3

My music/iTunes icon:

  • is present in the Dock
  • has gone from some panes of System Preferences.

This first screenshot is from the Spotlight pane, the icon is expected to the left of Music:

Spotlight preferences

The second shot is from the CDs & DVDs pane, the icon is expected to the left of Open iTunes:

CD&DVD

How do I get these icons back?

System:

  • MacBook Pro
  • Snow Leopard 10.6.8

What I tried:

  • reboot
  • login/logout
  • trash Finder and Dock preference files

Edit 1:

The output of the grep command suggested by Graham Perrin in the comments is as follows:

Laptop:~ myname$ system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType | grep iTunes.app  
      Location: /Applications/iTunes.app

In the Language & Text pane, three languages are present in the following order:

  • British English
  • Dutch
  • Russian

Logging into a fresh user account does not solve the issue. The same icon is missing in the same places.


Edit 2: Output for command /usr/bin/mdimport -L

Laptop:~ myname$ /usr/bin/mdimport -L 2012-10-24 11:12:32.307
mdimport[34295:903] Paths: id(501) (
    "/Library/Spotlight/iWork.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Font.mdimporter",
    "/Library/Spotlight/Microsoft Office.mdimporter",
    "/Developer/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/SourceCode.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Audio.mdimporter",
    "/Applications/Parallels Desktop.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/ParallelsMD.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Image.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Application.mdimporter",
    "/Applications/SPSS/SPSSStatistics.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/SPSSSpotlightImporter.mdimporter",
    "/Library/Spotlight/AppleWorks.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/RichText.mdimporter",
    "/Developer/Applications/Utilities/Application Loader.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/MZSpotlight.mdimporter",
    "/Applications/OmniGraffle Professional 5.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/OmniGraffle.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/CoreMedia.mdimporter",
    "/Applications/Sente 6.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/Sente6MI.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Chat.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/iPhoto.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/PS.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Mail.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/vCard.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/PDF.mdimporter",
    "/Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/iPhoto8.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Bookmarks.mdimporter",
    "/Applications/TeX Live Utility.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/DVIImporter.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/SystemPrefs.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/iCal.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/MIDI.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/QuartzComposer.mdimporter",
    "/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Google Earth Web Plug-in.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Google Earth for Plugin.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/Google Earth.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Automator.mdimporter",
    "/Users/b8i/Library/Spotlight/EndNote.mdimporter",
    "/Developer/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/uuid.mdimporter"
)

Edit 3: Although the bounty has run out I still don't have a solution for this problem.


Edit 4:
I have been poking around and through the "Open Files and Ports" function of the Activity Monitor I think I found the location where the images are loaded from. The file is:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreUI.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ArtFile.bin

Unfortunately I cannot open this file. Does anyone know how to open the file to see if that is the place where the images are loaded from?
When I rename Artfile.bin almost no application starts.


Edit 5:

The Garageband application does show the iTunes icon: enter image description here

9
  • Did you try changing the icon for iTunes in the past?
    – Gerry
    Oct 9, 2012 at 9:56
  • No, I did not change the iTunes icon. Oct 9, 2012 at 9:59
  • @GrahamPerrin I've added the requested information to my question. Oct 24, 2012 at 2:39
  • I'll be tracking this. I have the exact same problem, and have even reinstalled 10.6.8 (for something else, not this) along the way, with no change. It started when I updated iTunes to 10.6.3 a few months ago. It took several tries to get the update to install, and when it finally went through - no icon in several places throughout the system. Good luck.
    – soxman
    Oct 24, 2012 at 4:32
  • @soxman if you have the install.log files from that period, you could ask a separate (linked) question: Why did installations of iTunes 10.6.3 fail? Oct 24, 2012 at 7:00

5 Answers 5

2
+25

By reinstalling iTunes, did you completely trash the application and then copy it anew? Sometimes simply overwriting the existing installation doesn't do the trick.

1
  • I used TrashMe to remove iTunes. Then I downloaded iTunes again from the iTunes website. Oct 21, 2012 at 10:55
1

Reinstall iTunes. The icons in the Spotlight preference window and other areas of OSX are mostly derived from the application bundle. It looks like the iTunes icon package has become corrupted. A reinstall will eliminate that as the reason.

1
  • Reinstalled iTunes, restarted, but nothing has changed. Oct 9, 2012 at 13:10
0

Type

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/ToolbarMusicFolderIcon.icns:

into terminal.app to see if ToolbarMusicFolderIcon.ics exists.

If not, here is my copy. Download it and place it in:

/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/
5
  • That's not the right icon. On my system, both of the OP's missing icons are the iTunes app icon, not that one.
    – jmk
    Oct 21, 2012 at 5:16
  • That's indeed not the icon I'm looking for, but I also don't have the file if I use the command in Terminal. Oct 21, 2012 at 10:55
  • Oh :( sorry about that then
    – Alexander
    Oct 22, 2012 at 15:44
  • That's also the wrong command. The icns file is not executable, so it will fail on any system. What you probably mean is sudo ls ....
    – guwac
    Oct 24, 2012 at 10:44
  • Actually it's not really a command, that's the point.. it'll either say if it's a file, a directory or that no such file/directory exists.
    – Alexander
    Oct 25, 2012 at 1:50
0

Have you tried resetting Launch Services?

3
0

Although reinstalling iTunes did not help, updating did. I just downloaded iTunes 11 and now all icons are back where they should be.

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