Resolved How to remove alias badge in Catalina 10.15.4 and 10.15.5

[scoble2]

EDIT: I have confirmed as well as @haeskone that this does work on 10.15.5, I had trouble with the root user way as it did not allow me to save to file. I believe you still need to mount the drive as root.

Good News everyone. I was able to figure out how to remove alias badges and will post how I removed them below. I had original commented in original thread but figured it may get more attention in its own thread and maybe Google will pick it up better. I got this to work on a 2018 15" Macbook Pro running 10.15.4/5. (Just updated from 10.14 so I was not able to test it on older versions of 10.15) I assume this can only be done in an admin user.

* This may be technical for some. I made it as simple as possible but requires terminal commands and this requires you to temporarily disable very important safety systems built into Mac OS. Doing something wrong or deleting the wrong file could cause you computer to become corrupt, damgaged, or some other nasty thing I did not think of. As always, do a backup via Time Machine just in case a full install is needed.* *****Continue at your own risk.****

1. First of all you will have to disable SIP (System Integrity Protection) This is only temporary and will be re-enabled when done. Continue at your own risk. (There is another way that is safer which I will also include)

• Restart your Mac and hold Command + R at restart to launch into Recovery Mode
• Type in your firmware password. (if you do not have one, create one as well by following these instructions. May not be a requirement as much anymore since you will still need to know your user password but better safe than sorry)
• Select an admin user and type in the password for the user.
• When in Recovery Mode go to Utilities - Terminal and type csrutil disable; reboot

1.5. Create a root user to avoid disabling SIP. (skip if you disabled SIP

• Create a root user following this website guide. This is a good thing to do anyways even if you do not use the root user, so no one else can create one.
• Once a user is created, log into the root user as the guide says.
• Then Go in the folder /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/. You can get there quickly by opening up a finder window, hold CMD-SHIFT-G, or in the Menu Bar-GO-Go To Folder. copy and paste the directory in the window and select go.
• Select Get Info on the Resources Folder, at the bottom of the window click the lock icon.
• Add your user to the list and give it read/write permissions. This will allow you to edit the assets.car file without having to move it.

2. Enable Read/Write System Files (Skip if you created a root user, If you can not save the file, run this and see if it helps)

• When back in MacOS, launch Terminal and type sudo mount -t apfs -wu /dev/"YOURHD"/Volumes
• Replace the quotes with your actual drive name. This can be found in disk utility. Select "YOUR HD" (not the data one), then click info from the top right corner. It will be listed under BSD device node. Mine is disk1s5 so my code would look like sudo mount -t apfs -wu /dev/disk1s5 /Volumes
• ~NOTE: The above step may not be necessary but this is what I did following parts of this guide.
• Again in Terminal type sudo mount -uw /
• Enter your Password to confirm and then type killall Finder

3. Things you will need before you continue This can also be done prior to step 1.

• You will need the modified version of Theme Engine that works with MacOS 10.15.4 located here. If you would like to see the thread in the official github page on how you can compile the app yourself to work with Catalina, visit the site. (see MUI68K comment on how they fixed it. The file link is located farther down as well.)
• I also used a blank .icns image to replace the AliasBadgeIcon within core services. I do not know if changing the name will also do the trick but here is mine. (feel free to also google one as well if you like.)
• You will also need LiteIcon simply to clear out the icon cache. There may be a way within terminal but the app is great anyways and everyone should have it.

4. So after you have meet the required items from above.

• First replace the AliasBadgeIcon.icns with the blank one in /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/. You can get there quickly by opening up a finder window, hold CMD-SHIFT-G, or Menu Bar-GO-Go To Folder. copy and paste the directory in the window and select go.
• (skip if root user) Next you will need to copy assets.car from this same directory to another folder. I used my downloads folder, feel free to use whatever as long as it is a folder you have read/write permission in.
• I highly suggest you make a copy of assets.car at this time and put it somewhere safe. You are not doing a whole lot of editing but just in case, it will save you from a clean install.
• Open the assets.car, you may have moved, using the Theme Engine app you downloaded. The second choice under elements is alias badge. Select this and it will show you all the icons. Next select each one individually and change Opacity, (right column) to .0 (point zero). Do this for all the icons in the window. If value does not stay at .0 you may need to drag and drop the blank AliasBadgeIcon.icns over each icon in the window. This should also work to remove the arrow icon.
• Next close the window and when it prompts you to save select Save. (if not in root) Move the edited assets.car file back to the original location and replace the existing one. Select replace and type in your password when prompted. (I could not edit the assets.car in the directory as it would not let me save it, since I did not have permissions and Theme Engine would not let me type in the password. If someone know how to edit it within core services let me know so I can update. Only done if not root user)
• After this is done, I would open up Terminal and run the commands killall Finder and killall Dock
• ~NOTE: The above bullet may not be neccessary but it is what I did.
• Last, open LiteIcon. In the menu bar select Tools-Clear Icon Cache. It will force you to log out. If you would rather use the terminal command see below.

sudo rm -rfv /Library/Caches/com.apple.iconservices.store; sudo find /private/var/folders/ \( -name com.apple.dock.iconcache -or -name com.apple.iconservices \) -exec rm -rfv {} \; ; sleep 3;sudo touch /Applications/* ; killall Dock; killall Finder

Once you log back in your Alias Badges should be gone. I did not have to recreate the alias itself for this to take effect.

5. Re-enable SIP on your Mac. (if you did not use root)

• Restart your Mac and hold Command + R at restart to launch into Recovery Mode
• Type in your firmware password you set up in step one.
• Select an admin user and type in the password for the user.
• When in Recovery Mode go to Utilities - Terminal and type csrutil enable; reboot

5.5 If you used root user.

• You can always remove the root user access from step 1.5.
• Do this by loggin into the root user as the guide says.
• Then Go in the folder /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/. You can get there quickly by opening up a finder window, hold CMD-SHIFT-G, or in the Menu Bar-GO-Go To Folder. copy and paste the directory in the window and select go.
• Select Get Info on the Resources Folder, at the bottom of the window click the lock icon.
• remove your user to the list and give it read/write permissions. This will allow you to edit the assets.car file without having to move it.

This should be it. You should now be able to create alias icons without the badge for a much cleaner look. I hope it helps a few people out there. Maybe someone who blogs can write up a better walk-through with pretty pictures and all. If you share please credit this link or the original thread found at the top. I will update this when my original discussion thread goes live with the link. I am not a programmer but I can try and help if you have any questions.Anyways, good luck.

Edit: Linked to the original thread at the top and some minor formatting.

Edit 2: I have added steps to better help people and make it safer as well if you choose. Thanks to @yacob841 for helping me with some code and simplifying the matter. I would also like to thank @allan.nyholm as he is MUI68K who edited the Theme Engine app to work with Catalina

 

[haeskone]

Still working in 10.15.5

Thanks for this guide!

 

[fisherking]

or you can just live with the badges.

but really, more power to you. i used to do this with liteicon, but that badge can no longer be changed there. so, for the few that need to do this... good info!

 

[roland.g]

This is great. Thank you!!

On a side note, anyone figure out how to change the calendar icon. I can change my icon for my app, but the dock icon which is dynamic does not update.

In the past, you could change it by replacing the icons App.icns and the App-empty.icns, the latter of which is what handled the dynamic docs icon. However, in Catalina this doesn't work and the original icon persists in the dock. Using Liteicon only changes the app icon in the finder.

EDIT: I'm dumb. I forgot to change it in the docktile plugin folder too.

 

[scoble2]

I can no longer update this but it works on 10.15.4-10.15.6. I believe it will work on any 10.15 current and future update.

 

[vosstc]

This is great. Thank you!!

On a side note, anyone figure out how to change the calendar icon. I can change my icon for my app, but the dock icon which is dynamic does not update.

In the past, you could change it by replacing the icons App.icns and the App-empty.icns, the latter of which is what handled the dynamic docs icon. However, in Catalina this doesn't work and the original icon persists in the dock. Using Liteicon only changes the app icon in the finder.

EDIT: I'm dumb. I forgot to change it in the docktile plugin folder too.

Can you explain (b/c I'm dumb too) how you fixed the calendar icon...not sure what docktile plugin folder means!

 

[scoble2]

Can you explain (b/c I'm dumb too) how you fixed the calendar icon...not sure what docktile plugin folder means!

So there are two places to change the three calendar icons. You get there by right clicking on the calendar app, show package contents.

Then go to Contents-Resources You will change the two .icns files named "App-Empty" and "App" to whatever icon you want.

Then go to the calendar.docktileplugin (in the same folder you just changed the icons in)-Contents-Resources. Change the .icns file name "App-empty" the the same icon you used for the previous app empty.

Then just clear the icon cache using liteicon app or the above terminal commands. If you have the calendar app in your dock a killall dock command may also be needed.

 

[vosstc]

So there are two places to change the three calendar icons. You get there by right clicking on the calendar app, show package contents.

Then go to Contents-Resources You will change the two .icns files named "App-Empty" and "App" to whatever icon you want.

Then go to the calendar.docktileplugin (in the same folder you just changed the icons in)-Contents-Resources. Change the .icns file name "App-empty" the the same icon you used for the previous app empty.

Then just clear the icon cache using liteicon app or the above terminal commands. If you have the calendar app in your dock a killall dock command may also be needed.

Thanks for responding - still won't work unfortunately. Changed the icns files, cleared icon cache, killed the dock, and restarted. Dunno

 

[roland.g]

Thanks for responding - still won't work unfortunately. Changed the icns files, cleared icon cache, killed the dock, and restarted. Dunno

You have to go into the doctile plug in as well.

You have to do steps 5, 6, and 7.

Here from the Calendar Instructions.txt that came with my icon:

The Calendar app has a dynamic icon that shows the current date. To set this up to work with the Dots theme, follow these steps:​

​

1) Open your Applications folder and right-click on Calendar. Select 'Show Package Contents.'​

​

2) Open Contents/Resources folder.​

​

3) Select 'App-empty.icns' and go to File > Get Info, or push Command+i. In 'Name & Extension,' rename the file to 'App-empty.icns.backup' (Append '.backup' to the file name). You will need to enter your password to do this.​

​

4) Copy and paste the new App-empty.icns into this folder. You will need to enter your password again.​

​

NOTE: If you are using Mac OSX 10.6 or earlier, you're done. For 10.7 or later, read on.​

​

5) Open the folder 'Calendar.docktileplugin'​

​

6) Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4.​

​

7) All done!​

​

Note it may take a while for the new icon to appear once you’ve quit and restarted the app.​

 

[nicolaselhani]

Just wanted to chime in and say this worked like a charm. Thanks for taking the time to put out all the necessary information and resources.

I thought I'd initially try doing it without replacing the AliasBadgeIcon.icns in the System Folder and without dragging and dropping the file over the Assets.car Alias Icons and it didn't work, so editing the Assets.car opacity to .0 is not enough. But went back and dragged and dropped it everywhere I needed to and end result worked great.

Thanks again