# missing application icon



## nealt (May 3, 2013)

I notice that many of my application downloads are missing an application icon. Its there in the application resource folder. redownloading does not help. Any ideas?

OS 10.8.3
Safari 6.0.4


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## DeltaMac (May 3, 2013)

Is the application icon completely missing (leaving a blank space where an icon might appear), or is the icon just a generic icon (not the custom icon that you would expect to see)

Have you tried a logout from your user - or simply restarted your Mac?

If that doesn't make a difference, try deleting the file com.apple.finder.plist from your user folder/Library/Preferences folder.
then, restart your finder, or logout, then log back in to your account, or just restart your Mac.


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## nealt (May 4, 2013)

Deleting the file com.apple.finder.plist does restore the icon. But when I open the downloaded dmg file the icon is missing again.The icon is missing,  leaving a blank space.


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## nealt (May 4, 2013)

Take a look.


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## DeltaMac (May 4, 2013)

If you Get Info for the app, do you see the icon then? Be sure to also look at the "Preview" section of the Get Info window.

That app that you show is on your Desktop. If you move the app to another folder, does the icon appear in that folder? Be sure to change the folder view to List view, then back to Icon view to watch for any changes.

Does the icon ever appear?
Be sure to try a restart (did you do that already?)
Try the same in a different user account. Create a new account just for this purpose.
That will help determine if your icon issue is only within that one user, or is system-wide.


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## DeltaMac (May 4, 2013)

Did you ever get the pixellated icons in PSE fixed? If not, perhaps that issue is related to what you have now... ?

I also see that you have a custom icon for your HD...
Did you use a simple copy-n-paste for that icon, or are you using any software that gives you a variety of sets of icons, to customize your desktop and user appearance? I don't know of any that work well on newer versions of OS X.
That's another reason to be sure to test with a different user account. Substantial appearance mods would likely be gone, and your system would then show appearance defaults.


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## nealt (May 4, 2013)

DeltaMac:Yes I fixed PSE. There is a preference-Saving files File saving options, Make sues Image previews is set to never save no icons, no windows thumbnails

I just copied and pasted for the HD icon from some icons I got from OWC.
	

		
			
		

		
	




For today's problem in icon is shown in get info and the preview shows a blank document icon. See attached.


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## DeltaMac (May 4, 2013)

Is there any change if you restart your Mac now?

Do you have any idea when the icons stopped showing?
Does that happen to ANY apps that were previously present on your Mac - or ONLY on apps that you have recently downloaded?


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## nealt (May 4, 2013)

Only on apps that I downloaded and not every one. I don't know when this started.


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## DeltaMac (May 4, 2013)

Can you finally tell me that you tried restarting your Mac? That may be all you need to do!
Did you check that the problem exists (or not) with a different user?
My suggestion would be to log out, then log in to a different user, then download an app that you can't get to show the icon. You could try the same app that you mentioned here.


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## nealt (May 4, 2013)

restarting does nothing.  ONLY on apps that you have recently downloaded.


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## DeltaMac (May 4, 2013)

Great! Now the other question is more relevant:
Do you see icons on downloaded apps when you are logged in to another user account?


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## nealt (May 4, 2013)

Yes the icon is visible when viewed from another account.


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## DeltaMac (May 4, 2013)

Good! It's just in your user account. 

Delete these files from your user Library/Preferences folder:
com.apple.BezelServices.plist
com.apple.LaunchServices.plist
com.apple.preference.desktopscreeneffect.plist
com.apple.systemuiserver.plist

And, from your user Library folder, delete the Caches folder

Logout, then log back in to your user - or simply restart.


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## nealt (May 5, 2013)

This fixed the existing app download but not newly downloaded app. The app is "photobatcher" I tried downloading it from Macupdate.com and Download.com. Viewscan, for instance downloads fine. Try downloading "photobatcher"


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## DeltaMac (May 5, 2013)

Of course, the issue is not a corrupted download, but that your Mac is not displaying the app's icon - and for unknown reasons up to this point. Re-downloading the same app for a system issue, seems kind of pointless to me...
The app still works, correct?
And, did you also restart your Mac, when you saw that some recent downloads were OK now, but not NEW downloads?
I would suggest trying that as a first tip, any time you see odd visual effects on your Mac.
I did try downloading "photo batcher" directly from the apps developer, and it appears fine for me. And, I suppose it also still is good for you when you are logged in to the other user account (?)
Are you using any type of download "helper" app, such as Speed Download, or SpeedTao? If you are, you could try disabling, or uninstalling that helper. Perhaps not completely stable, or not updated for Mountain Lion.


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## nealt (May 5, 2013)

I have restarted dozens of times. I do not use a download helper. Firefox gives me the same results-no icon. The apps still work.


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## DeltaMac (May 5, 2013)

As I said, the problem is not with the download. If that was the problem, then you would not see the icon in your other account.
And, your choice of browser is also not an issue (again, the other user account would show the same problem, too!)

Boot to your Recovery partition (restart while holding command-R) and run Disk Utility. Do a Repair Disk (different from Repair Disk Permissions, which wouldn't help you, anyway). If that Repair Disk passes without any problems, restart. and check your icons.

If that doesn't change anything, you could dip into your user folder/Library again, and try more file cleanup.
So, in your Library: remove this stuff: (I'm done with messing around, if you are  )
The Caches folder (just drag the whole thing to the trash)
In the Preferences folder, delete the ByHosts folder
The list of files that I previously posted here would still be good to delete again.
Some of those .plist have associated lockfiles, with much the same file name. Delete those lockfiles, too, if you find any (not all will have associated lock files.)

And - restart again.


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## nealt (May 5, 2013)

OK I did a disk repair. It said the disk was OK and did not do anything. However, upon rebooting the problem seems to be fixed! Well I will give it some time and see what happens.


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## nealt (May 19, 2013)

Well the problem is back again. a permeant fix? can't even copy and paste using get info.


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## DeltaMac (May 19, 2013)

Ready for more?
Download and install the 10.8.3 combined updater. http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1640


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## nealt (May 20, 2013)

The updater seemed to fix the problem. I question what really is the problem so I can prevent it from happening. I dpn't want to run the updater say once a week.


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## DeltaMac (May 20, 2013)

I often see that installing the combined updater does fix strange oddities that show up in the system from time to time.
And, reinstalling that updater performs significant maintenance to your system, which you had not tried up to now.
I don't expect you will see that same problem again (assuming it was a minor glitch in your system)
Yours was an unusual problem, so the update should take care of that, perhaps permanently. I don't expect you will need to run the updater once a week - and I wouldn't expect you to run the updater again, unless you need to.
Of course, wait a week (or a month) and report back here. I am confident your system will still be fine. But, you are entitled to prove that assumption is incorrect, and we'll try something else.


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## Satcomer (May 21, 2013)

Plus how old is you hard drive? Things like this can point to a something wrong on the old drive.   

PS- Plus remember the Finder's Preferences (in the Finder menu select the word 'Go' while holding down the 'option' key and select 'Library', Preferences folder. There you can find Finder's Preferences: com.apple.finder.plist and throw that into your Trash can. Then log out and log back in. This will reset Finder's Preferences and might fix the problem. 

Lastly, are you running any programs to change icons?


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## nealt (May 21, 2013)

The drive is fairly new. Trashing the preference file did not solve the problem.


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