New "Alias" icon behavior in Big Sur?

[MacGizmo]

Forgive me if this is NOT new to Big Sur, but it is new to me. I'm curious if this was the case in Catalina or Mojave and I just didn't notice.

The image below shows a standard alias of a folder that has a custom icon on the left - it's a generic folder icon with the little "alias arrow" in the lower corner. This is the way it's always been, as far back as I can remember. You could always paste a custom icon on the alias, but it would always have the alias arrow on it. This drove me crazy for whatever reason.

After upgrading to Big Sur, I noticed that when I paste a custom icon onto an alias folder, the "alias arrow" disappears. As you can see in the image, doing a "Get Info" on the new folder on the right confirms that it's still an alias.

If this is new in Big Sur, THANK YOU, APPLE! If this isn't new to Big Sur, I blame all of you for not preemptively telling me this was possible! ?

 

[fisherking]

seems to be new in big sur. personally, i do not miss the arrow (i used to replace it with nothing, using liteicon)...

 

[MacGizmo]

seems to be new in big sur. personally, i do not miss the arrow (i used to replace it with nothing, using liteicon)...

I'm with you... I've always hated the arrow and it pleases me to no end to see it go away.

 

[zeratul75]

it is definitely a bug.....
I bet you changed the icon by drag the new incon in the "get info" windows, isn't it?
In this case the black little arrow disappear......

If you change the icon in another way, you stil have the little arrow.
Open "get info" window of the icon you want to change, and "get info" window of the source icon.
Select the little icon "source" and menu modify-> copy (or command + V) and then in the "get info" window of the icon you want to change, select the little icon, then menu modify->paste. with this method the alias changes its icon, and the little arrow is kept.

Please confirm; this is the behaviour I have on my mac.

Just to add some information: sometime the copy/paste method doesn't work at all. I don't get the "paste" option available, after having pressed "copy". I have to reboot, sometimes one time, sometimes twice.......that's why I think it is a bug......

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

it is definitely a bug.....
I bet you changed the icon by drag the new incon in the "get info" windows, isn't it?
In this case the black little arrow disappear......

If you change the icon in another way, you stil have the little arrow.
Open "get info" window of the icon you want to change, and "get info" window of the source icon.
Select the little icon "source" and menu modify-> copy (or command + V) and then in the "get info" window of the icon you want to change, select the little icon, then menu modify->paste. with this method the alias changes its icon, and the little arrow is kept.

Please confirm; this is the behaviour I have on my mac.

Just to add some information: sometime the copy/paste method doesn't work at all. I don't get the "paste" option available, after having pressed "copy". I have to reboot, sometimes one time, sometimes twice.......that's why I think it is a bug......

I had the exact same bug when changing icons (pressing Command and C then P) — it would work once, then would stop working. Had to either reboot or boot into Safe Boot and logging in as root, then it would work. Was annoying when I had to change a batch of icons.

 

[fisherking]

what other way would one change the icon, outside of the get info window (i do use the app 'plaster' sometimes). but you're correct; making an alias shows the arrow. changing the alia's icon to something custom does remove the arrow.

am making a ton of aliases before apple fixes this!

 

[zeratul75]

there is another way to make it working, instead of reboot. at least, for me it is working.
just copy/paste a normal file (document, or whatever......even at the same path). after doing it, copy/paste of the icon start working again.......
please try.....it is faster than reboot

 

[zeratul75]

I had the exact same bug when changing icons (pressing Command and C then P) — it would work once, then would stop working. Had to either reboot or boot into Safe Boot and logging in as root, then it would work. Was annoying when I had to change a batch of icons.

there is another way to make it working, instead of reboot. at least, for me it is working.
just copy/paste a normal file (document, or whatever......even at the same path). after doing it, copy/paste of the icon start working again.......
please try.....it is faster than reboot

 

[GravimetricWave]

Unfortunately, the arrow reappears when the alias is added to the dock

 

[MacGizmo]

I did the normal Copy/Paste in the Get Info window. The arrow doesn't appear, no matter where I move it in the Finder, but the arrow does appear on the icon when I place it in the dock.

 

[Unsupported]

Am I the only one who likes the arrow?

I prefer to know that I'm dealing with an alias rather than the actual folder.

 

[zeratul75]

I am with you.....the alias must be clearly known by its arrow.......

 

[fisherking]

I am with you.....the alias must be clearly known by its arrow.......

i don't use a lot of aliases, so this isn't important to me. but i'd like to not have the arrow by default, as it's easy to add 'alias' or a symbol (ie '*') to the alias, and use that as a reference.

wish apple gave us more choices, in general. anyway, hoping that, if they 'fix' this later, it doesn't affect the aliases i've already made (and either way, it's not a big deal)

 

[BigBobbyD]

Does anyone have a new set of instructions to "Remove" the Alias arrow? I hate that pos and with every previous version it was simple by just changing the default name of the file, but on B.S. I get an error that that the directory is read only and trying to sudo mount -uw / fails with error 66