Can't change folder icon for an alias on Mavericks

Not only am I having the same problem, when I try to change the icon on my alias, the whole folder just disappears off the desktop. So then I changed the icon picture on the alias in the original location. I can see the icon change listed in the Finder, but when I copy the alias to my desktop, it changes back to the folder.

This is SUPER annoying, since I use special icons for most of my shortcuts, as I'm working from three different servers. None of the solutions here work, either, unfortunately.

worked for me thanks bro

Still the problem remains in Yosemite

If you change the icon in the alias's info window, and it doesn't update when you close the info window, simply make an alias of that alias, and the new icon will appear as expected. Now delete the alias with the bad icon, as the alias you made from it, is actually an alias of the original folder. Done and done.

Okay, here's what I want. In the past, you could just do the whole "get info" thing, get a graphic, paste it to the icon and BAM, you had a new icon. You didn't have to copy and paste and rename and all this shazzam.

Most of my shortcuts are to network files that other people access. So...right now I change the icon of the original item, make the alias, put the alias on my desktop and then go back and revert the original file to its original icon. It's a pain, right? But there's STILL this problem where now if I make an alias of the file with the new icon, it reverts to the OLD custom icon, as was mentioned here. So...NOW not only do I have to take the multiple steps to get my alias with the right icon but I also have to rename the file and then hope the icon shows up after I reboot?

Ain't nobody got time for that!

On a positive note, at least the folders aren't disappearing anymore...

Renaming the alias is the only thing that helps.

Where aliases keep their icons relations? .DS_Store is definitely not a place.

Normal folder has a file Icon? which store the Icon but it is not a case for aliases.

Any ideas?

Thank you, Bruno.! Finally a solution to this! Was driving me crazy. The alias folder icon used to be able to be changed easily and now I have to do this renaming of the alias to get the icon to appear. Thank you for the solution, even though it's definitely something Apple should fix. It USED to work.

Found this while googling> http://macosx.com/threads/sigh-now-what-changing-alias-file-icons-with-get-info- in-mavericks.322475/

Assign an alias a custom icon using Get Info.

Exit Get Info. (You see that the alias icon is not changed)

Compress the alias using the Rigth-Click menu by selecting Compress from the menu.

Double-Click on the newly created zip file, and the file appears on the screen with the custom icon.

Credit goes to Atomic Fusion for the answer! 🙂

This didn't work for me..I make an alias from a folder that already has the ICON I want....and it' wont' change the icon in the finder..The icon I want is in the GET INFO only!!!

Bruno. wrote:

In my case, if I delete the alias and make a new one elsewhere, the alias gets the new icon, but if I put the remade alias in the same folder and I name it as the old alias, the old alias icon will be shown instead of the new one. You may not see it right away, but most probably after the finder is restarted (or reboot, or relogin).

So far, I have two simple ways to get around this bug (but still annoying). (1) If the original icon has changed and I want the alias to show the new icon, I remake the alias and rename it to a differnt name from the original alias. To simplify things, I just add a space at the end of the alias name, so the displayed name is still the same, but any other changed alias name will work. (2) If I want to change only the icon of the alias (which would then be different from the original), I paste the new image in the information window of the alias (at the top left corner), then I rename the alias. Both methods will not show the result immediately, but will eventually after some finder windows are closed and reopened later. To see the result quicker, just relaunch the Finder (in the Apple menu, choose force quit, then select Finder and click the relaunch button).

I used the method you describe here or remaking the alias after icon change then renaming the alias to something different to previous alias. The icon then update son the alias.

Not sure how this works, but it fixed it for me too. Thanks.

I'm going to quote swulfson, because their solution was super-easy: "I had this problem too - but I solved it - The original folder had the icon that I wanted, but the alias did not. I just made an alias of the alias folder - and Voilà there was the alias folder with the correct icon."

I will add you can safely delete the first alias and use the 2nd one. And rename it if you wish.

You need to check out this tutorial on how to turn off that annoying auto-folder icon thing that happens everytime you want to GET INFO and paste.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMyE8d7is0M

unbelievable but true !!

just dit it now with sierra 10.12.1 and it works

@apple : these posts are from 2013 and we still have this issue (nov 2016) !!!

don't you think that make an alias of an alias is such an idiot thing to do to sort this out ?????

Thanks! #1 option is quick and easy and it works in Sierra 10.12.1 also!