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Does anybody know how to change the desktop icons for attached external hard drives with macOS Catalina? The old way of "Get Info" and copy and paste the icon image doesn't work.
I am using a 2019 Mac Pro if that makes any difference. And macOS Catalina 10.15.5
Thanks
Mac Pro, macOS 10.15
Open the image you want to paste on to the external drive in Preview.
Click on Edit> Select All, then Edit> Copy.
On the info panel for the external drive,
click on the icon top left to highlight it and then click on Command-v.
Open the image you want to paste on to the external drive in Preview.
Click on Edit> Select All, then Edit> Copy.
On the info panel for the external drive,
click on the icon top left to highlight it and then click on Command-v.
The root (top) level of external drives seems to be locked down in some instances much like the startup drive. I haven't found any particular reason why it is unmodifiable on some externals, but not all.
Are you able to change permissions on that level of the drive?
What happens when you try to change the icon? Does the image paste but not show? Or, will it not let you paste the new image?
It does not let me paste the image. I open both the source and target in "Get Info." Then I highlight and copy the source disk image. Then I highlight and attempt to paste onto the target disk image. But nothing happens.
Thanks, Eau Rouge. It worked :)
The trick is Edit> Select All, then Edit> Copy.
Many other tipsters simply say to copy the file, without opening it, then paste it onto the drive image in the Info window ... which does not work.
Many other tipsters simply say to copy the file, without opening it, then paste it onto the drive image in the Info window ... which does not work.
Your original question made me think you already knew that as you said you were copying the icon image, not the icon image file.
Thank you Eau Rouge.
But it didn't work.
I opened the RuggedUSB-C_TBT.icns file with Preview (downloaded this file from LaCie).
Clicked Edit>Select All, clicked Edit>Copy.
Then I went to the Get Info panel for the external hard drive and highlighted the icon image that I want to replace in the upper left (it was highlighted with a blue border).
Then I clicked Edit>Paste. Nothing.
Went back to Preview and clicked Edit>Select All, clicked Edit>Copy again.
Went back to the Get Info panel and made sure the icon image was selected. Clicked Command>V. Nothing.
Something is making what used to be very simple now very difficult. And frustrating.
Would appreciate any more suggestions.
That method does not work for .icns files, the original post is discussing image files such as jpeg, png, tiff etc.
.icns files are not image files.
If you want to do it with .icns files Command-i on the .icns file and make sure the Preview section of the info panel is open.
Command-i on the destination folder. Now simply click, hold and drag the Preview image to the top left icon image in the destination folder info panel.
Not my question ... but yes, it was confusing :) Appreciate your help.
Many thanks Eau Rouge.
Followed your instructions exactly. When I dragged the icns preview to the destination drive image I got the green + indicator, but the image would not change. Amazing.
So it didn't work, works for me though. Can you check the permissions associated with the external drives
whose icons you want to change.
Can't Change Catalina Desktop Icons
