Deploy Folder with Icons (macOS)

Description

This article shows how to deploy macOS folders or applications with custom icons. Apple changed how Finder stores some icon metadata, so older packaging methods may deploy the folder but miss the icon.

Information

This process has three parts:

1. Create a Fileset that includes the folders or applications with custom icons.
2. Create an activation script.
3. Set the script properties so FileWave passes the folder or application paths to the script.

1. Create the Fileset

To build the Fileset, first apply a custom icon to the folder or application on macOS. Choose Get Info on the folder or application, then drag the icon or image file onto the icon at the top of the Get Info window:

Create a standard Fileset from that folder or application.

2. Create an activation script

Highlight the Fileset and choose the script icon.

In the window that opens, select Activation Script, then create a script. In this example, the script is called add-xattr.sh. The script should contain:

#!/bin/bash
{
for directory in "$@"
do
    xattr -wvx com.apple.FinderInfo '00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00' "$directory"
done
}

3. Change the script properties

After you create the script, highlight it and choose Properties.

Edit the Executable tab so the launch argument matches the path to the folder or application that has the custom icon.

Associate the Fileset. When the Fileset deploys, the folder or application should keep the chosen icon.

Multiple folders with icons
The Fileset can contain multiple folders with custom icons. For each folder with a custom icon, add a matching launch argument in the Executable tab.