Where did these missing OS X application icons go?
On my Mac mini, app icons have gone missing for some apps (Terminal, Chrome, Spotify, Skype) from the Dock and elsewhere.
See a screenshot of the Dock. When I hover over the empty spots, I can see the names of the apps and launch them normally.
And here's one of the app switcher (it was kind of challenging to take this with cmd-shift-3, btw):
I don't remember doing anything special to make OS X lose the icons.
At first I thought it was some temporary glitch, but logging out & back in didn't help, and neither did rebooting the machine.
Upgrade from 10.6.4 to 10.6.5 didn't improve the situation either. Anyone have ideas how I could fix this?
Solution 1:
If restarting and all that doesn't help, here's how i fixed mine.
- Open finder.
- Go to /Applications.
- Drag the offending application to the desktop to create a shortcut.
- Shortcut should have the proper icon.
- Right click shortcut and click on
Get info. -
Click on the icon on the top left of the info view. Example:
-
When icon is selected (blue highlight), hit Cmd+C to copy it. Example:
Delete shortcut (not necessary).
- Go back to /Applications in finder.
- Right click on the offending application.
- Click
Get info. - Notice the place where the icon should be Top left.
- Click on that location to highlight it.
- Press Cmd+V
You should now see your icon again.
Tip: This method can also be used to change any icon to something else and customise your Mac !
Solution 2:
For me, the problem was with Terminal.app. It was an app I had set to "Keep in dock". What happened was the icon for Terminal.app started displaying on the dock and in the Cmd-Tab panel as the default icon:
What I had to do to get the original icon back was, while the app was opened, right click on the dock icon and select "Options -> Keep in Dock" and remove the checkmark, then I followed the same procedure selecting "Keep in Dock" again to get the checkmark back.
After that, I got the familiar Terminal icon back.