Icons missing in Mac

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#1

Just installed LibreOffice 5.1.6.2 (according to the “Get Info” information) on my Mac (MacOS Sierra 10.12.2). The LibreOffice icon itself in the Applications folder is correct, but all of the .ods and .odt files I have created show the generic Mac file icon, rather than a specific icon. I took a peek at the package contents, and in the Info.plist file, there are references to icns files, which files exist in the Resources folder. I reset the launch services using lsregister, rebooted … no change.

I’d upload screenshots to help, but evidently your system is set up to distrust new LibreOffice users so … sorry (not really my fault, but I’m Canadian, so apologizing is second nature). Feels like sort of a lukewarm welcome to this software so far. Anyway, thanks for any advice.

P.S. If certain tags are REQUIRED in order to post a question, perhaps that could be more clearly indicated on the screen somewhere?

#2

I’m not familiar with the Mac interface, but… Is it possible that for some reason LibO files are not registered correctly as being handled by LibO applications?

#3

I have since discovered that icons for LibreOffice files appear in SOME folders, but not others. So if the system recognizes some LibO files are LibO files, is must not be a systemic “not being registered” issue. Even more interesting … sometimes, if I copy a file that has no icon from one folder to another, it gets an icon in the new folder, but still doesn’t have an icon in the old folder. Seems completely random to me. Again, I’d upload screenshots, but I’m new and untrusted, so …

#4

I have encountered the same problem on Mac, have there been any news?
Microsoft Word was pre-installed on the fresh system and all odt-files show the MS Word icon although they are opened by LibreOffice by default.
Is this related to this bug? https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=98540

#5

The “generic document icon problem” with .ods files does seem to be with the Info.plist file, which associates the file extension[s] with icons. In it, there are three entries for Calc documents:

‘sxc’ is associated with ‘spreadsheet.icns’
‘ods’ is associated with ‘oasis-spreadsheet.icns’
‘fods’ is associated with ‘oasis-spreadsheet.icns’

‘spreadsheet.icns’ is the expected green icon normally associated with .ods documents.You can verify this by selecting any .ods file displayed with the generic icon and changing the file extension from .ods to .sxc and presto! the desired icon appears.

Even more puzzling is that if these two .icns files are copied to the desktop, they both appear with the usual green icon (tho oasis-spreadsheet.icns is almost four times the size of spreadsheet.icns). Unfortunately, one can’t simply edit Info.plist to change the association of ‘.ods’ files to ‘spreadsheet.icns’, because LO will crash at launch with a code-signing error. I don’t know any way to work around this. This whole issue appears to be related to https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=98540 which indicates “new” and “not assigned” status.

Tested on MacOS 10.12.6, LibreOffice 6.0.7 and 5.3.7

#6

I’m on macOS 10.14.3. I just migrated from AOO 4.1.6 to LO 6.2.1.2. The icons for all my .ods, .odt, and .odg files changed to the generic macOS file icon (not the similar-looking LO icon). Any progress or advice on this problem?

Also, are there any Mac users out there who installed LO first, and had never previously installed AOO or any software based on OpenOffice.org or StarOffice? Maybe they only ever previously had MS Office for Mac or Apple Pages/Numbers/Keynote? Do their LO Writer/Calc/Draw/Impress/Base files have distinctive icons, or just the generic macOS icon?

Or, if I completely uninstalled AOO - including finding and deleting all the AOO configuration files in all the nooks and crannies in the Library, etc. - would that give LO files their proper icons?

#7

I may have a fix or a workaround. I’m not sure if it is fixed permanently or temporarily.

I noticed that every time LibreOffice launched, it was like a new volume was being mounted. I went to the system console and found LibreOffice was launching from some cryptic path through “AppTranslocation”. I looked up AppTranslocation, and it has something to do with macOS gatekeeper security and non-MacAppStore applications.

I gathered from what I read that if you initially launch an application from a disk image before moving it to your applications folder, it will go into security mode and start launching LibreOffice from a translocated path. I don’t know how or why that would throw off .ods file icons yet not affect any other LibreOffice icons. All I know is that my “fix” is working right now.

LibreOffice is no longer launching from a cryptic “AppTranslocated” path, and the icons are working properly.

The Fix

I did a complete uninstall of LibreOffice. I uninstalled the application as well as:

  • ~/Library/Preferences/org.libreoffice.script.plist
  • ~/Library/Application Support/LibreOffice/
  • ~/Library/Saved Application State/org.libreoffice.script.savedState/
  • /private/var/folders/l9/6chrs1td3tj7z8cgq70jrg040000gp/C/org.libreoffice.script/

I re-downloaded the latest version of LibreOffice, opened the disk image, and copied the LibreOffice application to my Applications folder before I launched it for the first time.

I then launched it for the first time, created a new spreadsheet document, and saved it as an .ods file. The correct icon showed up.

Another .ods document I’ve been working on still did not display the correct icon. I opened the document and re-saved it. The correct icon immediately appeared.

I don’t know if I found the correct reason for the icon problem, and I don’t know if this is a permanent fix. But everything is working so far.

Hope that helps

LibreOffice 6.2.4.2
macOS 10.12.6

#8

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