How to restore the default folder icon on a Mac
Select the folder, choose File > Get Info, select the small icon at the top of the Info window, then choose Edit > Cut: the original icon returns. That undoes a pasted image; a macOS 26 or 27 color, symbol or emoji from Customize Folder is removed separately.
To restore a folder’s original icon on a Mac, select it, choose File > Get Info, select the small icon at the top of the Info window, then choose Edit > Cut. That undoes a pasted image only. On macOS 26 and 27 a folder can also look custom because of a color, a symbol, an emoji or a Finder tag, and Apple’s restore steps cover just the first. This guide maps all four layers and the verified reasons a revert fails.
How do I put the original icon back on a folder, file or app?
Apple documents one route, under “Restore the original icon for a file or folder”. Select the item, choose File > Get Info, select the small icon at the top of the Info window, below the title bar, then choose Edit > Cut. The same four steps appear in Apple’s guide for every version from macOS 13 to 27, under “Change icons for files or folders on Mac” up to macOS 15 and “Customize the look of folders and files on Mac” on 26 and 27. The shortcuts are Command-I for Get Info and Command-X for Cut, both in Apple’s Mac keyboard shortcuts. Apple words the steps for “a file or folder”; community guides use them for apps too.
The step people get wrong is the target. The small icon sits at the very top of the Info window; the large thumbnail lower down, under Preview, is not it. Apple’s macOS 13 and 14 text says “not the large icon under Preview”, and the paste steps on later versions warn that Edit > Paste is unavailable if you clicked the large icon. The vendor guide from img2icns says to act once the preview is highlighted.
The Delete key. Most guides press Delete instead of choosing Cut: Macworld, igeeksblog and Softorino, the Folder Colorizer vendor, all say so and report the same result. Apple documents only Edit > Cut, so this page teaches that; Delete is widely reported community practice. igeeksblog (updated 11 May 2026) adds one habit worth keeping: its author could not change a folder’s icon twice in succession and had to restore the first icon before setting the next.
It is still not blue: what else makes a folder look custom on macOS 26 and 27?
“Restore” is no longer one gesture. On macOS 26 and 27, four separate things can make a folder look non-default, and Apple’s folder-icon page documents the undo of only the first. It explains how to add a color, symbol or emoji with Customize Folder, but its macOS 26 and 27 versions, read on 7 October 2026, contain no instruction to remove one. The text is identical on both; Intel Macs stop at macOS 26 (MacRumors).
| What changed the folder | Where it lives | How to undo it | Who documents the undo |
|---|---|---|---|
| A pasted image | The small icon in the Info window | Edit > Cut | Apple |
| A symbol or emoji | The Customize Folder panel | Reopen the panel and use its Clear button | MacMost, Macworld, Tom’s Guide; not Apple’s page |
| A color from a Finder tag | The tag on the folder, plus a tint setting in Finder | Click the assigned tag again, press Control-0, or switch off Tint folders based on tags | Apple for Control-0 and the setting; MacMost for the click |
| The default color of every folder | System Settings > Appearance > Folder color | Set that option back | Apple |
Symbol or emoji. Select the folder, click the Action button and choose Customize Folder again (Apple’s steps for opening the panel), then use the button that clears the symbol. MacMost, Macworld and Tom’s Guide call it Clear; Apple’s page never names it, so the name is the press’s. Tom’s Guide’s route to a plain folder: select Clear, then click the current color or the tag icon.
Tag color. Since macOS 26 a colored Finder tag tints the folder itself; Howard Oakley wrote on Eclectic Light (18 September 2025) that applying one “now changes the colour of that folder”. Apple’s current Finder settings page lists the switch: Finder > Settings, the Tags pane, Tint folders based on tags (“Add a color tint to a folder to indicate it has a tag”). Its macOS 26 snapshot omits it, though Macworld and Eclectic Light both described it in September 2025. Apple’s tag page says Control-0 (zero) removes all tags from a file, including ones you may want; MacMost’s lighter route is “Remove a color by clicking the assigned tag again”.
Default color. In Apple’s Appearance page, Folder color is “the color to use for folder icons in the Finder”. It appears when Default, Dark or Clear is selected for Icon & widget style. Apple does not say the default is blue; Macworld calls it “the default blue look”. So “back to default” means back to whatever this setting says, for every folder at once.
Apple’s macOS 15 page has no Customize Folder section, and Oakley presents the tag tint and the Appearance color as Tahoe changes, so on macOS 15 and earlier the Get Info route is the whole story.
Why does Edit > Cut do nothing, or the old icon come back?
Most often the large preview is selected instead of the small icon, the one failure Apple itself documents for this gesture. The rest comes from press, forums and vendors, and each cause says so, in the order worth checking.
- The large preview is selected. Click the small icon at the top of the Info window instead.
- The item is protected or read-only. Apple says you cannot customize folders that come with your Mac, such as Applications, Library, System and Users (a sentence about Customize Folder; the Home folder is allowed). Howard Oakley (Eclectic Light, 7 February 2025) adds that anything on the Signed System Volume cannot be modified, nor can folders where you lack write access, and that an alias is customized through its own Get Info window.
- A password or Touch ID prompt. Reported for apps and protected items: img2icns says macOS asks you to authorize the action, and Sir Apfelot and Applesfera say an app may ask for your password (Sir Apfelot adds Touch ID). Authorize it, then repeat the Cut.
- Finder still draws the old icon. Softorino, a vendor, writes that Finder sometimes caches the old icon, and suggests relaunching Finder or restarting the Mac (blog updated 22 August 2026, checked 7 October 2026). An Apple Developer Technical Support engineer is reported to have described Finder, in a July 2025 forum thread, as caching custom folder icons aggressively, so that a later change may not show; the workaround is to clear the icon first, then set the new one. We read that thread through a summary, so treat it as a pointer. Apple documents Relaunch in the Force Quit window for a Finder that has stopped responding, not as an icon fix.
- A third-party app restyled the folder. Reset it in that app first; Softorino says Folder Colorizer includes a revert option. Mac+ has its own Reset, covered last.
- An external drive or iCloud Drive. Both have their own limits, below.
If instead a new icon will not apply, see folder icon not changing on Mac.
Can I reset several folders at once, or folders on an external drive or iCloud Drive?
Apple’s steps handle one item at a time, so a batch, an external drive and iCloud Drive each need their own answer. For a selection, changing multiple folder icons at once covers Finder’s Inspector, a gesture Apple has never documented, and a Terminal loop that removes icons; this page repeats neither.
External drive. On an exFAT or FAT32 drive the icon may never have been stored, so there may be nothing to restore; see custom folder icons that will not stick on an external drive.
iCloud Drive. MacMost says a pasted icon shows only on the Mac that set it, and Oakley says the same of iCloud Drive, so remove it on that Mac. MacMost reports that Tahoe’s color, symbol and emoji do appear on your other devices through iCloud Drive; if so, clearing one on one Mac should reach the others, which we have not tested. More in custom folder icons and iCloud Drive sync.
Will I lose anything, and can I get the custom icon back?
Only the appearance changes. Oakley explains that a folder’s custom icon is stored in a hidden file named Icon? inside it, and a file’s in an extended attribute, com.apple.ResourceFork; for Tahoe’s customized folders he reports a combination of two, com.apple.FinderInfo and com.apple.icon.folder. That is his reading, not Apple’s documentation, but by his account it is appearance data, not your documents.
Getting the same icon back is the open question. Apple’s shortcuts page says Command-X will “Cut the selected item and copy it to the Clipboard”, yet SlashGear (14 September 2024) reports that the clipboard then holds only an ordinary blue folder. Nobody tested the two against each other for this page, so keep your source image, and re-apply it with the paste steps in how to change a folder icon on Mac.
Restore the original icon: 4 steps
- Select the file or folder whose custom icon you want to remove.
- Choose File > Get Info in the menu bar (Command-I).
- In the Info window, select the small icon at the top of the window, below the title bar. Do not click the large thumbnail under Preview.
- Choose Edit > Cut in the menu bar (Command-X). The original icon returns; if a color, symbol or emoji is still there, work through the table above.
Undoing icons Mac+ applied, and where that stops
For icons Mac+ applied, the supported undo is its Reset button. Mac+ is the app behind this site, so weigh this section accordingly. Its folder-icon page says: “Open Mac+, select the folders, and click Reset. The default macOS blue folder icon is restored immediately.” It adds that Reset works on one folder or a whole batch, that “Nothing is destructive”, and that Finder updates instantly with no relaunch. See Mac+ folder icons.
Where that stops: Reset is for icons Mac+ applied. The site does not say it clears a macOS 26 or 27 tag color, a Customize Folder symbol or emoji, or the Appearance Folder color, so use the table above for those, and it does not say whether Reset is in the free tier. The free tier has 6 folder icons; Pro is €9.99 once or €1.99 a month with a 7-day trial (checked 7 October 2026), on macOS 13 or later, Apple Silicon or Intel.
The native route should also clear a Mac+ icon: Apple’s steps cover a file or folder with a custom icon, and Mac+ says it uses macOS’s own custom-icon mechanism. Neither Apple nor Mac+ says so, and it was not tried on a Mac for this page, so read “should” literally and treat Reset as the supported route. Other apps offer a revert too (Softorino says Folder Colorizer “also includes a revert option”), and for one or two folders you need no app at all.
macOS 13 or later. Apple Silicon and Intel. Free download; Mac+ Pro €9.99 once or €1.99/month.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get the default folder icon back on a Mac?
Select the folder, choose File > Get Info, select the small icon at the top of the Info window, then choose Edit > Cut. Apple documents this for restoring the original icon of a file or folder, with the same steps from macOS 13 to 27. It removes a pasted image only; a macOS 26 or 27 color, symbol or emoji needs its own undo.
Do I press Delete or choose Edit > Cut to remove a custom folder icon?
Apple documents Edit > Cut (Command-X) and nothing else. Macworld, igeeksblog and Softorino say pressing Delete with the small icon selected removes it as well. Either way, select the small icon at the top of the Info window first, not the large preview.
Why does Edit > Cut do nothing when I restore a folder icon?
Most often the large preview is selected instead of the small icon, which Apple’s macOS 13 and 14 text warns about. Otherwise the item is protected or read-only, a password prompt is waiting, or Finder is still drawing a cached icon.
Why is my folder still colored, or still showing an emoji, after I removed the icon?
On macOS 26 and 27 the color and the symbol or emoji do not come from the pasted image. Remove the symbol or emoji in Customize Folder (the Clear button, per MacMost, Macworld and Tom’s Guide), then check Finder > Settings > Tags > Tint folders based on tags and System Settings > Appearance > Folder color.
How do I change a folder back to blue on macOS Tahoe?
Apple does not say the default is blue; Macworld calls it “the default blue look”, and the default color follows System Settings > Appearance > Folder color. Clear any symbol or emoji, remove the tag color or switch off Tint folders based on tags, then check that setting.
Does removing a custom icon delete anything inside the folder?
Apple’s steps mention nothing beyond the icon. Howard Oakley of Eclectic Light says a folder’s custom icon is a hidden file named Icon? inside it, which points to appearance only. Keep your source image in case you want the icon again.
How do I reset folder icons that Mac+ applied?
Open Mac+, select the folders and click Reset, as the Mac+ site describes it. The site does not say Reset clears a macOS 26 or 27 tag color, symbol or emoji. The Get Info route should also work on a Mac+ icon, but that is untested.
Keep reading
Sources
- Apple Support — Customize the look of folders and files on Mac (macOS 26 guide; restore steps checked 7 October 2026)
- Apple Support — Change Appearance settings on Mac (Folder color)
- Apple Support — Change Finder settings on Mac (Tint folders based on tags, current version)
- Apple Support — Use tags to organize files on Mac
- Apple Support — Mac keyboard shortcuts
- Apple Support — How to force an app to quit on Mac (Relaunch Finder)
- Macworld — Tired of plain blue folders? macOS Tahoe’s deep customizations (Mahmoud Itani, 26 September 2025)
- Eclectic Light Company — Customising folders in Tahoe (Howard Oakley, 18 September 2025)