Hello everyone,
I'm developing a macOS application that programmatically sets custom icons for folders, and I've hit a wall trying to get Finder to display the icon changes consistently.
The Goal:
To change a folder's icon using NSWorkspace.shared.setIcon and have Finder immediately show the new icon.
What I've Tried (The Refresh Mechanism):
After setting the icon, I attempt to force a Finder refresh using several sandbox-friendly techniques:
Updating the Modification Date (the "touch" method):
try FileManager.default.setAttributes([.modificationDate: Date()], ofItemAtPath: pathToUse)
Notifying NSWorkspace:
NSWorkspace.shared.noteFileSystemChanged(pathToUse)
Posting Distributed Notifications:
DistributedNotificationCenter.default().post(name: Notification.Name("com.apple.Finder.FolderChanged"), object: pathToUse)
The Problem:
This combination of methods works perfectly, but only under specific conditions:
When setting a custom icon on a folder for the first time.
When changing the icon of an alias.
For any subsequent icon change on a regular folder, Finder stubbornly displays the old, cached icon. I've confirmed that the user can see the new icon by manually closing and reopening the folder window, but this is obviously not a user-friendly solution.
Investigating a Reset with AppleScript:
I've noticed that the AppleScript update command seems to force the kind of complete refresh I need:
tell application "Finder"
update POSIX file "/path/to/your/folder"
end tell
Running this seems to reset the folder's state in Finder, effectively recreating the "first-time set" scenario where my other methods work.
However, the major roadblock is that I can't figure out how to reliably execute this from a sandboxed environment. I understand it likely requires specific scripting entitlements, but it's unclear which ones would be needed for this update command on a user-chosen folder, or if it's even permissible for the App Store.
My Questions:
Is there a reliable, sandbox-safe way to make the standard Cocoa methods (noteFileSystemChanged, updating the modification date, etc.) work for subsequent icon updates on regular folders? Am I missing a step?
If not, what is the correct way to configure a sandboxed app's entitlements to safely run the tell application "Finder" to update command for a folder the user has granted access to?
Any insight or alternative approaches would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
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