What If the Custom Folder Icon Does Not Show?

To keep folder icon changed must be met following conditions:

  • Folder must have "Read Only" or "System" attribute, only these attributes allows to show customized folder icon.
  • Folder must contain "desktop.ini" file (This file contain path to the customized icon).
  • Folder must containt customized folder icon (Only if Distributable flag was enabled)

Here are solutions to some common problems leading to the custom folder icon disappear or not show.

Problem: After copying/moving the folder, the custom folder icon does not show

If you want the folder icon to display even after you copy the folder somewhere else, you should set the "Distributable" flag to that folder as shown below:

This option will copy the custom icon you assigned to this folder to the folder itself, so even if you move it somewhere, the icon will still be there.

Solution: If you already transferred the folder to another place, you have to assign the icon again.


Problem: After copying/moving the folder the custom folder icon does not show. The "Distributable" flag was set, and there are hidden folder icon and desktop.ini files in the folder.

It seems that the folder has lost its Read-Only attribute.

Windows identifies folders with customized look using the Read-Only attribute. Despite its name, the attribute does not affect writing to folder or its contents. It merely tells Windows Explorer to apply customization to this folder.

The problem is that the latest Windows Anniversary Update 1607 has a bug: the Read-Only attribute of a folder is lost during copying or moving the folder.

Solution:

  1. Open FolderIco main window.
  2. Add folder which you want to repair. If you want to repair subfolders too, you need to select option "Apply selected icon for all subfolders"
  3. Click arrow near the "Restore Default" button and select "Repair folder icons" menu.

FolderIco scans the specified folder (and subfolders) and sets the Read-Only attribute to it and all subfolders containing the desktop.ini file.


Problem: After copying/moving the folder the desktop.ini file in it is lost. The folder icon file is still present, however.

The problem appears when you synchronize the folder with some cloud storage like Dropbox or OneDrive. The thing is the majority of cloud storages ignore desktop.ini during synchronizing.

Solution:

  1. Open FolderIco main window.
  2. Add folder which you want to repair. If you want to repair subfolders too, you need to select option "Apply selected icon for all subfolders"
  3. Click arrow near the "Restore Default" button and select "Repair folder icons" menu.


Problem: The folder does not update the icon when you change it in FolderIco

Sometimes Windows caches the icon of a folder and displays it incorrectly after you change the icon. For example, you may change the icon of a folder, but shortcuts to this folder still display the old one.

Solution:

  1. Open FolderIco main window.
  2. Select "Edit-> Refresh Explorer Icon Cache"

FolderIco will clear the icon cache of Windows Explorer and updates folder icons.