Icon Finder

简体中文 | English

Find, copy, and inspect macOS icons without digging through system folders by hand.

Icon Finder is a small macOS app for everyday users who need a system icon, an application icon, or a file icon, with a few useful tools for designers and developers who want to inspect the original resources.

Project details: macOS Default Icons Locations

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Screenshots

Main browser

Filters

Assets.car browser

What you can do

• Browse a ready-made collection of macOS system and application icons.
• Search by icon name or file path.
• Copy the actual icon with one click.
• Copy the containing folder with an Option-click.
• Open the original folder or reveal an item in Finder.
• Inspect Assets.car catalogs used by macOS and Apple applications.
• Filter the browser by system/user collection and resource type.
• Add your own folders from Settings.
• Use Chinese or English; the language choice is remembered for the next launch.

Quick start

Download the app

The easiest way to use Icon Finder is to download the latest DMG from the GitHub Releases page. Open the DMG and drag Icon Finder.app to Drag to Here.

Icon Finder supports macOS 13 or later.

If macOS says the app is damaged

If macOS shows “Icon Finder is damaged and can’t be opened” after downloading the official DMG, first confirm that the app came from this repository’s GitHub Release. Then remove the downloaded-file quarantine attribute from the installed app:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Icon Finder.app"

After that, open Icon Finder.app again. This changes only the quarantine attribute on this app; it does not repair or modify the application code.

Build from source

You do not need an Xcode project.

Requirements:

• macOS 13 or later
• Swift and the macOS SDK

Build and open the app:

./build.sh
open ".build/Icon Finder.app"

Everyday use

When the app opens, it shows All Icons. The sidebar contains the available locations, and the main area shows the matching icons.

Find an icon

1. Choose All Icons to search everything.
2. Choose a sidebar directory to look only in that location.
3. Type a name or path in the search field.
4. Use Filter Types when you want to narrow the results.

The same Icon Finder commands are also available in the macOS View menu.

Copy an icon

• Click an ordinary icon to copy the icon itself. You can paste it into Finder, Preview, a design app, or another document.
• Hold ⌥ Option while clicking to copy the folder containing the icon.
• Right-click an icon for actions such as copying its path, copying its folder, or showing it in Finder.
• Right-click a sidebar directory to open the original directory or copy its path.

Keyboard shortcuts

• ⌥ Option-click an icon: copy the containing folder path.
• ⌥⌘R: reload the icon directories.
• ⌃⌘S: show or hide the sidebar.

Browse Assets.car

Assets.car is an Apple asset catalog that can contain many icons and other interface resources.

1. Find an Assets.car item in the browser.
2. Click it to open the catalog viewer.
3. Search resource names in the catalog viewer.
4. Right-click a resource to copy its name or the catalog path.

Only icon-like catalog entries receive previews. The app reads the catalog with Apple’s assetutil and generates previews with iconutil; temporary preview files are removed after use and the app does not intentionally keep a permanent cache.

Settings and language

Open Settings from the app menu to:

• choose Chinese or English;
• import folders that should appear in the sidebar;
• keep the selected filters between launches.

Changing the language shows a restart notice. Quit and reopen the app to apply the new language to the interface and menus.

Icon locations included by the app

The following fixed directories are loaded when they exist on the current macOS version:

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

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

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

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

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SystemDesktopAppearance.framework/Versions/A/Resources/

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

/System/Library/Templates/Data/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Library/MobileDevices.bundle/Contents/Resources/

The app also looks for icons inside applications in these locations:

/System/Library/CoreServices/*.app/Contents/Resources/

/System/Applications/*.app/Contents/Resources/

/Applications/*.app/Contents/Resources/

Application locations are intentionally limited to .icns and .car files so that ordinary application images do not overwhelm the browser. The folders imported through Settings are scanned recursively and may contain .icns, .car, PNG, JPG/JPEG, TIFF/TIF, GIF, BMP, and PDF resources.

Some directories may be unavailable because of the macOS version or file permissions. An unavailable location is shown in the sidebar and does not prevent the other locations from loading.

For developers

The app intentionally has no Xcode project. The main source file is IconFinder.swift, the bundle metadata is in Info.plist, and the app icon is Resources/IconArtwork.icns.

This release is v1.0.0. For maintainers preparing a new distribution, see RELEASE.md.

License

Icon Finder is released under the MIT License.