Desktop/Finder not showing customized icon for external drives

I have customized the icons for my external drives (as well as several folders within), but they show up as generic icons on the desktop and in the finder. This only occurs in my Admin account (which I'm using). The customized icons show in the standard guest account I created. Are there any settings I should change?

Any chance the show / hide is not selected in your actual finder folder, not the preferences? I just went 'round with this for a half hour until I noticed that somehow the 'show' was clicked to 'hide' for some reason.....

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Icon for External Drive -- Gone

I have had 2 external drives chained together for some time now via Firewire on my iMac .. no problems ... on the larger TB one (2nd in the chain) - the icon is on the desktop and I can get to it. The smaller one (150GB - 1st in the chain) is not ... it shows up in system profiler .. it shows up in disk utility but Mount is greyed out ... I've tried rebooting, etc - no success.
Can anyone help?

d---r-xr-x 37 Don Don - 1360 Oct 21 19:22 Lacie
You didn't post the result of the second "id" Terminal command but I assume you are "Don" and if so, you indeed don't have access to "Lacie."
Try the following:
In Terminal, copy-paste the following command, click inside the Terminal window, and type Return.
chmod 755 /Volumes/Lacie
If you don't get an error message, log out of your account and log back in. Do you now see the Lacie icon?
As a side issue
drwxr-x--- 351 Don Don - 11968 Oct 26 10:02 LaCie 1
It looks as if the permissions on your "good" drive, "LaCie 1", are also abnormal - they look OK for your own account, but not for "others". Since you can see the "LacCie 1" icon on the desktop, you don't need to use Terminal. Right-click on "LaCie 1", Get Info, and look at the Ownership & Permissions details at the bottom. I think "Others" will show "No Access". This is OK if you deliberately want to prevent other users from accessing this volume, but if not, the normal setting for Others is "Read Only". If you do change Others to Read Only, DON"T click the "Apply to enclosed items" button.

Icon for external drive??

I've been noticing when booting off of my external drive, the icon for the external drive doesn't appear at the top of the icons in the right hand corner of the finder. Should this happen? It's a little confusing to determine which disk is the startup.
Thanks,
Richard

Richard Skover1 wrote:
I've been noticing when booting off of my external drive, the icon for the external drive doesn't appear at the top of the icons in the right hand corner of the finder. Should this happen?
no. it used to always do that but there were a lot of complaints and this was changed in leopard. now it lets you arrange the drives as you want and keeps finder preferences on reboot.
It's a little confusing to determine which disk is the startup. to see the boot drive go to apple menu->about this mac. the current startup disk will be listed at the bottom.
Thanks,
Richard

Unable to set custom icon for system drive

Title says it all. Can't paste new custom icon onto drive icon in the Info panel-nothing happens. Any ideas?

When a custom icon is applied to a folder (including the "boot drive" icon, which is really just the top level folder), an invisible "Icon\r" file is created inside that folder (or a ".VolumeIcon.icns" in case of a volume - I missed this in the last post, sorry) and the "Custom Icon" file attribute is set. In order to do these things, a user must have sufficient privileges to modify the folder.
In Leopard, the default permissions are:<pre>
$ lsbom -d /Library/Receipts/boms/com.apple.pkg.Essentials.bom |grep "^. "
. 41775 0/80</pre>
The owner is "root", group is "admin", both have "read & write" privileges, and everyone else has "read only" privileges.
Similarly, in "Tiger":<pre>
$ lsbom -d /Library/Tiger/BaseSystem.pkg/Contents/Archive.bom |grep "^. "
. 41775 0/80</pre>
Nothing has changed. But furthermore, since the "sticky" bit is set, this might even mean that a custom icon set by one "admin" would only be removable by the same "admin" (though this isn't something I have tested). But either way, at a minimum, "admin" privileges would normally be required.
So if you had previously modified the permissions on the boot drive to allow non-admins to make changes, then certainly you woudn't have to have "admin" privileges to do this. But that is not the "normal" state.
Beyond that, it's hard to say why you can't make the changes even as an "admin" without at least knowing what the current permissions are on "/" and "/.VolumeIcon.icns"...

Creating icons for external drives...

I'm using a Mini, so naturally I have an arsenal of external drives.
I often use 2 or 3 at a time, and at a glance, the orange icons blend together. I'd like to have them easily identified by a custom icon. I have the skill to create these icons on Windows systems, but how is it done on the OS X?

It's easy to create icons with CocoThumbX 3.1 (freeware). Have fun!
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/17460/cocothumbx
Tom

Custom icon for Boot Camp partition on Snow Leopard desktop?

I have a Boot Camp partition (NTFS) with Windows XP. In Snow Leopard, the partition shows on the desktop with a generic hard drive icon. I'd like to change this to a custom icon, but when trying to paste over the generic icon in the Get Info window, Edit->Paste is grayed out.
In Leopard, it was possible to have a custom icon for a Boot Camp partition by formatting a thumb drive as FAT32, pasting the custom icon onto it in the Get Info window, booting into Windows XP, and copying two invisible icon files from the thumb drive to the NTFS drive. This would display the custom icon for the Boot Camp partition icon on the Leopard desktop. This doesn't work in Snow Leopard.
Is it possible to use a custom icon for a Boot Camp partition on the Snow Leopard desktop?

I don't see this option in Properties for the Boot Camp volume. In any case, I believe the custom icon is set correctly for the C: drive in Windows. I followed he procedure in the second paragraph of my initial post, which I learned from a post over a year ago. I copied the two hidden files .VolumeIcons.icns and ._ File _ to the C: drive. When I boot into Leopard, the correct custom icon for the Boot Camp partition appears on the Leopard desktop. But when I boot into Snow Leopard, only a generic hard drive icon appears on the desktop for that partition.

Time machine icon does not rotate and back up icon on desktop does not show during backup session.

Time machine icon does not rotate and back up icon on desktop does not show during backup session since I installed Maverick. Why? How do I fix it?

That's the new look of it. No way to change it other than file a complaint with Apple. If ENOUGH people do thst they may "fix it".
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Custom icon for Boot Camp partition?

I have a Boot Camp partition (NTFS) with Windows XP. In Snow Leopard, the partition shows on the desktop with a generic hard drive icon. I'd like to change this to a custom icon, but when trying to paste over the generic icon in the Get Info window, Edit-->Paste is grayed out.
In Leopard, it was possible to use a custom icon for a Boot Camp partition by formatting a thumb drive as FAT32, pasting the custom icon onto it in the Get Info window, booting into Windows XP, and copying two invisible icon files from the thumb drive to the NTFS drive. This would display the custom icon for the Boot Camp partition icon on the Leopard desktop. This doesn't appear to work in Snow Leopard.
Is it possible to use a custom icon for a Boot Camp partition on the Snow Leopard desktop?

No one knows of any fix for this in Snow Leopard? The custom icon shows up OK when I boot into Leopard, but not in Snow Leopard.

Custom icon for boot camp disk?

I have a Win XP boot camp disk partition (NTFS file system) on an internal hard drive. I want to use a custom icon for this partition on my OS X desktop. However, when I select the icon of this partition in a Get Info window, the only Edit option that ever appears is to Copy the icon. That is, I cannot paste another icon over it (the Paste option is grayed out).
Is this due to the partition being Windows? Is there a way other than the Get Info method for applying a custom icon? I'm using 10.5.2, but the same thing happened with 10.5.1, and also using a fresh test account.

Did you know you could have converted the drive to NTFS within Window (not reformatting and losing everything)? I converted mine from FAT32 to NTFS a few months back, lucky for me I already had a drive icon in OSX so the conversion kept the icon.
For your case though, do this:
1) Paste your icon (in the Get Info window) onto a USB thumb drive formatted as FAT32. The name of the drive doesn't matter.
2) Launch Windows through Boot Camp, Parallels Desktop, or VMware Fusion.
3) Open the thumb drive in Windows.
4) Select Folder Options… from the Tools menu, and set it to show invisible files.
5) Copy the two files .VolumeIcon.icns and ._[cr]File, where [cr] is a carriage return, to the NTFS drive.

Show Custom Icon in a Dock Stack, Grid View?

Hi, I have a folder with lots of pdfs placed in my dock as a stack. Is there any way to tell the Dock to show my custom icons, when present, or the default preview snapshot as it does now?
When I click on my folder in the dock, I have it set to show as a grid. When the contents are shown, the finder generated document preview icons are shown. For some documents, I have created custom icons for quick visual identification. When I view the document in a finder folder window, the custom icon shows, as expected, but not when I view the folder contents in a dock stack.
Thanks

I have placed a network drive in the dock to act as a stack so that I quick click of that icon will mount the drive, and then the icon acts as a stack. This network drive has a custom icon. When I have the stack set to "display as stack", I get the stack icon in the dock. When I then change to "Display as folder", the custom icon appears in the dock in place of the stack icon UNTIL I click on the icon to display its contents. When I click again, the icon reverts to the generic network drive icon. I'd like the custom icon to remain in the dock. Any thoughts?

Custom icon for my USB flash drive?

Alright, now I realize I'm probably missing something here, but it's getting away from me here. All I want to do is have a custom icon for my flash drive that will show up on any Mac that I plug it into.
As it is, I can assign a coustom icon (by doing the old get-info-copy-and-paste-the-icon thingie), but it doesn't show up when I plug it into another Mac. I just get the generic disk icon. What am I missing? This has to be quite simple.

Trey,
I may be PITW, but I think the icons used to represent various volumes/devices are (if customized) specific to a system (not the volume/device). Thus you would have to set the custom icon for your flash drive on each system you wanted to see it.
A WAG: I haven't the slightest idea if it would work for a flash drive, but for a CD one would drag the custom icon (.icns file) to the root level of the CD and rename it .VolumeIcon.icns before burning the CD.
Lee C
"The early bird may get the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese." -- Willie Nelson
See the article Backup::Restore.
Dual 2.5 Power Mac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Should custom icons for USB appear on other Macs?

I have a custom icon for my flash / usb drive that doesn't appear in other Mac computers. The default icon appears. I haven't been able to test it on another Leopard Mac.
Is this regular behavior or not? Is there a way to make other Macs show it? I looked around for info about this and didn't see it. Thanks, guru pals.

Normal. Stored in launchservices.plist, I think. But it is normal. Not like an MP3, where the album art can be stored on the file.

Why are my desktop files not showing on the desktop

Why are the files in my desktop folder not showing on my desktop?

An add-on can put its icon on the bar automatically if it likes, but some add-ons do one of the following:
* Add an item to the Tools menu
* Add an item to the right-click menu (depending on the context)
* Put a button in the button palette so you can add it to a toolbar if you like (''to call up the button palette, use'' View > Toolbars > Customize ''or right-click a blank area after the address box on the Navigation Toolbar and choose Customize from the pop-up menu'')
Also, you might want to double-check that the add-on is enabled.
Tools > Add-ons > Extensions
If you have the orange Firefox button, it's Firefox > Add-ons > Extensions
Does that help? (If you have problems with a particular extension, you could mention which one it is for more specific comments.)

Mac mini core2 duo 10.7.2 not seeing files on usb external drives - mac formatted - ownership ignored- until finder refresh - any idea

finder has problems showing folders& files on external drives on mac mini with 10.7.2
this is affecting 2 external usb drives both mac formatted - ownership ignored
i click on the drive and see nothing
a refresh of the finder window will make the files appear
if i click on a disclosure arrow, the arrow turns down but no files are displayed
if i double click on the folder it opens that folder in an empty view - a refresh will bring the files visible
interestingly if i eject the drive and plug back it , it will usually display the contents of folders already visited last time but not folders i hadn't looked at - they require a refresh
programs such as iTunes can link to those files when they are not visible in finder
anyone else run into this - any suggestions
oh and drives seem to be working fine on my macbook pro with 10.7.3
cheers folks
Simon

John -I'm pretty sure it the mac mini thats having the issue
the two drives - each with their own cable - seem to work perfectly with my other mac
the mac mini is having no problem reading the files itunes and other programs access the files on the drives without a problem
its just the finder is not displaying the files without a refresh of the view
but thanks anyway

Mavericks 10.9.1-Problem with finder not showing peripheral hardware

After upgrading to Mavericks (10.9.1) my Finder doesn't show new hardware in Devices. For example, Finder not showing iPod when i plug into the keyboard's usb. i have other examples of the same problem, such as trying to find a hard drive detached from an old computer. anyone know if i can configure Finder to show all peripheral (hardware) devices? maybe i need to plug the peripherals into back of the iMac rather thatn into my keyboard usb (which i have not tried.) Thanks in advance.
Charlie

I had a similar issue as you did -- for a few weeks now I've been suffering through agonizingly slow Contacts performance.
The way I resolved it was:
1) Quit Contacts
2) Go to system preferences and go into iCloud, then uncheck contacts -- choosing to delete from mac.
3) Go into system preferences and to Internet Accounts and again uncheck contacts under any of the accounts it's enabled on (gmail, yahoo, etc).
4) Go to your user's library folder (easiest way is to open a finder window, hold down the option key on the keyboard and from the Go menu, select Library).
5) Delete anything referring to Address book or com.apple.address book....   -- check these folders in particular:
     - Address Book
     - Application Support
     - Caches
     - Preferences
6) Restart your computer
7) Go back into System preferences and enable contacts from wherever you want (iCloud, etc.)
8) If it's not quite enabling (appears to enable, but checkbox doesn't show), then do one more restart of the computer.
9) Now open Contacts and allow it to sync

Desktop/Finder not showing customized icon for external drives

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