iconservicesagent OS Mojave issue

@13rendan

I've been having this issue (iconservicesagent) with an external hard drive. I know the Volume name, but I'm a bit of a amateur when it comes to Terminal. Any idea how I could apply this command to the external hard drive in question? Thanks!

Thank you for the reply! Very helpful.

Are you saying OS Catalina has solved the iconservicesagent issue? Isn't a public release imminent? (I know the Beta is available). Maybe I should just wait? Thanks!

Yes, yes :-) macOS Catalina solved the iconservicesagent issues. I suggest you to register to Apple site for the Beta Pubblic testers, to enroll your Mac and to install Catalina. Today Apple released the Beta 6. Bye :-)

But……make sure you have no 32 bit apps still in use as Catalina purges all backward compatibility so you will find a bunch of stuff that no longer works. In my case old copies of Adobe PDF Pro and other adobe products pre the subscription model that has no appeal an dis far to expensive for my world

One other approach that works:

1) Copy the directories with the offending custom icons to a non-Mac formatted drive (I used an exFAT SSD).

2) Replace the original directories with the ones you copied to the non-Mac formatted drive.

That's it. All custom icons get ditched in the process.

Let me also express my utter despair that this Mojave OS has destroyed a wonderfully helpful part of my daily workflow- recognizing files by their custom icons. The ability to make these customizations lead me to Apple in the first place. That Apple now tanks my computer (iconserviceagent) through the very reason I began using their OS sends a telling message.

I use Path Finder which has an option to temporarily deactivate the custom icons in a folder full of files then restore them whenever you want. I’ve deactivated my 2000 custom icons and will reactivate them when I upgrade to macOS Catalina.

Had the same problem and by process of elimination I tracked it to a particular file which, when I got rid of it, solved everything. In my case it was a Veracrypt file. It did not have a custom icon or anything like that, but for some reason it triggered massive use of iconservicesagent every time I had a window open for the disk that contained the file. The only way to accomplish anything at that point was to constantly select and force quit iconservicesagent using Activity Monitor which would give me a few seconds to act before the cursor went back to spinning beach ball in the next attack.

Well, not that Apple has released macOS 10.15 Catalina, I'm allowed to report that it has fixed this issue, without Apple removing the post.

As of the last version of 10.14.6 Mohave (supplemental update 2), iconservicesagent is still broken. This means Mohave is a complete dud, unusable in the long term for anyone having this issue. It's shame though, because I'm really going to miss Dashboard, and would have probably stayed on Mohave for a long time to avoid giving up my widgets.

Anyway, Apple opted to fix iconservicesagent in 10.15 instead of trying to fix it in 10.14. What crap show that is.

OK, I understand. I'm very sad to read this. I cant't give up Mojave because my other old apps.

Thank you very much for this (bad) news. For me this are increasing signs of a decline in the quality of Apple.

Question:

What's about encrypted disk images? No more probs with Catalina? Iconserviceagent has big problems with this images...

Dear friends RickKarrer and iPille,

unfortunately now the lines of the system code are millions of millions; devices and operating systems have increased (macOS, iOS, tvOS, watchOS and now iPadOS) and perfect results will be difficult to achieve.

I suggest to upgrade to macOS 10.15 Catalina. I've already updated, like Beta Tester and I'm very happy to have done it.

OT:

However, you're right in part, as some malfunctions are serious if they belong to basic functions, such as Finder.

So! Eg, I have sent a lot of feedback to Apple to improve the horrendous appearance of the Mail.app Preferences panels that are no longer resizable and therefore, for example, truncates the names of the many custom Accounts I use and so on...

I'm also trying to make Apple understand that it can't have a serious Operating System without the chance for the User to choosing a background image of the Lookscreen, different from the Desktop wallpaper! In many cases, in fact, the only choice that MacOS allow, let the profiling of the User!!!... For example, in a Mac leaved in Stop mode into a Library, a School, University and College, at Work, etc., if the owner has left the device some moment (eg. to go to the bathroom), just touch a key of the Mac and even if the password is requested appears, however everyone can see the active wallpaper at that time and could be a very personal image. An operating system must be robust because it is not a toy and even Winzozz (ehm... Windows) allows you to have a different screen image.

Unfortunately, upgrading isn't an option for everyone. My 2010 Mac Pro isn't supported (though I plan to install it with the patch tool, since Apple hasn't offered a properly upgrade path since 2012, and the next Mac Pro isn't out yet, nor will it be in my price range for the next few years), Dashboard is removed, and 32-bit apps are no more. For most people, this won't be an issue, but for some, 10.14 is the last system they'll be able to use for the nest few years. It's just a shame they weren't able to fix it. They're in the stop 2-3 software companies on the planet, it definitely seems doable if they wanted to get it done.

You are definitely right! Mojave's IconServicesAgent is a bad process. :-( However, fortunately Catalina works perfectly both in my powerful 27" BTO (last 2013) and in my MacBook Pro 13" (mid 2010) with the excellent Catalina patcher; it works better than High Sierra and Mojave :-)

I3renden - Does your solution work if the movie files are in individual folders? If not, can you point me to how to extend it to check each file inside a folder?

Yes it should hit all folders inside of the main folder you reference in the command (in my case "~/Movies").

This process is a real showstopper. It renders my Mac literally useless. Video stutters, freezes, Finder freezes. Only hard reset is a solution. This is 10.14.3