bar at the top of the panel, and then turns back to generic.

Why won't it work any more? More important, how to make it work again? I count on those custom icons.

Am running High Sierra 10.13.6 on a MacBook Pro, 13-inch, Mid 2012. I have no interest in buying a newer laptop, or in upgrading the OS. I just want it to work the way it always has.

Posted on Oct 14, 2019 9:54 PM

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Answer 1

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Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,554 points

Oct 15, 2019 1:18 AM in response to memillerlmft

Make sure you are following the instructions, I have Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra and El Capitan and I

use the same instructions and they all work.

Create custom icons for files or folders on Mac - Apple Support

https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/customize-file-folder-icons-mac/

Security updates would not have affected this function.

Do you have any third party software that affect the Finders default behaviour.

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Answer 2

memillerlmft Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 31, 2019 6:07 PM in response to janobonano

I just downloaded and installed the latest version of Default Folder X, v 5.4.1. It is now possible, again, to do the usual procedure to customize a folder icon. Unfortunately, all my old custom icons didn't magically reappear, but at least I can now do the work of putting them back again.

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Answer 3

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,554 points

Oct 14, 2019 10:42 PM in response to memillerlmft

It should not be a problem to get your customised icons back working.

If the icons you want to use are jpegs, pngs, tiffs or some other recognised form of image

then open them in Preview, click on Edit> Select All and then Click on Edit> Copy.

Now select the folder you want to change and press Command-i to get the info panel up

highlight the small icon top left and press Command-v to paste the copied icon over.

If the replacement icons have the extension .icns then get the info panel up, make sure the preview panel is displayed

and just drag the preview image over to the small icon in the receiver folder info panel.

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Answer 4

memillerlmft Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 15, 2019 12:33 AM in response to Eau Rouge

Thanks for responding so promptly.

This is exactly the procedure I have used for at least 10 years. It no longer works for me. AFAIK, the only thing that has changed is that I have obeyed Apple's very insistent prompts to install security upgrades.

What else can I do to make it work the way it used to?

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Answer 5

Oct 31, 2019 7:33 AM in response to Eau Rouge

I am having this same problem. One day they were all gone. I followed the steps above, as I always have to add custom icons to folders, but it doesn't work anymore. When I paste, the folder flashes then returns to default blue. It is very frustrating, as it is much easier to identify a client's folder when they all have their logo on it as opposed to a bunch of plain blue folders.

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Custom icons for folders have disappeared and cannot be re-entered!?!

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