The Case of the Mismatched popOS icons

 

There’s a lot to like about Linux, but there are some parts that feel like it’s still not quite there. I ran into one such issue a few weeks back, with no solution in sight. The issue is mismatched icons. Some of my icons are sporting colors, while others are black and white. On a dark background, these black and white icons are almost invisible.

Searching for solutions on the Internet led me down the rabbit hole of installing GNOME Tweaks, uninstalling GNOME Tweaks, making an .icons folder inside my home folder, and even attempting to install new icons to replace what’s currently present.

I’ve even run terminal commands to clear the icon cache, followed by rebooting the machine. Nothing has worked so far.

I’m having this icon mismatch issue on two computers running popOS. For now, I’m throwing up my hands in defeat. I wish there was a more intuitive method of customizing icons in Linux, like there is on macOS.

-Krishna

Update: I couldn’t find a solution, but I *did* make the icon inconsistencies going away by updating both of my computers to popOS’s COSMIC Desktop (currently in alpha). It’s not quite the solution I was looking for, but nevertheless, it’s what worked. More on COSMIC Desktop in a future blog post.

Krishna August 24, 2024 application icons mismatch, icons, popOS