How to Add a Picture to a Folder on Mac

This minHour teaches you how to replace any of your Mac's default folder icons with your own custom image. This can be helpful if you have a particular folder you use often and want it to stand out from the others. You can replace any of your Mac's default file or folder icons with any image file saved to your computer.

Steps

Double-click the picture you want to use as your folder icon.

This opens the picture in Preview.

Click the Edit menu and select Copy.

The picture is now copied to your clipboard.

Open Finder on your Mac.

It’s the two-toned smiley face icon on the Dock, which you’ll find at the bottom of the screen.

Click the folder you want to change.

This selects the folder.

  • Make sure you just click the folder one time so you don’t accidentally open it.

Click the File menu and select Get Info.

This opens some information about the folder.

Click the folder’s current icon.

It’s in the upper-left area of the window.

Click the Edit menu and select Paste.

Now you’ll see the image you copied earlier replace the previous icon.

  • If you want to restore a folder’s original icon, just come back to this screen, select the current icon, and then select Edit > Cut.

Tips

  • You may want to use an icon with a transparent background for a clean look.
  • If you want to make a folder’s icon the same as another folder or file’s icon, select the other file or folder, go to File > Get Info, click the icon, and select Edit > Copy. Then you can paste that icon into the other file’s “Get Info” screen.
  • You can often find free icons available for download. Try searching the web for “free Mac icons” or “Mac folder icons” to see what’s out there.

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