Empty file named "icon?" appearing in folders Ventura

danellem wrote:

I am suddenly seeing an empty file in many folders that is showing as "Icon?" with an older date - around 2020.

Most of the folders I see having this file have a customized icon for the file.

Yes. That's the "Icon?" file.

How do I globally hide these again? I don't want to accidentally delete them. Thank you.

Most likely, you have inadvertently made hidden files visible. Hold down shift-command and type the "." key to re-hide them.

danellem wrote:

I tried opening a folder and doing shift/command/. but nothing changed. I tried highlighting the file, and still nothing.

I tried doing shift/command/. on the desktop, and all the temp word file icons popped up, so I know I am doing it right at least there.

What am I doing wrong?

It doesn't sound like you are doing anything wrong. Somehow those files have become corrupt.

You may be able to fix it on the command line. Open Terminal, navigate to inside one of those folders, and enter the following:

chflags hidden Icon$'\r' 

and press the return key

You'll have to do it for every folder. You must enter it exactly as above.

FIle "Icon?" are everywhere in my MacBook directories - Apple Community