Geelong Mac
Level 1 (17 points)
Mac OS X

Q: Time Machine shows wrong icon on Desktop

My Time Machine desktop icon shows as an orange USB drive icon instead of the green TM icon. Get Info, System Prefs and Finder views (except for the desktop icon) show the correct icon. Copy/Pasting from the icon in Get Info doesn't work. How to fix this?

[El Capitan 10.11.5 but also previously in Yosemite]

VIN,iMac (27-inch Late 2009), OS X El Capitan (10.11.5), 12GB RAM

Posted on Jun 28, 2016 11:55 PM

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Geelong Mac

Q: Time Machine shows wrong icon on Desktop

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  • Helpful answers

  • by chroot,Helpful

    chroot chroot Jun 29, 2016 5:03 PM in response to Geelong Mac
    Level 4 (1,099 points)
    Jun 29, 2016 5:03 PM in response to Geelong Mac

    In the menu bar select Finder -> Preferences.  Uncheck then check External Disks.  If it still shows the incorrect icon test in safe mode and a new user.

     

    OS X El Capitan: Start up in safe mode

     

    How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support

  • by John Lockwood,

    John Lockwood John Lockwood Jun 29, 2016 3:23 AM in response to Geelong Mac
    Level 6 (9,411 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Jun 29, 2016 3:23 AM in response to Geelong Mac

    I have seen this from time to time and it does not prevent Time Machine working. I have also seen this initially when adding a new Time Machine destination and that after the first backup has run the icon will change to the expected Time Machine icon.

  • by Geelong Mac,

    Geelong Mac Geelong Mac Jun 29, 2016 5:19 PM in response to chroot
    Level 1 (17 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 29, 2016 5:19 PM in response to chroot

    Good ideas, thanks, but unproductive I'm afraid. Tried using Safe Boot in both my main account and an almost-virgin second account, as well as normal boot in both. The only thing that changed was that in the second account with safe boot, when the restart occurred with the Get Info panel for the TM drive open, I saw the TM drive icon in Get Info > Preview flash the correct green icon just briefly, after which the orange icon appeared. All further test results showed the orange icon in all locations except System Preferences > Time Machine. That was last night.

    After an overnight shutdown, a normal boot into the normal account, Get Info shows the correct small and large green icons, but still the TM disk's desktop icon is the orange one.

    Incidentally, when the orange icon is showing, it doesn't have the expected USB logo -- the orange area is featureless.

    This isn't a matter of life and death, but there should be a solution somewhere.

  • by Geelong Mac,

    Geelong Mac Geelong Mac Jun 29, 2016 5:22 PM in response to John Lockwood
    Level 1 (17 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 29, 2016 5:22 PM in response to John Lockwood

    Thanks John, but the situation you describe does not apply here. See my reply to chroot

  • by leroydouglas,

    leroydouglas leroydouglas Jun 29, 2016 8:17 PM in response to Geelong Mac
    Level 7 (24,133 points)
    Notebooks
    Jun 29, 2016 8:17 PM in response to Geelong Mac

    It truly is not a big deal.  The TM icon can come and go for no rhyme or reason.

     

    If it bugs you click on the drive on your desktop, command i opens the info pane.

     

    the TM icon pix below (drag it to your desktop if necessary)   open it, select all (command a), copy then paste the TM icon into the info pane by Highlight the icon in the info pane so it shows a blue border and paste the image.

     

    here it is:

    time_6.png