How Do I Replace an App Icon?

Comments: One Response to “How Do I Replace an App Icon?”

Gary Rosenzweig

6 years ago

It sounds like you are making a common mistake that people make when trying to replace a Finder icon. You need to be careful about where you copy the image, before you paste it.

For instance, say I have an image file, like a jpg file. If I select that jpg file, copy, and then try to paste that into the icon for the other file, I will get a generic "jpg" icon. What happened was I copied "the file" and then pasted it, and the paste function realized that I was pasting into an icon so it pasted the icon for the file there, not the image that is inside the file -- the contents of the file I copied. That jpg file you copied has that default jpg icon, even if you never see it because the Finder replaces image icons with previews of the image inside the file.

So the right way to do it would be to copy the image contents of the file, not the file itself. So open the image in Preview or any image editing app. Select the image, say with Command+A. Then you have the image in the copy buffer, not the file. Now paste that into the icon.