Customizing Your Mac’s Folder Icons Is Surprisingly Easy
All folders in macOS look the same – a boring blue image of a paper file. This makes it harder to look through a folder full of folders than it should be because everything looks the same. Unless you use custom icons for your most frequently used folders. You can do this quite easily, but the feature is a bit hidden.
And yes, that means you can use something stupid for the folder icon. But it can also be practical. If an important folder has a different color than the rest, or all of your folders have different colors based on functionality, you’ll have an easier time finding and clicking what you’re looking for. And the process is not complicated.
First things first: you need to find the image you want to use as your icon. I recommend checking out macOSicons.com , where there are thousands of icons in the right size. You can search for any color and find its corresponding folder icons. You can also search for random objects or apps and find icons. Find the images you want to use and click Upload to get an .icns file that you can assign to any folder you want. Alternatively, you can simply search for any image online, right-click it, and select “Copy Image” (note that you cannot click “Copy Image URL”—you need to copy the image itself).
Then right-click the folder for which you want to change the icon and click Get Info to open a file information window. You’ll see a folder icon in the top left corner of this window (not the one in the window’s toolbar). If you have downloaded an .icns file, simply drag it onto this icon in this panel – after a few seconds the folder icon will change.
If you copied the image from the browser, just click the icon in the panel – you will see it highlighted. Now use the keyboard shortcut CMD-V and the folder icon will be replaced with the image you copied.
Want to revert to the default folder icon? Open the Info * panel, click the icon, then press the Delete key. The icon will return to its default value.
It’s worth noting that this is not limited to folders. We previously talked about changing Mac app icons , and you can also edit the appearance of external hard drives. This will help you identify which drive is connected at a glance, especially if you find an icon that looks like the drive itself.
Easily create your own icons for macOS
Finding an icon online is great, but creating your own folder icons is pretty easy too. You can copy the default icon, paste it into an image editor and change it the way you like. However, if you don’t have these skills or would prefer something faster, Fancy Folders is a free app that can do all the work for you.
This application allows you to choose any color for your folder. It also allows you to add an icon – this can be an image if you want, or you can just enter text. Select the folder you want to view, click the Save Folder icon , and the icon will change. Yes