macOS
Shine a spotlight on the solutions to your most irritating Mac problems
A classic custom icon (left) can still be used in Tahoe, and behaves differently from its new custom folders.
Q
Add custom icons
Can I still add my own custom icons to files and folders in Tahoe?
by EVAN LEWIS
A
Yes, you can. Although they’re more fiddly to create and fragile in use, they can have advantages over macOS 26 (Tahoe)’s new custom folders.
To do this using an existing icon from an app, select the app in the Finder and Get Info for it. Select its icon at the top left of that dialog and copy it. Then Get Info on the file or folder, select its icon at the top left, and paste the new icon in as its replacement. You can also create your own designs as 1024x1024 PNG images.
Those traditional custom icons use a different mechanism from Tahoe’s custom folders. For a file, the custom icon is attached as a Resource Fork extended attribute, which goes right back to classic Mac OS in the 1980s. For a folder, it’s saved to a hidden file inside that particular folder.