Random folders have wrong icon in Finder

[usagora]

Just noticed today that a small number of random folders (these are on a NAS, if that makes any difference) are showing a QuickTime MP4 icon instead of a folder icon. What's going on here?

I can see nothing unique about these folders compared to any others, and when I click "more info" on them the Inspector window shows a normal file icon in the "Preview" section.

 

[Nermal]

Does Get Info list their "Kind" as Folder? I've seen this before where they get reported as "AVCHD Collection" (notably the BDMV folder when you're looking at a Blu-ray).

 

[usagora]

Does Get Info list their "Kind" as Folder? I've seen this before where they get reported as "AVCHD Collection" (notably the BDMV folder when you're looking at a Blu-ray).

Omg I didn't even notice that - these are showing "Kind: MPEG-4 movie" - what the??? They are most definitely folders with files and sub-folders inside them. How utterly bizarre.

 

[Nermal]

I've never been able to figure out how to make them appear as normal folders. You can open them via right-click > Show Package Contents.

 

[usagora]

I've never been able to figure out how to make them appear as normal folders. You can open them via right-click > Show Package Contents.

That's not an option for these. It's a total mystery to me because they just contain normal image and video files just like all the other folders around them.

 

[bob_zz123]

The same thing is happening to me on 15.4, seems pretty random as far as I can tell apart from it (anecdotally) appears to happen on folders with large numbers of files inside. Everything still works OK so I'm content to wait for the inevitable bug fix in the next update, but still annoying.

 

[usagora]

Wow, so now today I discover an EMPTY folder that has transformed into the same QuickTime MP4 icon instead of a folder icon - this folder has never had anything ever put in it, so it can't be because of the folder contents that it's changed. And yes, I toggled on show hidden files to be sure there definitely wasn't anything in the folder.

 

[antibolo]

I'm having the exact same problem. Some files (not just folders, but mostly folders) seem to be randomly assigned incrorrect file types in the Finder, but otherwise working just fine when I open them.

They also report incorrect file sizes, ie. the normal and "on disk" sizes are completely mismatched, moreso than what you would usually see. Like a tiny file reported as 130MB or something.

Also, files I'm 100% certain I haven't modified have their file dates updated to a later time. I compared with backups and the contents still match though (proven 100% identical via checksums).

And most worryingly, those are persistent across reboots, not just temporary hickups.

And it's happening to both my internal volume and an external one.

From what I can tell it seems that macOS is randomly mixing up the APFS metadata of individual files, but if it's a OS problem then why would it not affect more people? Searching online this is the only instance of somebody else talking about it that I could find.

I guess malware is a very real possibility, but I don't know how I would check for that?

I'm seriously starting to freak out about it...

 

[Rafael Santos]

I'm having the exact same problem. Some files (not just folders, but mostly folders) seem to be randomly assigned incrorrect file types in the Finder, but otherwise working just fine when I open them.

They also report incorrect file sizes, ie. the normal and "on disk" sizes are completely mismatched, moreso than what you would usually see. Like a tiny file reported as 130MB or something.

Also, files I'm 100% certain I haven't modified have their file dates updated to a later time. I compared with backups and the contents still match though (proven 100% identical via checksums).

And most worryingly, those are persistent across reboots, not just temporary hickups.

And it's happening to both my internal volume and an external one.

From what I can tell it seems that macOS is randomly mixing up the APFS metadata of individual files, but if it's a OS problem then why would it not affect more people? Searching online this is the only instance of somebody else talking about it that I could find.

I guess malware is a very real possibility, but I don't know how I would check for that?

I'm seriously starting to freak out about it...

Same thing here, but since it is random and not threatening as far as I know, I am not considering it is malware.
I'll later reboot in safe mode and check the disks just in case, but it seems a file system issue for me.

 

[antibolo]

I just hope that 15.6 (currently in release candidate, probably releasing very soon) will fix this once and for all.

Though I guess this has been a thing since at least 15.4, so maybe not...

 

[darkpaw]

This has been happening to me since 15.4. It's completely random.

 

[antibolo]

Currently installing 15.6, any reports of the bug still present or not so far?

 

[rolandsz]

I had this exact issue and it was driving me nuts. It was going especially crazy on one of my external drives with a lot of files, random folders and project files turning into MP4s and such.
Updated to 15.6 today and it appears to be fixed, said drive looks all good at the moment, fingers crossed it stays this way.

 

[usagora]

Updated to 15.6 today and it appears to be fixed, said drive looks all good at the moment, fingers crossed it stays this way.

Can confirm so far as well! Had a USB drive that had two folders showing up as MP4 icons. Was still on 15.5. Just updated to 15.6 and now those same files are showing the proper folder icons 🎉

 

[antibolo]

Can also confirm! I had an external drive that had TONS of glitches in 15.4 and 15.5, haven't seen any since upgrading to 15.6! So glad this is over! 🎉

 

[iPaulie81]

I have also been experiencing this. Happens to files and folders on external drives too. Hopefully fixed on 15.6 update. I haven't updated yet, but will soon. We should report the issue to Apple if it continues.

 

[rolandsz]

Can confirm so far as well! Had a USB drive that had two folders showing up as MP4 icons. Was still on 15.5. Just updated to 15.6 and now those same files are showing the proper folder icons 🎉

It looks like I was quick to celebrate, the MP4 icons are starting to return on my external drive... Maybe the update cleared some spotlight / index cache but the root issue remains it seems, at least for me.

 

[usagora]

It looks like I was quick to celebrate, the MP4 icons are starting to return on my external drive... Maybe the update cleared some spotlight / index cache but the root issue remains it seems, at least for me.

Well damn. So far so good still over here.

 

[antibolo]

And it just happened to me again yesterday...

Intrestingly, this time it was on a ExFAT volume, so I guess my previous assumption that this was a APFS-specific bug was incorrect.

UPDATE: And now it's 100% back on my usual volume and just as bad as before... I'm beginning to think that this is more and more likely to happen the longer one has been since the last reboot.

 

[rolandsz]

And it just happened to me again yesterday...

Intrestingly, this time it was on a ExFAT volume, so I guess my previous assumption that this was a APFS-specific bug was incorrect.

UPDATE: And now it's 100% back on my usual volume and just as bad as before... I'm beginning to think that this is more and more likely to happen the longer one has been since the last reboot.

Yes, you might be on to something, I just rebooted and my external drive looks clean again. The amount of false icons between this reboot and my update to 15.6 weren't as crazy as on 15.5 though. So yeah, they might be accumulating over time. This is some weird indexing cache issue I guess.

 

[usagora]

Well damn. So far so good still over here.

Recently it started happening again, sadly, but not nearly as widespread as before. Seems to be only happening on my external USB drives.

 

[antibolo]

For what it's worth, according to my investigation this issue is just Finder being stupid. There is no actual filesystem corruption, as the file dates that are wrong in Finder look fine if I check them via ls -l in a terminal.

 

[usagora]

Recently it started happening again, sadly, but not nearly as widespread as before. Seems to be only happening on my external USB drives.

Seems worse now on Tahoe

Those are all folders on my USB thumb drive.

 

[diamondsw]

I've been dealing with this one for months. What I can contribute:

• It's not in the filesystem itself; files/folders behave normally, and other programs show proper data, as long as they're using their own routines and not info handed from macOS (e.g., filesize).
• Command-line utilities show the correct data (e.g. du).
• It's not limited to local disks; I see it most commonly on NAS folders.
• It can affect more metadata than just the icon/filetype - I have the Finder showing one ~600KB file as "2KB".
• Incorrect icons and metadata persist across reboots, indicating it's a cache somewhere that's gotten corrupted and needs to be cleared.

Extremely disappointed to hear that this is not fixed in Tahoe. But then again, what was the last time Apple actually focused on fixing bugs?

 

[StevenB14]

Thought I was going mad until I found this thread. Been happening to me over the last month or so. Strangely, this thread seems to be the only place I can find discussing this issue.

A reboot clears up the issue for me for a period of time but it slowly comes back. More annoying than anything else.

Just updated to 15.7.1 (not pulled the trigger on Tahoe yet) so we'll see if/when the icons and file types start to mess up.