Alias' Icons Look Different

[honestone]

The issue I am posting about could be application-related (SuperDuper!), OS 10.10.3 related, or related to my MacBook Air.

In any event, some kind of virus got onto my MacBook Air earlier this week. I was able to remove it with the free program Sophos Antivirus software (https://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx). It worked well, but my machine still ran slower than normal. I even used Disk Warrior to 1) check the health of my SSD, 2) check the files, 3) repair permissions, and 4) rebuild the directory. But, that still did not help much (if any).

So, using the SuperDuper! backup up I made last Sunday (prior to the virus issues), I booted the Air from that backup, use Disk Utility to Erase the SSD (used the middle of the slider for the Erase), and partitioned the drive (only need one partition at the outset). I then did a SuperDuper! restore to the SSD, and successfully re-booted the machine. (I also got Outlook back in sink, along with installing updated versions of Firefox, Google Chrome, Adobe's Flash Player, and Microsoft 2011 Office (version 14.5.0)). I also 1) used TechTool Pro to re-create the eDrive partition on the SSD (extremely useful for performing disk maintenance/repairs), and 2) used the excellent freeware tool Recovery Partition Creator to re-create the Recovery Partition on the SSD.

All of that worked well, the machine's speed is back to what it should be, but I have one minor issue. On my desktop, I have a folder entitled "New Internet". In it are aliases of Outlook, Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari. The icons for Firefox and Outlook are fine, but for Chrome and Safari, they now look like "document" aliases. That is, they are not the typical, colorful icons one associates with each of those. I tried to get those back by moving those icons to the trash, making aliases again for Chrome and Safari, and moving the aliases to that folder. But, they still look "yucky", that is, like document icons. I even created a new desktop folder and moved the aliases to that, but again with the same result.

When I previously needed to do a SuperDuper! restore for my MacMini (twice), that did not happen. That is, the icons looked fine. Thus, that is why I originally stated that I am not really sure what the issue is attributed to.

I suspect it is a simple setting somewhere, but I can't find it. Any advice/assistance, etc. would be appreciated!

 

[Cory Cooper]

-Do the alias icons look normal when you initially create them in the Applications folder...before you move them?
-If so, have you tried moving them to a newly created folder in another location - say, your Documents folder to see if the issue persists?
-Is it only those two icons that are incorrect?
-Have you tried repairing disk permissions?

That's an issue I haven't heard of, but we'll try and get to the bottom of it.

C

 

[honestone]

Thanks for the suggestions, Cory. It is now fixed, but not sure "how". Let me first answer your questions, and then I'll describe what I did:

1. The alias icons look fine when I create them, and also when I then move each alias icon to the desktop.

2. For Chrome, I did move it to various other folders, and it looked fine. For Safari, on some "initial" moves to other folders, it did not look OK. But, moving it back to the desktop resulted in it looking like normal. Eventually, it looked as expected.

3. Yes, those are the only two. As I mentioned, the other two aliases I have in that same desktop folder, Firefox and Outlook, have looked as expected from the beginning.

4. I repaired permissions with both Disk Utility and Onyx, but no changes.

#2 is basically what I did after repairing permissions to get it "fixed". That is, I created each aliases in my internet folder within my applications folder, moved each alias to the desktop, removed the previous, not normal looking aliases out of that desktop folder, and then moved the two from the desktop into the folder. All is good now.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Strange, but glad it's sorted.

C

 

[honestone]

Unfortunately, Cory, I "jumped the gun", so to speak. Shortly after doing what I said I did, they are back to looking like "document" icons. In fact, I just completed my weekly dis maintenance/repair/backup processing on both of my machines, and for the MacBook Air, those two icons still look the same!

With my processing, I first permanently get rid of deleted EMails in Outlook, then do all the maintenance and cleanup tasks in Onyx (including Repair Permissions), and then execute the numerous functions in TechTool Pro (Memory Test, Surface Scan, and perform the following checks: Volume Structures, File Structures, Video Memory, Fans Test, and Sensors Test; also do a rebuild of the Volume Directory, and a File Optimization (Volume Optimization does not apply as I have SSDs in both machines)). I then use SuperDuper! to make 2 backups of each machine on two different external devices.

No errors, issues, etc. were encountered with any of that, but the icon issue still persists on my MacBook Air for the aliases of Chrome and Safari only. Really, really perplexing!