How to change App Store icons? I got close...

[krye]

OK, I have downloaded a ton of apps from the store. Part of what makes a great application is having a great icon. Unfortunately, some devs have picked really ugly icons for their apps. Especially this new one "LockBox". I mean does the icon have to say "LockBox" too?

I set out to find a way to change the icon. I tried it on my Mac, but no success. I did manage to get close on my PC at work (slow day).

What I did was navigate to the iTunes Mobile Applications folder and find the "lockbox.ipa" file. I then opened it with winzip to see the files inside. In there, there is an image file called "iTunesArtwork". I swapped it out with my own image. (This is where I had the problems on the Mac. Unstuffit basically expands it into a new folder. So when you swap the file out, it's just in a folder. I tried to archive it back up and change the extension to .ipa and set it to open with iTunes, but iTunes says it not a valid application.)

Anyway, I deleted the app from iTunes, and dragged my new one in. As you can see by my screenshot, the icon has updated to display my new image, but when you look at the details, the old image is still displayed. Since I'm actually doing this at work, I can't plug my iPhone into my computer to try it out. I suspect that the new image will not display on the iPhone.

So my question is this... had anyone successfully found a way to edit their app icons yet?

 

[Mal]

I believe the file you changed is used for display in iTunes, but not on the phone itself. I know you can do it, I'll post back once I found where I found the solution previously.

jW

 

[krye]

Cool. Thanks. I tried searching Google for it, but everything I found involves a jailbroken phone.

 

[Night Spring]

I tried modifying an ipa file this way, and when I tried to sync the modified app to my Touch, iTunes said something like the app file is not valid and didn't transfer it to the Touch.

 

[Bear Hunter]

Hey good work...keep us posted if you find a workaround. I totally agree about having a nice icon to round out a nice application.

 

[samwrigley1992]

If you edit an .ipa by changing it to .zip, opening it up, changing it, then zip the file, then change .zip to .ipa it will never work. Because you have unzipped it, iTunes will always say 'invalid application'. However the reason the icon doesn't seem to change is because you need to edit another .png, which you can find Payload --> (right click on the file and choose show content) -->icon.png. You need to change this, however most computer dont recognize the .png file (something to do with only iPhone can read it)

To get the app to work when opening with iTunes, I would download the free iPhone SDK then you will be able to open the .ipa file without having to unzip it, which then makes it an invalid application.

Hope this helps (sorry if some bits are wrong and dont work)
Trying to get it to work my self, only way I can thing of so far.

 

[lindsayanng]

what do you mean most computers dont recognize .png? If you have fireworks or illustrator, or ANY graphics program, you are likely to be able to create a .png.

 

[Night Spring]

what do you mean most computers dont recognize .png? If you have fireworks or illustrator, or ANY graphics program, you are likely to be able to create a .png.

The "icon.png" file inside the ipa files won't open in any of the regular graphics programs I have.

 

[osirisX]

what do you mean most computers dont recognize .png? If you have fireworks or illustrator, or ANY graphics program, you are likely to be able to create a .png.

The PNGs in iPhone apps are encoded. You need to decode them before they can be read in a graphics app.

Use this to decode them: http://www.newsfirex.com/blog/?p=176

 

[Bear Hunter]

If you edit an .ipa by changing it to .zip, opening it up, changing it, then zip the file, then change .zip to .ipa it will never work. Because you have unzipped it, iTunes will always say 'invalid application'. However the reason the icon doesn't seem to change is because you need to edit another .png, which you can find Payload --> (right click on the file and choose show content) -->icon.png. You need to change this, however most computer dont recognize the .png file (something to do with only iPhone can read it)

To get the app to work when opening with iTunes, I would download the free iPhone SDK then you will be able to open the .ipa file without having to unzip it, which then makes it an invalid application.

Hope this helps (sorry if some bits are wrong and dont work)
Trying to get it to work my self, only way I can thing of so far.

So your saying that you think opening with SDK and changing the icon.png will work?

Anyone who has SDK able to confirm or deny? If this works someone could use photoshop and establish a theme for third party app icons on their phone.

 

[krye]

I couldn't get Xcode to open it. Looks like we're bust.

 

[samwrigley1992]

'Anyone who has delved into the internals of the iPhone’s OS probably knows that, for whatever reason, .png files on the iPhone are encoded in a manner that makes them unreadable by normal image editing programs.'

http://www.newsfirex.com/blog/?p=176

That link should help you view and change the icon.png file.

However there is this still the problem with iTunes saying 'not a valid application'. I not sure how to work around this yet, because zipping it then unzipping causes the problem. Does any one know a way to view the contents of an .ipa file with out zipping it?

I still have a feel you will be able to open the .ipa in the iPhone SDK somewhere (haven't checked yet) Then there is no need to zip the .ipa file.

If anyone knows anymore information, could you kindly post a reply.
I want to get it working too!

Cheers

 

[samwrigley1992]

So your saying that you think opening with SDK and changing the icon.png will work?

No use the link in the above comment to change the icon.png from encoded to decoded so you can view it, but once you have done that itunes will then say 'not a valid application'. To get around this, instead of open the .ipa file by renaming it will .zip open the .ipa file in the iPhone SDK then chnage the icon.png file and resave it.

Should work.
If it doesnt let me know, i'll try and find a new way

Thanks

 

[SarahJ123]

Seemed easy to me...

I just found the file and opened it with Paint.Net. (http://www.getpaint.net)
Anyway, to see if it would work i changed Remote.app to a different color play symbol. i replaced the icon and it worked fine. Plus, somehow it rounded the edges on its own! When i was editing the .png it was a square with pointed corners. But when i pput it on my ipod it was rounded!

remove spaces and go here to see it:

s510. photobucket. com/albums/s346/sarahj1234567890/? action=view& current=photo.jpg

 

[Bear Hunter]

I just found the file and opened it with Paint.Net. (http://www.getpaint.net)
Anyway, to see if it would work i changed Remote.app to a different color play symbol. i replaced the icon and it worked fine. Plus, somehow it rounded the edges on its own! When i was editing the .png it was a square with pointed corners. But when i pput it on my ipod it was rounded!

Hey congrats! Please list the steps you used from the beginning (how you opened the file, where the .png was listed, etc, how you closed out of the file, etc..)

I imagine since you opened it up in paint.net, that photoshop would surely work.

Thanks!

 

[SarahJ123]

Hey congrats! Please list the steps you used from the beginning (how you opened the file, where the .png was listed, etc, how you closed out of the file, etc..)

I imagine since you opened it up in paint.net, that photoshop would surely work.

Thanks!

well I'll admit that my iPod is jailbroken so I found the pic thru winscp and openssh. But it would also be in the ipa folder too. I saved it to my desktop as a png. Then I just pushed open with: paint.net and it came right up. I didn't have to decode or anything probably because I was inside the iPods root system folder. I selected the blue triangle with the magic wand and drew a gradient over it from the center(white) to the outside (red). It stays inside the selected part so the rest if the icon was not changed. I replaced that with the original copy and rebooted my iPod. And wala. I took a screenshot by pressing home and power at the same time. It puts it in my photos so I emailed the shot and cropped/ grayed out the rest of the picture.

 

[philgilder]

well I'll admit that my iPod is jailbroken

well that makes all the difference

 

[SarahJ123]

you could find the png file and decode it and do what i did, couldn't you? oh well... anyway here are some more:
Teleport default: http://i510.photobucket.com/albums/s346/sarahj1234567890/Teleport.png
Teleport I made: http://i510.photobucket.com/albums/s346/sarahj1234567890/Teleport2.png
Sketches I made: http://i510.photobucket.com/albums/s346/sarahj1234567890/Sketches.png
Don't know why its a k it just looked cool.

I'll make a lockbox photo for you but i dont know how you'll put it in the folder without unzipping. you would have to do the sdk package to open then seal.

Here you go: A custom made lockbox icon. you would need to find the original icon.png and add ".bak" to it, making it icon.png.bak then rename the custom one to icon.png.
http://i510.photobucket.com/albums/s346/sarahj1234567890/lock.png
OH YEAH: IF THE ORIGINAL FILE WAS Icon.png then you must rename the custom one Icon.png.

!!! icon.png is NOT the same as Icon.png OR ICON.png OR IcOn.png , etc...