Adding a Sidebar Icon to my FinderSync extension

Question

I'm developing a FinderSync extension based on the following documentation:

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/General/Conceptual/ExtensibilityPG/Finder.html

I'm failing to add a sidebar icon.

I've followed the steps: Created the .iconset folder and filled it with the requested PNGs. Added the folder to my info.plist etc.

But I don't see any icon in the sidebar on my monitored folders.

Context menu, toolbar button and badges works fine.

What could I be missing? Is there any limitation that the documentation fails to mention? Anything tricky with step 4?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 17 '15 at 12:58

2

Apparently its indeed extremely important to obey Apple's constraints regarding the icons: they must be

"monochromatic images that are drawn just using black and transparency"

To my surprise, when a designer gave me pngs that complied with the mentioned above, everything worked like a charm.

Please comment if you encounter any other difficulty, as the documentation is very lacking.

answered Aug 17 '15 at 12:58

Mugen

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Hi @Mugen I want to achieve the same and followed the documentation. But on following the documentation i get a compile time error. – Sandeep T D S May 26 '17 at 09:48
`Variant named 'template' contains no image resources.` `Failed to generate ICSN data for variant named 'template'` `Command /usr/bin/iconutil emitted errors but did not return a nonzero exit code to indicate failure.` – Sandeep T D S May 26 '17 at 09:49
We used Photoshop to create the images, they don't have to be icons per se – Mugen May 28 '17 at 06:14
For my app in 10.14 and 10.15, [the custom sidebar icon is appearing even without even providing an `.iconset`](https://github.com/knurling/ServiceStation/issues/40). Quite annoying, as I *don't want* the sidebar icons be replaced. – pkamb Jun 28 '20 at 16:09

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 28 '20 at 16:07

The documentation mentions several exceptions where your app icon will not replace the folder's icon:

The sidebar icons you provide will replace the default folder icons in the Finder’s sidebar for any of the root folders that your extension is monitoring.

This icon does not replace the icon for any folders contained by your monitored folder.

It also does not replace the icon for any system folders that you may be monitoring (for example, Documents, Desktop, Applications, and Downloads).

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/General/Conceptual/ExtensibilityPG/Finder.html

Adding a Sidebar Icon to my FinderSync extension

2 Answers2