Can anyone tell me what type of file were icons in the past?

[blackxacto]

In my continuing search for resolution, I am trying to give my external hard drives different desktop icons. I have several from earlier Mac systems. What type of file are they? Catalina (Apple+I) says they are a folder w two items, but they have no file type, nor does Photoshop recognize these icons.

Does anyone know how to edit the icons?

Does anyone know how to get them on external disks? I had NO ISSUE getting the icon on my internal drive. But (Apple+I) external drives are impenetrable. And turning OFF SIP does not effect this, I tried.

 

[Taz Mangus]

I have many external hard drives which I have been able to set the icon. I am wondering if there is some software/firwmare on the external hard drive which is preventing you from changing the icon on the drive.

Open your internal drive (that you changed the icon) in finder. Press command-key shift-key period-key (this is a hidden toggle on/off key sequence). This will display the hidden files. You may see a file named .VolumeIcon (may have the extension .icns). Double-click on the file and it will bring up into the Preview app. You should see something like this in Preview:

In Preview select View->Thumbnails to show the side thumbnails. Select the first thumbnail and press command-key I-key. This will show you info on the first thumbnail:

There is a free Mac App Store app called iConvert Icons which will allow you to create an icon from a jpeg image. I have used that app to create my own icons that I have used. It still seems to work fine in Catalina.

‎iConvert Icons

‎Creating your own custom icons for your desktop and mobile apps just got easier! iConvert Icons is now the easiest way to create and convert icons from almost any format. With it's unique auto-detection feature, you can simply drop images, apps, folders with custom icons, and of course other...

apps.apple.com

 

[casperes1996]

I have many external hard drives which I have been able to set the icon. I am wondering if there is some software/firwmare on the external hard drive which is preventing you from changing the icon on the drive.

Maybe it's about the file system? What file system do you use on your external disks. I've never tried changing the icon on non-HFS+ or APFS volumes, so maybe macOS doesn't want to set custom .icns files on something like exFAT?

 

[Taz Mangus]

Maybe it's about the file system? What file system do you use on your external disks. I've never tried changing the icon on non-HFS+ or APFS volumes, so maybe macOS doesn't want to set custom .icns files on something like exFAT?

My external drives are HFS+. I have managed to change the icons on both APFS and HFS+ filesystems. I have not tried changing the icon on a ExFAT type drive as I don't use that filesystem.

EDIT: I just tried changing the icon on a FAT and ExFAT formatted drive and on both I had no issue changing the drive icon.

 

[blackxacto]

The externals are all APFS. I erased the external drive today and made HFS+, then opened CCC5 to backup my main internal SSD. CC5 reformats the disk to match my internal APSF SSD format, then backs up my internal SSD. Afterwards, i hve no joy changing the external icon, BUT will try the suggestions above. thank you for your responses.

 

[blackxacto]

Bought $9.99 iConvert iCon app. Maybe I don't understand how to use it, but I still cannot change the icon on the external backup disk. I'm not sure what to do with the icon I make. I still cannot apple+I and change the old icon for the one I made. REMEMBER: its a backup. I turned FileVault on by booting from the external drive. Is that why it is resisting any icon change in APFS.

How are all the people changing all their icons? I can't change any external backup disk icons.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Bought $9.99 iConvert iCon app. Maybe I don't understand how to use it, but I still cannot change the icon on the external backup disk. I'm not sure what to do with the icon I make. I still cannot apple+I and change the old icon for the one I made. REMEMBER: its a backup. I turned FileVault on by booting from the external drive. Is that why it is resisting any icon change in APFS.

How are all the people changing all their icons? I can't change any external backup disk icons.

If you open the backup drive in finder and you press command-key shift-key period-key what you you see. Can you post a picture of what is shown in finder.

As far as iConvert iCon is concerned, you can request a refund from Apple for it. I remember it being free when I first got it. I apologize for that.

Request a refund for apps or content that you bought from Apple - Apple Support

Some purchases from the App Store, iTunes Store, Apple Books, or other Apple services might be eligible for a refund. You can use any device with a web browser to request a refund.

support.apple.com

 

[joevt]

A Custom volume icon is stored in an invisible .icns file named ".VolumeIcon.icns" in the root directory of a volume. The contents have the same format as an icns resource.

A custom folder icon is stored in an invisible file called "Icon?" with a resource fork containing an icns resource. Actually, the last character of the file "?" is a wild card character in the Terminal.app. The actual character is a carriage return (used in classic Mac OS in text files).

Show invisible files using Command-Shift-Period in the Finder.

The normal way to change an icon of a volume or folder is to click the icon in the Get Info window in the Finder and use Command-V to paste a new image. This creates the ".VolumeIcon.icns" or "Icon?" file and sets a flag that says the folder or icon has a custom icon.

You can convert a folder icon to an icns file with the following command:
derez -only "'icns' (-16455)" Icon? | sed -nE '/[^"]*"([^"]+).*/s//\1/p' | xxd -p -r > Icon.icns
Then open it in Preview.app to view the individual icon sizes and formats.

Different macOS versions may include different icon sizes/formats in an icns. Some of these may not be compatible with other macOS versions. For example jpeg compressed icons are no longer compatible in Catalina. Another example: the Startup Manager (hold option key at startup) of my Mac Pro 2008 expects it32 type icons but Catalina doesn't create that type automatically. There are utilities to convert and create these types.

 

[blackxacto]

Here is Finder w invisibles turned on.
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A Custom volume icon is stored in an invisible .icns file named ".VolumeIcon.icns" in the root directory of a volume. The contents have the same format as an icns resource.

A custom folder icon is stored in an invisible file called "Icon?" with a resource fork containing an icns resource. Actually, the last character of the file "?" is a wild card character in the Terminal.app. The actual character is a carriage return (used in classic Mac OS in text files).

Show invisible files using Command-Shift-Period in the Finder.

The normal way to change an icon of a volume or folder is to click the icon in the Get Info window in the Finder and use Command-V to paste a new image. This creates the ".VolumeIcon.icns" or "Icon?" file and sets a flag that says the folder or icon has a custom icon.

You can convert a folder icon to an icns file with the following command:
derez -only "'icns' (-16455)" Icon? | sed -nE '/[^"]*"([^"]+).*/s//\1/p' | xxd -p -r > Icon.icns
Then open it in Preview.app to view the individual icon sizes and formats.

Different macOS versions may include different icon sizes/formats in an icns. Some of these may not be compatible with other macOS versions. For example jpeg compressed icons are no longer compatible in Catalina. Another example: the Startup Manager (hold option key at startup) of my Mac Pro 2008 expects itl8 type icons but Catalina doesn't create that type automatically. There are utilities to convert and create these types.

That great, but if you read above, the apple+I does nothing.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Here is Finder w invisibles turned on.
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That great, but if you read above, the apple+I does nothing.

Try renaming the file .VolumeIcon.icn to .VolumeIcon.icns. For some reason it is missing an "s" on the end of the extension. To rename the file, right-click on .VolumeIcon.icn, select Show Original. That will take to where the actual file resides. Now you can rename it.

 

[blackxacto]

I’m going to reformat the drive again. Then without backing up, try changing the icon.
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Taz, again, wiped the external disk as extended journaled. Apple+I, unlock drive, drag icon to top info icon window. Both icons on this menu immediately change to the newly applied icon. I dont get it. Maybe its FileVault encryption of the backup effected the main icon. I dont know. Taz, i appreciate your help tonite. I still do not know why a bootable encrypted backup can‘t change the drive icon in Catalina?

 

[blackxacto]

Look at this stupid icon happening! the external backup disk "BuffaloBill" has three different icons in finder windows. WTF? Is anyone else seeing this in their disk icons?

 

[Taz Mangus]

Look at this stupid icon happening! the external backup disk "BuffaloBill" has three different icons in finder windows. WTF? Is anyone else seeing this in their disk icons?

That looks like partitions possibility. Can you open Disk Utility and post a picture of the info on View->Show All Devices.

 

[blackxacto]

All devices shown

 

[Taz Mangus]

I see what you are referring to now. Yes, there seems to be 3 different icons associated with the drive. This only happens when you create a bootable clone?

 

[blackxacto]

Yes, its a bootable clone made in backup by CCC5. so why three icons? Its a clone, right?

 

[Taz Mangus]

Yes, its a bootable clone made in backup by CCC5. so why three icons? Its a clone, right?

It appears that CCC is assigning its own icon on one of the volumes, the icon showing the creeping red. The other 2, I would guess is one on the physical device media which is probably the yellow drive icon and the other on the container and the first volume named BuffaloBill which is the default drive icon assigned by macOS Catalina.

 

[blackxacto]

the creepy icon was applied by me that somehow "took", but in the other menu's there are two icons. Why can't my drive have one icon that is revealed in ALL menus.

 

[Taz Mangus]

the creepy icon was applied by me that somehow "took", but in the other menu's there are two icons. Why can't my drive have one icon that is revealed in ALL menus.

I suspect that the creepy icon you set, was set on the Buffalo Bill - Data volume and that is why the icon does not show up as the mounted device icon. You can verify which icon is on which part in Disk Utility by clicking on each kind and on the right side (where the info is shown) it will show you the associate icon.

Out of curiosity, open finder on BuffaloBill, press command-key shift-key period-key and see if there is a .VolumeIcon.icns file. If there is double click on it and see what it shows in Preview.

 

[Taz Mangus]

I noticed that when I set the icon for the mounted Desktop device, only the read-only volume (Macintosh HD) icon was being set. I tried changing the icon on the read/write volume (Macintosh HD - Data) and that caused the read-only volume icon to be removed and also removed the icon the on the read/write volume. I then tried to set the icon on the mounted Desktop device again and it ended up setting the icon on both the read-only and the read/write volumes. Very interesting. Maybe try doing that and see if it works for you.

You find where the read/write volume icon is from Disk Utility, select the BuffaloBill - Data volume, click on File->Show in Finder. This will bring up a finder window to BuffaloBill - Data, pressing command-key i-key, copy and paste the icon.

 

[allan.nyholm]

What's wrong with using LiteIcon instead of all this? I get that the question requires answers, but if there's isn't one - use a free app that's made for changing drive icons on modern macOS

 

[blackxacto]

What's wrong with using LiteIcon instead of all this? I get that the question requires answers, but if there's isn't one - use a free app that's made for changing drive icons on modern macOS

Here's the reason no one can make a cloned Catalina BOOTABLE ENCRYPTED backup external disks AND change their icon using anything, even FREE icon changers everyone seems so hot to use:

From Bombich Software notes June 2020:

Finder will not show, nor allow you to set custom icons on other Catalina startup disks
Finder will show and allow you to customize the volume icon for your current startup disk, but not for other Catalina-bearing startup disks that your Mac is not currently booted from. This problem is not specific to CCC backups, but we see this frequently because CCC is designed to create bootable backups. This problem is the result of a design flaw in the implementation of custom icons in an APFS volume group. Up to macOS Catalina, the custom volume icon is stored in a file at the root of the startup disk named ".VolumeIcon.icns". To keep the System volume read-only, yet allow the apparent modification of this icon file, Apple chose to create a symbolic link at the root of the startup disk that points System/Volumes/Data/.VolumeIcon.icns. For the current startup disk, this path resolves correctly because the Data member of the volume group is mounted at /System/Volumes/Data. That's not the case for external volumes, those Data volumes are mounted at /Volumes/CCC Backup - Data (for example). As a result, the symbolic link to .VolumeIcon.icns is unresolvable for any volume that is not the current startup disk.

We have reported this issue to Apple (FB7697349) and we are currently awaiting a response.

___________

I appreciate Taz's help in the past two days. Thank you.

 

[joevt]

If the problem is the symbolic link (which you showed in the screenshot of #9 and #10 where the .VolumeIcon.icns file has an arrow badge), can't the symbolic link be replaced with the actual icns? Bypass the Finder and use Terminal.app commands to do the replacement. For example, sudo cp to do the copy.

 

[blackxacto]

Apparently Apple did not provide the same access point for the icons on CLONED BOOTABLE ENCRYPTED Catalina external drive. It works fine as long as the disk is ONLY DATA and not bootable.

 

[Taz Mangus]

I appreciate Taz's help in the past two days. Thank you.

You are quite welcome. And I learned something new today about how icons are stored using a symbolic link which I now realize as I was not paying attention to the fact that there was a little arrow new to the .VolumeIcon.icns file.
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If the problem is the symbolic link (which you showed in the screenshot of #9 and #10 where the .VolumeIcon.icns file has an arrow badge), can't the symbolic link be replaced with the actual icns? Bypass the Finder and use Terminal.app commands to do the replacement. For example, sudo cp to do the copy.

Apparently Apple did not provide the same access point for the icons on CLONED BOOTABLE ENCRYPTED Catalina external drive. It works fine as long as the disk is ONLY DATA and not bootable.

@joevt has a good point. Could you remove the symbolic link file and replace it with the actual icon file? It might be worth a try.