Where apps hide your files

System icons: CoreTypes.bundle and app icons

Updated 2026-10-28 · 6 min read

The stock icons for folders, documents, drives and the Trash are .icns files inside CoreTypes.bundle, while every app keeps its own icon in its package. Here are both locations and a safe way to copy an icon out.

The location

The system's stock icons for folders, files, the Trash, drives and hardware are .icns files in one bundle:

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

On the Mac used for this guide that folder holds about 265 .icns files. Among them:

File	Icon
GenericFolderIcon.icns	The plain blue folder
GenericApplicationIcon.icns	The generic app icon
GenericDocumentIcon.icns	The blank document
TrashIcon.icns, FullTrashIcon.icns	The empty and full Trash
DesktopFolderIcon.icns, DocumentsFolderIcon.icns, DownloadsFolder.icns, MusicFolderIcon.icns, PicturesFolderIcon.icns, MovieFolderIcon.icns	The special folders in your home folder
HomeFolderIcon.icns, LibraryFolderIcon.icns, UtilitiesFolder.icns	Home, Library and Utilities
Sidebar*.icns	The smaller Finder sidebar versions, for example SidebarDownloadsFolder.icns
com.apple.*.icns	Hardware: iMacs, displays, AirPort and Apple TV

To open the folder in Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder (⇧⌘G), paste the path and press Return. From Terminal:

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

Finder may show CoreTypes.bundle as a single item. Right-click it and choose Show Package Contents to get inside, or use the path above.

More icons in the Library folder

CoreTypes.bundle also has a Contents/Library folder with extra bundles, and some of them hold more icons:

• MobileDevices.bundle/Contents/Resources: the big one, about 450 .icns files on the Mac used for this guide, for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, iPod and HomePod models (for example com.apple.iphone-11-2.icns)
• CoreTypes-0003.bundle and its numbered siblings: a handful of newer Mac model icons, such as com.apple.macmini-2024.icns, in only some of them
• MobileDevices-0001.bundle and its siblings: a few more device icons

Others, such as MachineTypes.bundle and RawCameraTypes.bundle, held no .icns files on that Mac; they carry type declarations rather than pictures. Which file type uses which icon is mapped in CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Info.plist, a large property list (about 170 KB here) with a UTTypeIconFile entry per type. It is for reference: do not edit it.

App icons are separate

An app brings its own icon. Look inside the app:

/Applications/<App>.app/Contents/Resources

Right-click the app and choose Show Package Contents. The icon file is the one named by the CFBundleIconFile key in the app's Info.plist, often AppIcon.icns. Newer apps may instead keep icons in Assets.car, a compiled asset catalogue that Finder cannot browse. Pages and Notes on the Mac used for this guide have both an AppIcon.icns and an Assets.car, and their Info.plist names the icon with CFBundleIconName too.

Built-in Apple apps are in /System/Applications (and /System/Applications/Utilities), not in /Applications. Finder's own icon is FinderIcon.icns in /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources.

Getting an icon out the supported way

Anything you need to reuse should be copied, never moved. Two ways that change nothing:

1. From Finder. Select the item, choose File > Get Info (⌘I), click the small icon at the top of the Info window and choose Edit > Copy. In Preview, choose File > New from Clipboard and save the image.
2. From the file. Convert a copy into a PNG in a folder you own:

mkdir -p ~/Desktop/icons-copy
sips -s format png /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/GenericFolderIcon.icns --out ~/Desktop/icons-copy/folder.png

To split an .icns into every size it contains, use iconutil. It writes a new .iconset folder and leaves the original alone:

iconutil -c iconset /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/TrashIcon.icns -o ~/Desktop/icons-copy/trash.iconset

For TrashIcon.icns that produces PNGs from 16 pixels up to 512 pixels with a @2x version of each, so the largest is 1024 pixels square; other icons may hold fewer sizes. You can also open an .icns directly in Preview. Apple's icons are Apple's design: fine for a personal mock-up or a tutorial, not to ship in an app or a logo.

Changing icons: do it the safe way

Do not edit or replace files in CoreTypes.bundle. The system volume is sealed and CoreTypes.bundle is protected by System Integrity Protection; on the Mac used for this guide it carries the restricted flag.

For a single folder or file, use Finder instead:

1. Open the new image in Preview and choose Edit > Copy.
2. Select the folder, press ⌘I, click the small icon at the top of the Info window and choose Edit > Paste. If Paste is greyed out, you clicked the large preview icon instead.

That stores the icon with that one item and touches nothing in the system. To undo it, select the small icon in Get Info again and choose Edit > Cut, as Apple's guide describes. For app icons, a customised icon can be lost when the app updates; keep the image file to paste it back.

Why the icon looks wrong after a change

macOS caches rendered icons in a system store. On the Mac used for this guide it is /Library/Caches/com.apple.iconservices.store, owned by the _iconservices account and not readable by a normal user. If an icon looks stale, relaunching Finder or restarting the Mac is the usual first step. Do not delete the cache folder by hand.

Backing up your own icons

Custom icons you set in Get Info are attached to the item, so they travel with it in Time Machine or a copy made in Finder, but may be lost when the item is copied by tools that ignore extended attributes or resource forks. Keep the original PNG or .icns somewhere safe.

Why a normal search misses them

/System/Library is a protected system area, and Finder searches leave out system folders and the insides of app packages. The names are also not what the icon looks like: a blue folder is GenericFolderIcon.icns.

Finding an icon by name

Typing GenericFolderIcon, TrashIcon or just .icns into Everywhere lists the matching icon files in /System and inside app packages, with the folder beside each, so you can tell a system icon from one an app ships. Icons compiled into an app's Assets.car have no file of their own, so they will not appear. System folders are covered without extra setup. Press ⌘Y to preview a result before you copy it. It searches names only, so it can find the file called AppIcon.icns, but not tell you whose icon it is except by the folder it sits in.

Common questions

Where are the macOS system icons stored?

In /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources, as .icns files such as GenericFolderIcon.icns and TrashIcon.icns. Device icons for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch are in Contents/Library/MobileDevices.bundle inside the same bundle.

Where is an app's icon file on a Mac?

Inside the app: right-click it, choose Show Package Contents, and look in Contents/Resources for the file named by CFBundleIconFile, often AppIcon.icns. Newer apps may also store it in Assets.car.

How do I export a Mac icon as a PNG?

Run sips -s format png <file>.icns --out ~/Desktop/icon.png, or select the item, press ⌘I, click its small icon, choose Edit > Copy and use File > New from Clipboard in Preview.

Can I replace the default folder icon in macOS?

Not by editing CoreTypes.bundle, which SIP protects. Paste a new icon into one folder's Get Info window instead; it applies to that folder only, and Edit > Cut there restores the original.