Can't change folder icons

The following worked for me:

1. Open the graphic file that you want to use for the folder icon in Preview.

2. In Previews menu click on Edit/Select All.

3. In Previews menu click on Edit/Copy.

4. In the Finder do a Get Info for the folder you want to change.

5. In the Get Info window click on the folder icon in the upper left.

6. With the icon hilighted Click on Edit/Paste.

You may need to do a Finder relaunch to make the change visible in Finders Icon view. (Command-Option-Escape and Relaunch Finder)

Dan

His problem doesn't appear on how to change the icon via get info window but why it isn't working for him.

But upon rereading the original post would the original poster please confirm if he did the following since the post is somewhat ambigious:

1. Get info on the source folder.

2. Click on the icon in the upper left and do a copy operation (cmd-c).

3. Get info on the destination folder.

4. Click on its icon in the upper left and do a paste operation (cmd-v).

Changing the icon of a folder should make no difference; but sometimes the old icon is protected and you cannot overwrite the old icon.

I would suggest that you delete the old, stubborn icons of your folders using the Terminal, that helped me when I had a similar probem.

To delete an icon:

• Activate the Terminal.app, located in Applications/Utilities
• In the Terminal window type

cd (hit the spacebar, and don't enter return)

• now drag one of your folders that needs changing its icon directly into the Terminal window and hit the return key.
• Type "ls -aix", enter return, this will show you the files in the folder and the protection codes. At the top of the list should appear a file named "Icon...".
• Type

sudo rm Ico* (enter return, and enter your admin password)

Any old icon now should be cleared, and then try again to replace the icon.

Your Terminal window should look like this, assuming you are deleting the icon of a folder called "testicon":

(look only at the lower half of the window)

Good Luck

Léonie

"No such file or directory" message.

Kate, that's a typo: From your screenshot I see that you typed "sudo rm lco*", with the lower case letter "el" as the first letter of "Ico*", it should have been the uppercase letter "I", the first letter of the word "Icon". It is pity that the default font of the text window does not distinguish clearly between these letters. Look again at the screenshot I posted.

Good Luck

Léonie

You are welcome. Enjoy your icons.

I tried this and it still doesn't seem to work 😟 This is what I did in Terminal ...

Last login: Thu Feb 7 12:59:51 on ttys000

Sherridan-Leighs-MacBook-Pro:~ sherridanleigh$ cd /Users/sherridanleigh/Desktop/TAX

Sherridan-Leighs-MacBook-Pro:TAX sherridanleigh$ ls -aix

7354030 .

371596 ..

7354202 .DS_Store

7354176 479786_478117098918231_962182340_n.png

7354278 479786_478117098918231_962182340_n.tiff

7356504 Icon?

7347016 Tax Spreadsheet 2010-2011.xlsx

Sherridan-Leighs-MacBook-Pro:TAX sherridanleigh$ sudo rm Ico*

Password:

Sherridan-Leighs-MacBook-Pro:TAX sherridanleigh$

Awesome. Thanks for this. Solved my problem.

I went ahead and created a username and all that on here just so I could tell you THANK YOU!!!!

My problem is solved by this way:

I actually tried it the way you explained and it worked. After that I started messing around and found out an even easier way No need to change the extension just open the icon using preview (you might have to right click on the icon, go to 'open with' and find 'preview'). Once it opens you will have a bunch of images. Select the largest one from the right panel and copy it.

Then just right click the icon you wish to change and click 'get info'. Click the little image in the upper left hand corner (just below the close button at the top) and past ur new icon image in

Enjoy