A great way to personalize your Mac is with custom Mac folder icons. In fact, you can change any icon on your Mac to customize it to your taste. That includes any app, folder, disk or file icon.
Personally, I didn’t like the yellow icon of my external hard drive — so I changed it to blue. I’ve also edited a few app icons for better consistency in my Dock.
I’ll show you how to do it yourself.
Change icons for files or folders on Mac
Screenshot: TechyPerson-512/reddit
Image: Joonikko/Softpedia
You can keep it simple like I have, only changing app icons that bug you or don’t fit in; or you can take it to the next level and fully theme your Mac.
You can find icon packs of various themes all over the internet with a simple web search. A lot of iOS icon packs, which are easier to find, have quite a bit of overlap — considering a lot of apps for iPhone are also available on Mac. It may be an easier starting point.
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
How to change Mac folder icons
To change the icon for a any folder, first select it in Finder (or select an app, disk or file), then hit ⌘I or go to File > Get Info.
- If you’ve copied an image, you can click on the icon to select it, then hit ⌘V or Edit > Paste.
- You can also drag and drop an image on top of the icon to replace it.
- To restore the icon back to its original, select the thumbnail then hit Delete.
It’s that simple!
If the folder icon in the Dock doesn’t update right away, you can force reset it. Open Terminal, type killall Dock and hit Return. Don’t worry — it’ll immediately relaunch, it’s not dangerous.
The folders in your Home folder (Documents, Downloads, Movies, Music, etc.) all have custom icons. If you want any other folder to have the same icon, it’s easy. Select the one you want, hit ⌘I and copy its icon. Select the destination folder, hit ⌘I then paste it.
A few icons can’t easily be changed: Finder, Trash and Calendar. It can be done, but it’s not for the faint of heart.
Where to find good Mac icons
You can find modern app icons on sites like macosicons.com, a site that specializes in macOS-style rounded square icons. The icons are all free; click one to download it.
If you want to go all-in on app icons from any older version of Mac OS X, you can check out historial Mac icons on Logopedia.
Turn a square image into a nice macOS icon
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Modern Mac icons are supposed to have a bit of white space around them and a subtle drop shadow. Some icons you download or images you create may not be properly cropped or formatted correctly.
There’s a simple, free Mac app that can do this for you called Squircle. It couldn’t be easier to use. Just drag an image into the window, then drag the squircle icon into the app’s Get Info window. You can also drag it into the Finder to save it as a PNG.
If you’re developing an app, you can also drag the AppIcon.appiconset bundle into your Xcode project for use in your app. It generates all the Mac sizes and formats you need.
Price: Free
Download from: Mac App Store
Make the icons bigger on Mac
You’ve downloaded or created a bunch of custom Mac folder icons — but they’re too small for you to see and appreciate! Luckily, it’s easy to increase the icon size.
Hit ⌘J or click View > Show View Options to bring up the View palette. Bump up the size with the Icon Size slider, and you can click Use as Defaults on the bottom to make it standard everywhere.
