Where to find the "generic folder" icon?

Tech Support
,
1

The “generic folder” icons can be found in two places:

  • The GenericFolderIcon.icns file in

    /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources

  • and PNG files from Folder_16x16.png to Folder_512x512@2x.png in

    /System/Library/CoreServices/IconsetResources.bundle/Contents/Resources

But what is strange is that the icon there (which seems to be the same in both places) is not the one you usually see in Finder.

image
image1316×526 59.1 KB

Left: the icon from GenericFolderIcon.icns. Right: the actual folder icon in Finder.

Where can I find the file with the second icon? (Yes, I know that I can simply extract it from any folder using its Get Info window, but this is not what I’m asking.)

macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

1 Like
2

I’m not the first one who asks about this. This question was asked many times, but is not answered yet.

The folder icons you see there are from pre-Big Sur macOS versions. For some reason, they are still there, and for some another reason nobody knows where the “modern” icons are located.

The “modern” folder icons can be found in,

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/IconFoundation.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Assets.car

but this file looks more like as something generated on-the-fly rather than something original. You will need a third-party utility to open it, for examle, AssetCatalogTinkerer.