Cannot change external hard drive icon

I have the same problem,

Here is some more info to avoid anyone asking unnecessary questions.

I have 3 external drives

two of them with Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) format (usb3 and thunderbolt)

the third one usb2 with an ExFAT format.

I'm having icon change problem with the ExFAT one.

the first time I tried, it changed but couldn't change it again. whatever icon re-applied showed the initial icon only.

so I removed the icon from info by the cut command, deleted '.VolumeIcon.icns', changed the drive name

unmounted and remounted, now the default icon is not changing at all.

One strange thing which I think might have relation to the problem is that Parallels Desktop shows the drive as 'Read Only', which it is not and says 'You can read and write' on the info and I can read and write.

Usually opening a png file with alpha in preview and copying it and pasting the clipboard to the drive info icon area works, however, this problem might have to do with how 10.10.5 deals with ExFAT formats.

I really hope someone can find a solution to this problem.

I am using a full spec Mac Pro and using it for music production so I'm really not interested in upgrading the OS, which is unnecessary and causes many software incompatibility problems

anyways I just changed the drive name to something else again and it fixed the problem while I was writing this post.

renaming changes the drive icon. the initial name shows the wrong icon, the new name shows the new icon.

It's crazy, well, I came up with a new meaningful name for the drive so I'll live with a NEW name for the sake of the correct icon. It's really stupid. I'm really amazed OSX still having stupid bugs like this...

I hope this helps someone.

One of the tools I user for creating icons from images is the aptly named Image2icon. It can create an icon from just about any image, and attached it to disk, folders, etc. The paid version is needed for automatically applying an icon to a drive, but you can just as easily use the app to attach an icon to a folder which it does for free. You can then just copy past that icon on to a drive.

Image2icon: Tom's Mac Software Pick

If you already have an icns you should be able to simply drag the icns file onto the disk thumbnail (in the Get Info window) to apply the icon.

Tom

You should be able to copy paste the image into a folder or disks thumbnail representation when the items Get Info window is open. This hasn't changed in years. (see the link Personalize Your Mac by Changing Desktop Icons for details)

The advantage of using an icon creation app is that you will have a complete icon set, that is the icon will included all the various sizes likely to be used by your Mac, from 16x16 all the way up to 1024x1024 at 144 DPI. You won't get that from the simple copy/past of a JPEG.

Tom

OMG! you have no idea how helpful this was I felt like I was losing my mind copy + pasting from the preview and nothing worked.

I used your fix of changing the name but I also had to eject my HDD and plug it back in before I saw the change.

THANKYOU!

Have you tried this method?

Personalize Your Mac by Changing Desktop Icons

Tom

So...

What is the image you are using? is it a jpg, png, ico, icns, apple icon image?

Is it just a picture in a standard graphic format, or has it been made into an icon format already?

Tom

I am having this same issue. Have you found a way to fix it?

I've always been able to use jpeg images in the past for icons. Is this something new? I just upgraded to a new imac, but have been using macs for 10 years. There has to be a way to do this without using a downloaded application...?

Right, I should be able to, is the key phrase. But, just like the poster of this thread, I was having the exact same issue. When I paste, or drag and drop, my jpeg file onto the disk icon, under get info, all I get is an icon of the jpeg file image...not the picture.

Luckily, I figured out what I was doing wrong. I was copying the file associated with the photo. Instead, what I should have been doing was opening up the photo in preview and copying it from there. It was a silly mistake for sure, but clearly I was not the only one making it. Hopefully this saves some time for people that might be having the same issue, that also have no interest in using outside software to accomplish something that should be simple.

You say the second partition is "soon to be Windows." Once the OS is installed and you can boot up with that partition, then boot into the Windows OS and try changing the drive icon from there.

I have Mac OS X as my main OS and I tried to change the icon for my Yosemite partition. I had to boot into Yosemite and change the icon there. The change was accepted and appeared back on my Mac OS X.

You should use this software called CandyBar. It specialises in changing icons for everything on a Mac.

I have this same problem. It seems to be only the EXTERNAL drives that are giving trouble.

all you need to do is get info on the disk. Cut the icon. Close the window. Get info again and then paste the icns file on there. Worked for me.