Missing folder icons after macOS Tahoe 26.1 update

Hi, I am the poster who suggested turning off Dropbox in the Systems Software > Log in Items and Extensions>App Background Activity > Dropbox. My problem only began when I updated from Sequoia to Tahoe 26.3. The deselecting Dropbox as above solved the issue and has not resulted in a failure to synch immediately between my devices; ie a change is a file on my 2021 14inch M1 MBk Pro is immediately reflected on my iPad and iPhone. It may be worth trying to see if it works for you, since you can immediately reselect DB if it either it a. Makes no difference re Folders showing or b. Results in DB not syncing anymore. All the best and hope it works for you until Mac/Dropbox sort this annoying problem out.

Hey Guys, I am using OneDrive and I was constantly having this issue. What solved it for me is relaunching the Finder app.

Hold Option + Right Click Finder App on the Dock and select Relaunch and this instantly solved my issue of Folder Icons missing, CPU usage of Finder, WindowServer and fileproviderID tasks became normal and battery drain also reduced.

Now Apple needs to bring in a fix to solve this problem as it is happening with Dropbox for one user and for me with OneDrive.

Same here. Most of Folder icons not showing in Dropbox since updated to Mac OS Tahoe. Solved by going to System Settings > Login Items >Apps which work in backgound > DESELECT Dropbox. Now all Folder icons appear in Dropbox although it takes a few seconds for all to be seen.

rob.whittaker wrote:

Hi, I am the poster who suggested turning off Dropbox in the Systems Software > Log in Items and Extensions>App Background Activity > Dropbox. My problem only began when I updated from Sequoia to Tahoe 26.3. The deselecting Dropbox as above solved the issue and has not resulted in a failure to synch immediately between my devices; ie a change is a file on my 2021 14inch M1 MBk Pro is immediately reflected on my iPad and iPhone. It may be worth trying to see if it works for you, since you can immediately reselect DB if it either it a. Makes no difference re Folders showing or b. Results in DB not syncing anymore. All the best and hope it works for you until Mac/Dropbox sort this annoying problem out.

>System Settings>General >Login Items &Extensions

would this be the Dropbox Finder Extension only...?

Gh0st_Xp5 wrote:

Hey Guys, I am using OneDrive and I was constantly having this issue. What solved it for me is relaunching the Finder app.

Hold Option + Right Click Finder App on the Dock and select Relaunch and this instantly solved my issue of Folder Icons missing, CPU usage of Finder, WindowServer and fileproviderID tasks became normal and battery drain also reduced.

Now Apple needs to bring in a fix to solve this problem as it is happening with Dropbox for one user and for me with OneDrive.

This is an old post...

verify your software is up to date—

The current stable release of Tahoe including bug fixes, security updates is macOS 26.5

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

I am pretty confident the issue appears with folders that have sub-icons, like the cloud sync state icon, alias icon, or other icons that appear in a corner of the folder icon. I've only seen it happen with cloud folders and aliases.

This explains why disabling the dropbox finder extension fixes the issue for dropbox folders; it removes the cloud icons.

Is there a way to disable all these icons? That would likely fix the issue.

Anyways, while it isn't a fatal bug, it's visually ugly, and the reason I chose MacOS is to avoid bugs like this. Tahoe has brought many of them, and I hope they'll be resolved soon. Can't believe this bug has lived for so many months...

26.4.1 corrected this custom folder icon glitch for me after I updated to 26.4.1 on my 2020 27" iMac 3.8 GHz 32 GB memory. And, my custom icons that had been removed were still in the system because almost all were restored after restart on 26.4.1. I tested the old tried and true method of copy paste an icon in a folder's Information window and it works as it used to. Thanks Apple.

Problem seemed to disappear after reboot. Will keep an eye out for recurrence.

Thanks rob.whittaker for this. You have solved the problem for me. Switching cloud services off as background activity AND a reboot solved the disappearing folder icons. Reading the setting pane carefully having background activity on only means apps will continue to do certain tasks if they are not running. But if you are using cloud services like Dropbox of Google then the apps should be running. So changing this setting should not affect cloud syncing. Time will tell!

LouisC14 wrote:

I have just updated my MacBook Pro 2020 to Tahoe 26.1 and some of the folders have lost their icon on the desktop. Does anyone know what has happened? Thanks

while not common, sometimes after a macOS update / upgrade, it can cause custom icons to go away. I have experienced this in the past. that is why I keep my custom icons in a dedicated folder. that way I can just add them back in the same fashion as I did the first time around.

Problem persists on MacOS 26.2. Seems like it only happens on folders which have a "sub-icon". For example when you check "keep download" on a cloud storage folder or create an alias folder, a small icon appears to show either the cloud status icon or the alias icon. I have not yet seen a normal on-disk folder's icon dissappear.

And it only happens with folders, not files.

Wish I had waited with MacOS 26 till it was ready...

Did you assign a custom icon to that folder? If you do a Get Info on such a folder, what icon appears there?

Agreed. The problems lies with cloud folders (files seem to be OK). One poster suggested switching off Dropbox as a background app but that would seem rather to defeat having Dropbox in the first place. I have the same problem with Google Drive folders as well. It's an annoying problem. Find this 'Liquid Glass' design rather unpleasant and it also seems to be causing lots of issue.

Verify your third party app is up to date....(?)

I do not have an issue with Dropbox— but I am not syncing/backing up automatically..on 26.3

Verify your macOS is up to date, current macOS 26.3

I have the same problem. It seems to have something to do with the Cloud Status icon- has only happened with cloud-storage files (and possibly with Aliases). But I have not set a custom icon or given it a tag. If I do Get Info, the icon at the very top bar of the Get Info window shows the correct icon, only that it's glitching in and out (blinking). The icon right below that does not appear. However, the icon in the Preview section of Get Info appears.

The problem is consistent across all forms of Finder; icon does not appear on the Desktop, nor in Finder (list view, column view, gallery view, icon view).