How To Change Folder Color On MacOS Sierra

5 min readAug 9, 2017

*Instructions work for MacOS Sierra 10.12 and earlier

OPTION 1: BEGINNERS

If you have 5 minutes to spare (give or take, depending on how many folders you have), follow these few easy steps to change the colours of your folders on your Apple macOS Sierra operated system.

Step 1.

Download Ania’s Folder Icon Colour Pack here ➡️ https://www.activek.co/ios/color-mac-folders

Save it somewhere in your Documents folder, or another folder that it won’t bother you in, and you won’t accidentally delete it from. Ie. you probably don’t want to just save it to Downloads.

Step 2.

Open up the folder you just downloaded containing the preset folder icons side-by-side the icons you want to change the colours of. This will probably be your desktop or your documents folder.

Step 3.

Pick the first folder you want to modify the colour for. Right-click on it, and select to Get Info.

Step 4.

Pick the folder colour you want to use from the icons pack. Right-click on it, and select Open.

Step 5.

Select the first folder. Press Command C to copy it.

Step 6.

Click on the folder icon in the Get Info window of the folder you want to modify. Press Command V to paste the icon colour.

Before:

After:

Continue to do this for all the other folders you’d like to modify the colours of.

Simply choose a new colour from Ania’s Folder Icon Colour Pack and follow Steps 3 to 6 till you’re happy with your new colourful Mac experience.

OPTION 2: ADVANCED

If you have some time and want to get super creative to perfectly colour-code your folders to match your (no-doubt) impeccably designed desktops and folder structure, follow this set of instructions to modify your folder colours to be any colour of the rainbow … and beyond.

Step 1:

Download Ania’s Folder Icon Colour Pack here ➡️https://www.activek.co/ios/color-mac-folders

Save it somewhere in your Documents folder, or another folder that it won’t bother you in, and you won’t accidentally delete it from. Ie. you probably don’t want to just save it to Downloads.

Step 2.

Open up the folder you just downloaded containing the preset folder icons side-by-side the icons you want to change the colours of. This will probably be your desktop or your documents folder.

Step 3:

Pick any of the icons in the colour icon pack (it doesn’t matter which). Right-click on it, select Open.

Step 4:

Now with the folder open, go to File and select Duplicate.

Step 5:

Type in a new name to for the duplicate created. You will use this one to make your new icon colour. Press Command S to save the new folder under the new name.

Step 6:

Go to Tools and select Adjust Colour.

Step 7:

Now you have all the settings visible for creating your new colour of the folder.

While adjusting the levels and other settings, be sure to remember what adjustments you have made, as you will have to go through them 10 times.

Step 8:

Once you are happy with the new colour you have created, select the next folder icon that is still the original colour (in the left menu you have 10 folder icons, all of which are different sizes). Repeat the exact same modifications that you made in levels and other colour settings to make this folder the same as the first.

Repeat this until all 10 folder icons are the same colour. Then press Command S to save them.

Step 9:

Go through Steps 3 to 9 to create as many new folder icon colours as you’d like.

Step 10:

Once you have all the folder icon colours you want to use, go to a folder on your Desktop or in your Documents (or anywhere that you have a folder you would like to change the colour of). Right-click on it, and select Get Info.