.m4v file icons have become solid white in Finder under iTunes 10.6.3

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Level 3

716 points

.m4v file icons have become solid white in Finder under iTunes 10.6.3

Hi there,

I just discovered this little annoyance... I thought I'd seen the last of it under a prior version of iTunes, but it may have come back.

iTunes video files (.m4v container files) have suddenly defaulted to a plain white icon in the Finder - desktop, folders, etc. - upon updating to iTunes 10.6.3. The generic blue "notes" icon with "M4V" has disappeared, and will not reappear upon attempting to clear out the icon during a Get Info.

Strangely, if "Show icon preview" is checked under Finder's View Options, it will display any associated album art with the .m4v file correctly - it just so happens that something occurred with the default icons.

I rebuilt the Launch Services just in case, and these files by default still open with iTunes as per usual. Checked for corrupt .plist files (even trashed com.apple.finder.plist) and cleared some caches out, ran maintenance scripts, etc. to cover any possible loose ends, but this issue is still present.

I recently upgraded to Lion 10.7.4 (long time SL holdout) but everything was normal under iTunes 10.6.2 - so I cannot determine whether this is a Lion issue or an iTunes issue. I am going to post this in the iTunes forum as well, but has anyone else noticed this recently? If so, what did you do to fix this?

Thanks all,

Steve

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4), Boot Camp 3.1 (Windows 7)

Posted on Jun 15, 2012 10:03 PM

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Answer 1

Sjazbec

Level 4

1,674 points

Jun 15, 2012 11:10 PM in response to Steve A.

all fine with m4v icons as well as others. itunes 10.6,3 + osx 10.7.4 , Finder and elsewhere.

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Answer 2

Steve A. Author

Level 3

716 points

Jun 16, 2012 6:38 AM in response to Sjazbec

Hi Sjazbec,

Even if my folder views are set to Cover Flow (as with your example), if "Show icon preview" is unchecked, the iTunes-associated icon for .m4v files becomes a solid white icon.

Note - this only seems to affect .m4v video files. iTunes .m4a audio files are fine.

Also, I should note that all icons for other applications are fine - .pdf (Preview or Acrobat Reader), .mov (QuickTime X), .xls (Excel), etc.

See attached screenshots - the first shows a Cover Flow view, the second shows Icon view:

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Answer 3

Sjazbec

Level 4

1,674 points

Jun 16, 2012 8:36 AM in response to Steve A.

Hm, that's really strange.

In Finder, my system shows all icons, no matter which view is selected - coverflow,icon view , spatial view.

Are the file associations correct ? Do your m4v files on doubleclick open in itunes ?

This thread here at the forum : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3216412 indicates a similar problem which was solved by deleting finders preferences and a rebuild of the systems launch services.

Instead of "cocktail" for Lion, the same can be achieved with a freeware utility called "onyx", specifically it has a feature to re-set icons and folders to factory default settings. But be careful with these tools and its advanced options .They are really mighty and tinker with the UNIX layer underneath OSX.

Message was edited by: Sjazbec

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Answer 4

Steve A. Author

Level 3

716 points

Jun 16, 2012 8:35 AM in response to Sjazbec

Indeed they do open in iTunes - so I know that it is not a LaunchServices issue.

In your screenshots, I noticed that you have icon previews active for that window.

For the window above you used for your screenshot, can you do "Show View Options" (Command-J) and uncheck the option "Show icon preview" and report the findings? Did the icons default to the expected blue-and-white notes-laden iTunes icon, or plain white as in my case?

Thanks!

Steve

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Answer 5

Sjazbec

Level 4

1,674 points

Jun 16, 2012 8:43 AM in response to Steve A.

Well I can toggle between "icon preview" on and off, with the expected results : off makes it generic icons, on makes the thumbnails visible.. ( notice my updated message above with link to similar "generic icon" problems )

OFF:

ON :

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Answer 6

Steve A. Author

Level 3

716 points

Jun 16, 2012 8:43 AM in response to Sjazbec

I had read that last night - I had went to town with OnyX, clearing system and user caches and rebuilding the LaunchServices DB, but to no avail. Even trashing both the com.apple.finder.plist and com.apple.itunes.plist files had no effect.

In contrast with that user's initial post, though, I did not have corrupted or incorrect icons for .m4v files....... I have no icons. 🙂

Steve

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Answer 7

Sjazbec

Level 4

1,674 points

Jun 16, 2012 8:53 AM in response to Steve A.

Re-installing the itunes package to fix whatever file associations might be worth a shot if the problem did arise after the initial itunes update.

The thing is that Mac OS X ' installer will probably report : Package/App already installed.

There is a shareware tool called "pacifist" which can be used as a alternative Apple package installer. The only way to circumvent this restriction.It will overwrite the installed itunes with the same version files and also set permissions new.

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Answer 8

Steve A. Author

Level 3

716 points

Jun 16, 2012 9:03 AM in response to Sjazbec

Look at your first new screenshot - at the file called "kamerainspektion.m4v" (with the yellow label) without icon previews.... you have it too!!

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Answer 9

Sjazbec

Level 4

1,674 points

Jun 16, 2012 9:18 AM in response to Steve A.

Steve A. wrote:

Look at your first new screenshot - at the file called "kamerainspektion.m4v" (with the yellow label) without icon previews.... you have it too!!

yes. If I set view options to no icon previews it is white, but the solution is to enable icon preview which obviously works. I could also set m4v's to open with Quicktime instead of iTunes, which makes the icon into one of these "mpegxx" logos.

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Answer 10

Steve A. Author

Level 3

716 points

Jun 16, 2012 9:34 AM in response to Sjazbec

That's the point to where I was getting - without icon previews, the default icon for .m4v files should be the following:

(This was just taken from my wife's MacBook Pro, still on iTunes 10.6.2 but running Snow Leopard 10.6.8)

Under Lion (10.7.4) and iTunes 10.6.3, the default icon (no previews) is empty white, which I do not believe should be - I had the above generic icon for .m4v files in Lion under 10.6.2.

Yet iTunes-associated audio files are fine: (from my iMac)

Strange, isn't it??

Steve

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Answer 11

Sjazbec

Level 4

1,674 points

Jun 16, 2012 9:45 AM in response to Steve A.

ok,ok..

Well ok then - itunes makes it "white". Setting the Asociation to QuickTime and MplayerX gives this :

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Answer 12

Steve A. Author

Level 3

716 points

Jun 16, 2012 10:03 AM in response to Sjazbec

Exactly - which means the more things I see come out about it, this now sounds to be more of an iTunes 10.6.3 bug (specifically its relationship with FInder) and less of a Lion issue.

I'm thinking that if this were solely a Finder issue in Lion, the file type .m4v would not have been recognized at all by any application, and the icon would be solid white (i.e. no association) for all. However, as we see above, it does change when you reassociate the file to open with MplayerX (left shot) as well as when you associate to open with QuickTIme X. (right shot)

On my end, I changed the association to open with VLC Player, and the default icon changed accordingly.

I have an identical post for this open in the iTunes for Mac forums (although not to the level of detail as this one) - if enough individuals are experiencing the same thing, perhaps it is worthy of a bug report submission to Apple software engineers.

Steve

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Answer 13

Sjazbec

Level 4

1,674 points

Jun 16, 2012 10:31 AM in response to Steve A.

Steve A. wrote:

Exactly - which means the more things I see come out about it, this now sounds to be more of an iTunes 10.6.3 bug (specifically its relationship with FInder) and less of a Lion issue.

........

On my end, I changed the association to open with VLC Player, and the default icon changed accordingly.

...if enough individuals are experiencing the same thing, perhaps it is worthy of a bug report submission to Apple software engineers.

Steve

Hi Steve,

this makes sense and is also a reproduceable behaviour, you are right : All third party apps and QT switch the icon - only itunes does not.

so Apple should know it, yes. Luckily itunes is often updated :-)

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Answer 14

ruimac

Level 1

10 points

Jul 16, 2012 12:22 AM in response to Sjazbec

I have the same issue too (Lion 10.7.4 and lates itunes 10.6.3). Without showing icon preview all m4v icons are now generic (white icon). A bit annoying.

Additionally, even with icon preview on, one m4v file is not able to generate a preview. Very odd.

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