Finder Sidebar Icons Missing

[supaninjax]

For some reason my folder icons in the finder sidebar are all default folder icons. I never changed them. This is a brand new 16" MBP I just received today. If I switch to a different user account the icons show up there fine.

Any idea why the icons such as Desktop, Music, Movies, etc are all missing? I spent a lot of time setting up this user account and don't want to have to do it all again. No idea why all the icons are missing. Even if I change the icon on the folder itself it doesn't change the icon in the finder sidebar

This has been driving me crazy and as far I can tell there is no way to change these icons. The only thing I did was update to 10.15.6 before I noticed this

 

[Taz Mangus]

Try is booting into Safe Mode, login to your user account and see if the issue still happens.

Also try doing a PRAM reset.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

To help determine whether an issue is caused by software that loads as your Mac starts up, you can start up your Mac in safe mode.

support.apple.com

Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

If one or more settings stored in NVRAM don't work as expected on an Intel-based Mac, resetting NVRAM might help.

support.apple.com

 

[mikzn]

have you tried removing one of the affected folders from the side bar and then adding the folder back?

 

[supaninjax]

Try is booting into Safe Mode, login to your user account and see if the issue still happens.

Also try doing a PRAM reset.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

To help determine whether an issue is caused by software that loads as your Mac starts up, you can start up your Mac in safe mode.

support.apple.com

Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

If one or more settings stored in NVRAM don't work as expected on an Intel-based Mac, resetting NVRAM might help.

support.apple.com

Just did both and it didn't fix it
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have you tried removing one of the affected folders from the side bar and then adding the folder back?

Yup even changing the icons on the folder themselves doesn't fix it


So I realized I think it's because I changed the name of the home folder while logged in as a different user (which Apple says to do on one of their support pages). I just wanted the Home folder capitalized but because I did that it removed all the home folder icons. As a test I just tried to do the same thing to a different user account and all the icons disappeared the same way. Is there any way to fix this? Changing the name back does nothing
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I fixed it thanks to this link below. If you capitalize the home folder name you have to make sure it's linked to the user correctly in Users & Groups advanced options. Mine was still set to the uncapitalized home folder. It's fixed now

Custom icons disappeared from folders in Home directory

I reinstalled macOS couple days back, I found that I couldn't have a capitalized user/home folder anymore (Gio became gio). I'm used to having it with a capital. Looked around online for a bit fin...

apple.stackexchange.com

 

[haralds]

I have tried all of these, no luck. Any other ideas?
I have removed all caches and preferences.

 

[Manek43509]

I've been having a similar issue to this… (I was about to start a thread on that asking for help, but the forum suggested I come here instead!)

Home folder stuff like Desktop, Music, Pictures, etc. seem unaffected… But all my hard drives appear as generic folders, not as disks, except the system drive ('Mac Pro'). (Screenshots below of how they appear on the desktop, vs. how they appear in Finder.) Did you have any luck sorting your version of this problem?

 

[synthkeywizard]

But all my hard drives appear as generic folders, not as disks, except the system drive ('Mac Pro').

I have the same issue, still can't find a way to fix it. Anybody can help?

 

[synthkeywizard]

I solved this issue by going to System Preferences → Extensions → Finder Extensions and disabling Finder Extensions. Then relaunch the Finder.
This made the Finder sidebar icons show up as external disks again.

In my case it was Keka extension.

 

[Manek43509]

I solved this issue by going to System Preferences → Extensions → Finder Extensions and disabling Finder Extensions. Then relaunch the Finder.
This made the Finder sidebar icons show up as external disks again.

In my case it was Keka extension.

Interesting! I use Keka on all my Macs, but this issue is only on the Mac Pro (I also have three MacBooks and a Mac Mini, all with Keka installed, which are unaffected by this). But I will try this and see if I get anywhere! Thank you!

 

[Jasonstevens]

Interesting! I use Keka on all my Macs, but this issue is only on the Mac Pro (I also have three MacBooks and a Mac Mini, all with Keka installed, which are unaffected by this). But I will try this and see if I get anywhere! Thank you!

Just jumping in to say that just like the others, Keka turned out to be the cause of the issue for me too.

 

[quattro4ever]

I solved this issue by going to System Preferences → Extensions → Finder Extensions and disabling Finder Extensions. Then relaunch the Finder.
This made the Finder sidebar icons show up as external disks again.

In my case it was Keka extension.

it helped me too,
in my case it was BetterZip extension

 

[Manek43509]

Just jumping in to say that just like the others, Keka turned out to be the cause of the issue for me too.

Yes, Keka was the cause of this for me too. What's weird is that this issue was only happening on my Mac Pro. I have Keka on my MacBook Pro and my MacBook, but this issue did not replicate on either of those machines! But I have disabled the Finder extension on the Mac Pro and I don't have this problem in the sidebar any more.

 

[wernervp]

A have been finding a solution to a similar issue with Boxcryptor. And I also found that Keka is breaking Boxcryptor Finder Extension. So it seems so affect more Extensions. I have logged a bug report with Keka, maybe this can be resolved. https://github.com/aonez/Keka/issues/898

 

[NewYorkRanger]

So I realized I think it's because I changed the name of the home folder while logged in as a different user (which Apple says to do on one of their support pages). I just wanted the Home folder capitalized but because I did that it removed all the home folder icons. As a test I just tried to do the same thing to a different user account and all the icons disappeared the same way. Is there any way to fix this? Changing the name back does nothing
[automerge]1594933405[/automerge]
I fixed it thanks to this link below. If you capitalize the home folder name you have to make sure it's linked to the user correctly in Users & Groups advanced options. Mine was still set to the uncapitalized home folder. It's fixed now

Custom icons disappeared from folders in Home directory

I reinstalled macOS couple days back, I found that I couldn't have a capitalized user/home folder anymore (Gio became gio). I'm used to having it with a capital. Looked around online for a bit fin...

apple.stackexchange.com

Thank you!!!

I just got a new Mac and made the same mistake, home folder was not capalitzed, thought I followed Apple's instructions to change it by setting up new admin, changed name when logged into that account but but some reason, lost all of my icons because I forgot to change the capital in the home directory. This fixed it!

 

[jim-aus]

I have this problem with Montery (12.2.1) as well. BetterZip was the culprit. Thanks for the tip !

 

[Miha_xXx]

I solved this issue by going to System Preferences → Extensions → Finder Extensions and disabling Finder Extensions. Then relaunch the Finder.
This made the Finder sidebar icons show up as external disks again.

I had problem with disks having folder icons, but didn't find there anything except Apple's default options, then I recalled installing WhatsYourSign, which appeared to be "Finder Sync" plugin. Uninstalling it solved the problem.

 

[Johnny Jackhammer]

I solved this issue by going to System Preferences → Extensions → Finder Extensions and disabling Finder Extensions. Then relaunch the Finder.
This made the Finder sidebar icons show up as external disks again.

In my case it was Keka extension.

Thank you for this! I can't imagine how you found this solution, but 2024 and I was having the same problem. Turning off all extensions and when I did some of them crashed the Extensions preference pane. I turned off every extension for every application, relaunched Finder and the issue is resolved.