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Wrong application icons in Spotlight search bar

Hi!


Starting one day when I was using Mountain Lion the icons of few applications of some items were wrong when displayed in the Spotlight search bar. I tried to reset the Spotlight index, removed all drives from the index and restored a backup, but nothing has helped me.


After upgrading to Mavericks nothing has changeds. I did a complete reinstallation without restoring a TM backup, but the icons are wrong again.


This is how it looks like when searching for "Evernote" (which was installed using the OS X App Store):


User uploaded file


And this is how it looks when I selected "Show all in Finder" (this icon is right then)


User uploaded file


Do you have any idea what the problem might be? Is there any way to find out what source Spotlight uses for the displayed icon?


Thank you in advance!

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 28, 2013 1:29 AM

Reply
17 replies

Dec 21, 2013 6:22 PM in response to Germandev

Hi!

I had the exact problem after upgrading to Mavericks today. I also had The Unarchiver ( Vesrion 3.9.1) installed on my system. When I seached for some applcations in spotlight, they displayed Unarchiver's icon. My way of solving this problem was to completely remove the Unarchiver from the system using apps like AppDelete or CleanMyMac. After I removed the Unarchiver and restarted the system, the spotlight reindexed for a while and everthing went back to normal. Hope this solution will work for you as well.

Dec 24, 2013 12:45 PM in response to Tony Hong

Hello,

this same happened to me. I get CrossOver icon.

Not solved yet.


And i'ts combined with spotlight indexing loop. Everytime when I close a lid, indexing process starts over.

I did all steps from here:


"Using Terminal:

I disabled Spotlight indexing:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

I deleted Spotlight index in all my drives (including the backup drives):

sudo rm -rf /.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1 /.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2 /.Spotlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist

I deleted /var/folders content (see this topic to know why): sudo rm -rf /var/folders/*

I rebooted and then I restarted Spotlight:

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

sudo mdutil -i on -E /

I waited until Spotlight finished indexing process"

Dec 24, 2013 3:42 PM in response to stalubalub

WHOA. VERY BAD IDEA. If you want to rebuild the Spotlight index you just need to do this:


sudo mdutil -E /


You should NEVER go deleting folders under /var, and you should not be clobbering the /.Spotlight-V100 folder.


This particular problem could be caused by a corrupt launch services database. To fix that, you can try this command in Terminal:


sudo /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchSe rvices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -seed


That will reset the "launch application" for most files to the default and may fix this issue.

Dec 24, 2013 4:30 PM in response to William Lloyd

yes, I know but I done it before twice or four times, I don't' remember, with any positive result.

Reseting launch applications I made also. Very similar result.


On the beginning of indexing seams like this:

User uploaded file


after a while like this:

User uploaded file


and finally:

User uploaded file


I think it's something wrong with spotlight because every time I close lid and open it again, indexing starts over.


Any other sugesstion?

Dec 27, 2013 3:20 AM in response to stalubalub

I discovered that the source of my problem was the application integration of Parallels Desktop that was activated on a Windows XP VM. When I deactivated the option "Share Windows applications with my Mac" (I am using a German version so the actual English text will likely be different) the problem was gone.


Maybe you are using Parallels Desktop as well? Just check whether this solves your problem like it did for me. 🙂

Mar 19, 2014 12:58 PM in response to Germandev

I'm experiencing the same problem.


I've tried to no avail:

  • Share Windows applications with Mac switched off in Parallel Desktop
  • Permission Repair with Disk Utility
  • sudo mdutil -E /


First time, the correct icon is displayed on Spotlight. Second time, Spotlight show the icon for a header file (.h).


Yes, I have Xcode 5.1 installed on OS X 10.9.2.

Wrong application icons in Spotlight search bar

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