How can I assign custom icons to folders?

Custom icon selection

In the file manager (nautilus):

1. right click a folder's icon
2. click on properties in the contextual menu

3. in the properties window click on the framed icon (top left)

   • that should open the dialog to choose a new icon

4. Pick an icon from /usr/share/icons

the default folder icons are in the Humanity sub-folder.

Custom icon backup & restore

The informations seems to be saved by nautilus in ~/.local/share/gvfs-metadata.

Note that the directory contains lots of other data (emblems and more). As far as I know they are in binary format so I wasn't really able to pinpoint what's really needed in a backup. Still file path of the icons shuld remain exactly the same between backup and restore for this to work

Resource: Ubuntu Forum thread

1. Right click on the folder whose icon you want to change and select "Properties".
2. In the properties window, click on the image of the icon (The icon which is in the "Basic" tab which is opened first by default). An icon selection window will open.
3. In the icon selection window, choose the icon or image you want to set for the folder.