Cannot revert MacintoshHD icon to default on macOS Tahoe

Pressing the delete key or cmd + x in the info dialog does not work if you had changed the icon in the past. You can confirm this by looking at your APFS container and its volumes in Disk Utility. Some volumes will display the new default icon from Apple, others will show your custom icon set in the past with a prior macOS version. Currently the system won’t let you revert to the default, because the default became what you had changed it to in the past. At least that's what happened to me -> See my post above.

But you can still change the icon to the new one if you know its path by copying and pasting via the Get Info dialog which is how it worked for decades now.

For your convenience here are some icon paths in macOS Tahoe:

/System/Library/Extensions/IOStorageFamily.kext/Contents/Resources/

(Contains the new internal, external, removable)

System/Library/Extensions/IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily.kext/Contents/Resources/

(Contains Floppy Disk, CF, SD, Super Disk, etc.)

/System/Library/Extensions/IOCDStorageFamily.kext/Contents/Resources/

(Contains CD icons)

/System/Library/Extensions/IOBDStorageFamily.kext/Contents/Resources/

(Contains BD icons)

You get the idea… In Finder you need to Right-click on the .kext file and Show Package Contents. Then drill down to Contents/Resources to find the icon files.

I currently went with the Floppy Disk icon 🙃:

To remove the custom icon you must manually delete the .VolumeIcon.icns file from /System/Volumes/Data. You must have admin capability.

Navigate to /System/Volumes/Data using Go To Folder in Finder Go menu. Paste in this path hit return.

/System/Volumes/Data/

Show hidden files with the keyboard shortcut, cmd-shift-.

Move the .VolumeIcon.icns file to the trash.

If you see this icon, you are in the wrong directory. You can get there in various ways. It is the root directory of the startup volume, but your data is mounted at /System/Volumes/Data/. This icon is an alias that points to the custom icon file mounted at Data. If you ctrl-click on it and "Show Original," it will open the folder to the correct location and you can delete that file.

The problem stems from having changed the icon in the past prior to updating macOS. I did this years ago when the Macintosh HD started being an SSD. The HD icon just didn't cut it for me anymore. Now after having updated to Tahoe it retained my custom icon and I can give it another new icon via the Get Info dialog just like you could for decades, but I can’t delete the icon to get the new default one. It just does nothing if you try.

I may not like the new default icon anyway, but at least wanted to take a look at it first. So getting the default from some location in the System folder and pasting it is the only way to go.

I have yet to find it though. It seems to not reside in /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources

EDIT: Found it: /System/Library/Extensions/IOStorageFamily.kext/Contents/Resources/Internal.icns

I am currently tempted to use the Floppy Disk icon from /System/Library/Extensions/IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily.kext/Contents/Resources/Floppy.icns

instead… 🙃

Have you tried 'Get Info' on the folder then 'Command X' (cut)?

Read my post above. The EDIT part contains the path to the new default icon:

/System/Library/Extensions/IOStorageFamily.kext/Contents/Resources/Internal.icns

You can’t delete the current icon to get the default, but you can paste it. Outcome is the same.

PS: I kept the Floppy icon out of nostalgia and because the new one does not look that great imho.

Similar to @Jon Hitchcock's suggestion, IIRC I think on older versions of macOS I was able to click the icon in the Get Info window & press the Delete key.

Read my post above. The EDIT part contains the path to the new default icon:

/System/Library/Extensions/IOStorageFamily.kext/Contents/Resources/Internal.icns

You can’t delete the current icon to get the default, but you can paste it. Outcome is the same.

PS: I kept the Floppy icon out of nostalgia and because the new one does not look that great imho.

Not used Tahoe yet, however are you able to Get Info on the folder, this should bring up the details and show the icon. You can then copy and paste an icon you like, unless the system has totally changed!

In Tahoe if you change the Macintosh HD icon to a custom one, there does not seem to be a way to go back to the default.

When you change it in Tahoe it requests permissions to write to the protected volume, but the delete key or control+z to undo it, do not prompt for these permissions, so the actions simply cause the Mac to beep and do nothing.

Have not yet found a way to change back the Macintosh HD icon that does not involve setting a new icon.

you can still go to the Get info and change the icon there.

Command Z will undo any changes you make or had made.

Malinow wrote:

How do I delete custom MacintoshHD icon. I don’t mean hiding it from the desktop, I just changed the icon a while back with the folder icons so that they would look nice, but now with macOS Tahoe I want to use the default look with built in folder customization but i can’t change the main drive icon back to its default look.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: MacintoshHD icon

this is the new default —

if you Control click on a folder you see the "customize" as an option; not true for the Macintosh HD on the Desktop.

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