[010111]

it *had* normal icons... but it randomly lost its 'application' icon a few days ago and turned into a generic folder icon... now ALL icons in the sidebar are of the generic type... folders are generic folders... applications are generic applications... documents are generic icons.

when i drop a new item in... it has its normal icon for a split second before turning into a generic one.

i have dumped the caches... dumped the prefs for sidebar / finder / etc... repaired the permissions...

my 'extra' test user is still fine... so it is obviously something in my user folder... just not sure what.

anyone else seen this before/yet?

[kcmac]

When I first upgraded (simple install), one of the folders that I had modified with picture showed up in the sidebar as a plain folder while the folder showed up correctly in the column view.

Can't remember if it was after a restart but everything was quickly okay. Sounds like you have done everything that I would have done.

[Terri]

I noticed pasting a different icon and then back to the one I want fixes it.

Changing the name of the folder will also cause this icon bug.

[010111]

Originally posted by Terri:
I noticed pasting a different icon and then back to the one I want fixes it.

Changing the name of the folder will also cause this icon bug.

nope. tried that already.

the weird thing is it shows up in the sidebar for a *split second* before changing to a generic.

i just tried pulling out everything in my library (users) folder... and got *some* of them back... but any *new* things i drag to the sidebar has the same problem where they turn into generic icons immediately. folders / apps / documents... all turn into generics.

[hellmachine]

yeah, got this too. my solution: just let it be. it comes and goes. definitely a bug...

[Mithras]

My 'Downloads' folder in the sidebar seems to pick a different icon each day... maybe it's a feature...

[Apfhex]

Yeah, I got the generic icon bug a few times too. The first time, I tried re-adding it to the sidebar and that didn't fix it... but then I tried it again the next day (NOT after a restart, just had my Mac sleeping) and it got the icon back.

Also, I had a subfolder (from my music folder, located not in my home but at the root of the drive) that refused to have a custom icon in the sidebar no matter what. I just gave up on that one.

[C.J. Moof]

Originally posted by 010111:
nope. tried that already.

the weird thing is it shows up in the sidebar for a *split second* before changing to a generic.

i just tried pulling out everything in my library (users) folder... and got *some* of them back... but any *new* things i drag to the sidebar has the same problem where they turn into generic icons immediately. folders / apps / documents... all turn into generics.

Ah, so I'm *not* (necessairly) nuts. I saw the same thing too- a brief flash of my custom icon, then generic. Tho it only happens to custom folders for me, apps seem to keep their icons.

A half dozen identical blue folders is not nearly as easy to navigate as custom icons.... I'm also dissapointed that Finder label colors aren't respected in the sidebar. Seems to me if I change the folder color to red in my Finder view, it should reflect that choice in the sidebar.

Did nobody see this kind of stuff when the betas were floating around the net? I'm surprised that these are surprises......

[schalliol]

Along the same lines, we might resolve it this way....I noticed that the sidebar icons are different from the icons if you drop them into the dock. I find this quite unusual because it means there are dual icons for each item. For example, the documents icon is shown in the sidebar, but then is shown in the dock as a folder with that icon on it. So, if I want to create my own like this, how can i do it? I have an icon of the main logo and version of that mapped on an icon.

[jgcan]

Originally posted by schalliol:
Along the same lines, we might resolve it this way....I noticed that the sidebar icons are different from the icons if you drop them into the dock. I find this quite unusual because it means there are dual icons for each item. For example, the documents icon is shown in the sidebar, but then is shown in the dock as a folder with that icon on it. So, if I want to create my own like this, how can i do it? I have an icon of the main logo and version of that mapped on an icon.

I had it too, to solve it just do this:

ex. I had lost the Applications icon, you just click on the hard disc icon to view your generic Applications folder and drag this folder to the sidebar, it will automatically turn back the generic icon to the "right" icon.

[Targon]

how come its possible to change all the icons in the sidebar except for the 'Applications' icon?

to clarify i mean if u get info on a icon an paste a different icon to it like we can change the icon of 'Home'

i cant do this for the Applications folder icon

[JKT]

This is most likely a bug and it isn't limited to Panther - icons would quite frequently change in earlier versions of OS X too. The next restart or logout/login tends to clear up the problem. After quite frequent occurrences of this initially with Panther, my system appears to have settled now and I don't see it much... then again, I've not added anything new to the sidebar for a while either, hmmmm.

[KP*]

I recently had a bunch of problems with icons in Panther turning into other icons. Not specifically in the sidebar, but the icons wherever they appeared, in the Finder, on the desktop, etc. I personally had never seen this behavior before Panther. I just noticed that it seems to have gone back to normal, so I'm assuming that when I shut down it reset to the usual icons. At least there's a way to fix it.

[all2ofme]

I'd like to know this as well - mucks up my new look

Originally posted by Targon:
how come its possible to change all the icons in the sidebar except for the 'Applications' icon?

to clarify i mean if u get info on a icon an paste a different icon to it like we can change the icon of 'Home'

i cant do this for the Applications folder icon

[jszrules]

if you have Labels X, un-install it. restart. then get info on each of the "generic-looking" folders. that fixed it for me.

[all2ofme]

Hi there - don't have that installed. This is on a freshly installed machine. The Network icon won't take either.

Hmm.

[Targon]

Why dont u create a new folder with the same name as the folder u have an issue with (in a different location). Paste the icon to this new folder, then drag the contents of the old folder to this one, move it to the sidebar. Remove the folder form sidebar then delete it from its location. Now move this newly created folder to the appropriate location.

Log out then in.

[Diggory Laycock]

The Sidebar icons are just plain flaky.

[lookmark]

A bit flaky, yeah.

This has occurred to me, too, with indiv. folders w/ pasted icons -- whose name or location have been changed.

I've found that dragging the icon(s) out, forcing a restart of the Finder, and dragging them back in usually fixes it for me.

[juanvaldes]

Originally posted by hellmachine:
yeah, got this too. my solution: just let it be. it comes and goes. definitely a bug...

yup. I get this with my usb keychain drive all the time. Does not effect things, just loses the icon. :-/

[all2ofme]

I guess the problem must have something to do with that Applications folder being accessible to all users of the machine, and to change the icon for one (even if that user is the only one) would mean changing it for them all. In much the same way as the haxies to change the New Folder icons does it for all users I would imagine that the same would be true here.

Hmm, bug or a feature?

[smeger]

I've just finished playing with this problem pretty heavily. The settings for the sidebar are stored in ~/Library/com.apple.sidebaritems.plist. If things go completely south, you could try quitting the Finder, deleting that file using Terminal and then relaunching Finder. This will, of course, reset your sidebar settings. But that file stores every single disk that's ever shown up in your sidebar, so deleting it periodically might actually be a good plan.

Part of the problem is that the server process that's responsible for keeping the sidebar in sync in all running apps doesn't seem to read/write that file very often, so deleting the file can actually not have the effect you want. And a change to the contents of the sidebar can wind up getting stale, saved info out of that file.

In my testing, a good way to fix a problematic sidebar icon is this:

• Drag the icon out of the sidebar
• Go pet the cat for five minutes. This gives the server process time to save the file mentioned above, guaranteeing that it won't wind up reading stale info out of it.
• Drag the icon back into the sidebar.
• Cheer loudly.

Also, if you're using Unsanity's Labels X 1.6, it will make this problem occur 100% of the time. It happens without Labels X installed too, but using LX guarantees that it'll occur. Helping to fix this problem in LX for an upcoming release is why I'm now sort of a pro on how the sidebar works.

[all2ofme]

Good informative post - but it still didn't work, bugger it. It's really frustrating that it's taken everywhere else in the Finder. Works in the dock, too.

[malvolio]

Originally posted by smeger:
In my testing, a good way to fix a problematic sidebar icon is this:

• Drag the icon out of the sidebar
• Go pet the cat for five minutes. This gives the server process time to save the file mentioned above, guaranteeing that it won't wind up reading stale info out of it.
• Drag the icon back into the sidebar.
• Cheer loudly.

That's how I "repair" my sidebar icons, except I skip the 2nd step. Immediate replacement works fine for me.
I wonder if there could be more than one scenario going on here. Sounds like some of you are also having probs with Finder window icons, which never happens on my machine.

[smeger]

Originally posted by malvolio:
That's how I "repair" my sidebar icons, except I skip the 2nd step. Immediate replacement works fine for me.
I wonder if there could be more than one scenario going on here. Sounds like some of you are also having probs with Finder window icons, which never happens on my machine.

It's likely that there are multiple problems happening here. If the icons in a Finder window (as opposed to the sidebar) are also messed up, then its likely that coreservicesd is confused (don't use the terminal to kill it, all your running programs will become very unhappy!).

If this is the case, it can only be resolved by a reboot - not a login/logout, a reboot. coreservicesd is a root process, it doesn't get reset when you log out.

[d.fine]

Have you tried CandyBar ? I had the same problem with the Applications icon as well as some others. I replaced the icons with this program, and they've stayed there ever since ...