How to change an application icon on Ubuntu

Ubuntu Desktop users (any recent release – 22.04 LTS, 23.10, 24.04, 25.04, etc.) who want to replace the whole icon set, custom‑tweak a single application’s icon, or give a folder its own picture.
Prerequisites: A working internet connection, basic comfort with the terminal, and a user account with sudo rights.

1. Understanding Ubuntu’s Icon System

Why GNOME Tweaks?
GNOME Tweaks is the graphical front‑end that talks to the underlying GSettings keys (org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme). It’s the safest way to switch themes without editing config files manually.

2. Changing the Entire Icon Theme (System‑Wide)

2.1 Download a New Icon Theme

1. Visit a reputable source, e.g. gnome‑look.org.
2. Search for “icon theme”, filter by GNOME or Ubuntu compatibility, and pick a theme you like (e.g., Papirus, Tela, Sweet, Numix, Yaru‑colors).
3. Click Download – you’ll get a *.tar.gz (or *.zip) archive.

Tip: If you want a theme that matches your current GTK/Qt theme, look for “matching” tags on the download page (e.g., “Papirus‑Dark” pairs nicely with a dark GTK theme).

2.2 Install GNOME Tweaks & the “User Themes” Extension

Open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and run:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install gnome-tweaks gnome-shell-extension-manager

• gnome-tweaks → the Tweaks UI.
• gnome-shell-extension-manager → a handy app to enable/disable shell extensions (including User Themes).

2.3 Enable the “User Themes” Extension

1. Press Super (Windows key) → type Extensions → open the Extensions app.
2. In the list, locate User Themes and install it.
3. Toggle it ON.

What it does: It tells GNOME Shell that it may load a custom shell theme placed in ~/.local/share/themes/. This is a prerequisite for any icon theme to affect the shell (top bar, overview icons).

If you don’t see “User Themes”:

• Open Extensions → click the three‑dot menu → Browse Online → search for User Themes and install directly.
• After installation, enable it again.

2.3 Place the Icon Files

Move the extracted theme folder as‑is into that directory.
The folder name must be the theme’s name (e.g., Papirus, Papirus-Dark).

mv your-icon-theme-folder ~/.local/share/icons/

After the move you should have a structure like:

~/.local/share/icons/
└── Papirus/
    ├── 16x16/
    ├── 24x24/
    ├── 48x48/
    ├── scalable/
    └── index.theme

Create (if necessary) the user icons directory:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/icons

Extract the archive you downloaded:

cd ~/Downloads
tar -xf your-icon-theme.tar.gz   # or unzip *.zip

System‑wide installation (optional):
If you prefer all users on the machine to see the theme, copy the folder to /usr/share/icons/ instead (requires sudo).

sudo cp -r your-icon-theme-folder /usr/share/icons/

2.4 Activate the Theme with Tweaks

1. Press Super → type Tweaks → open Tweaks.
2. In the left pane, click Appearance.
3. Under Icons, you’ll see a drop‑down list populated with every theme found in ~/.local/share/icons/ and /usr/share/icons/.
4. Choose your newly installed theme.

The change is instant for most panels, menus, and application launchers.

If the theme does not appear in the list:

• Verify the folder name matches the one inside index.theme (Name= line).
• Make sure the directory permissions are readable: chmod -R 755 ~/.local/share/icons/your-theme.
• Run gtk-update-icon-cache (see troubleshooting below).

2.5 Optional – Apply the Theme For All Users

System‑wide icon themes are stored under /usr/share/icons/.
If you want every user to get the new theme automatically, edit the default GSettings:

sudo -u root dbus-launch gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme "YourThemeName"

Or create a system‑wide dconf profile:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/dconf/profile
echo "user-db:user" | sudo tee /etc/dconf/profile/user
echo "system-db:local" | sudo tee -a /etc/dconf/profile/user
sudo mkdir -p /etc/dconf/db/local.d
sudo bash -c 'cat > /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00_icon_theme <<EOF
[org/gnome/desktop/interface]
icon-theme="YourThemeName"
EOF'
sudo dconf update

Now, any new user who logs in will automatically use the theme.

2.6 Troubleshooting Common Problems

3. Changing a Single Application’s Icon

Changing just one launcher is useful when a theme’s generic icon doesn’t suit you (e.g., you want a custom logo for your favorite text editor, or you want to give a Snap its own branding).

3.1 Locate the .desktop File

Find the exact filename (case‑sensitive). Example for Firefox:

ls /usr/share/applications/firefox*.desktop
# → /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop

3.2 Prepare Your Replacement Icon

1. Format – PNG (any size) or SVG (scalable). SVG is preferred because it scales cleanly for all UI contexts.

Check the path (absolute, no spaces, no tilde expansion in the .desktop file):

echo "$HOME/.local/share/icons/custom/my-firefox-icon.svg"

Naming – you can keep any name, but it’s convenient to put it in your personal icons folder:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/icons/custom
cp ~/Downloads/my-firefox-icon.svg ~/.local/share/icons/custom/

3.3 Edit (or Copy‑Edit) the .desktop File

Never edit files directly in /usr/share/applications/ – they are owned by the package manager and will be overwritten on updates. Instead, copy them to your local directory, edit them there, and GNOME will prefer the local copy.

# 1. Copy the original .desktop file to your personal folder
cp /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/

# 2. Open it with your favourite editor (gedit, nano, VS Code, etc.)
gedit ~/.local/share/applications/firefox.desktop

Inside the file, locate the line that starts with Icon=. It will look something like:

Icon=firefox

Replace it with the full absolute path to your custom image:

Icon=/home/your_username/.local/share/icons/custom/my-firefox-icon.svg

Important: Do not put quotes around the path, and do not add a file extension if you use a theme name. When you give a full path, the extension must be part of the path (e.g., .png or .svg).

Save the file and close the editor.

3.4 Refresh the Icon Cache

For most launchers the change becomes visible immediately, but occasionally the icon cache needs a nudge:

# If you use a PNG, you can also run:
gtk-update-icon-cache ~/.local/share/icons

# The most reliable method is to log out and back in,
# or simply restart the GNOME Shell (Xorg only):
Alt+F2 → type `r` → Enter

Now the new icon should appear in the Dash, Activities Overview, and any other place the launcher is shown.

3.5 Special Cases

4. Changing a Specific Folder’s Icon

This is the quickest visual customization – no extra packages needed.

1. Open Nautilus (Files) – press Super + E or click the Files icon.
2. Navigate to the folder you want to re‑skin.
3. Right‑click the folder → Properties.
4. In the Properties dialog, click the folder icon at the top‑left corner (it looks like a tiny folder).
5. A file‑chooser appears. Browse to the image you want (PNG or SVG, ideally 256 × 256 px for crispness) and press Open.

The new picture is applied instantly. It is stored as a hidden attribute (metadata::custom-icon) inside the folder, so the icon travels with the folder when you copy it to another machine (provided the image path is absolute or the image is inside the folder).

Tip: If you want the same custom icon for many folders, you can copy the folder’s metadata:

# Set icon for folderA
gio set folderA metadata::custom-icon file:///home/you/Pictures/folder-icon.svg

# Apply the same icon to folderB
gio set folderB metadata::custom-icon "$(gio info -a metadata::custom-icon folderA | grep 'metadata::custom-icon' | cut -d' ' -f2-)"

5. Advanced Tips & Extras

5.1 Create a Tiny “One‑Folder‑Only” Icon Theme

If you love the idea of an icon theme but only want to replace a handful of icons (e.g., for a project folder), you can craft a mini‑theme that contains just the icons you need.

1. Put your custom PNG/SVG files inside 48x48/apps (or scalable/apps for SVG).

Activate only this mini‑theme using GNOME Tweaks (or via gsettings):

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme "My Mini Theme"

Add an index.theme file:

[Icon Theme]
Name=My Mini Theme
Comment=Only a few icons, everything else falls back to default
Inherits=Yaru  # or any existing theme you like

Create a new folder:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/icons/my‑mini‑theme/48x48/apps

All icons that exist in your mini‑theme will be used; everything else falls back to the parent theme (Yaru).

5.2 Changing “Generic” File‑Type Icons

Linux associates file‑type icons (e.g., folder‑pictures, audio‑file) via the MIME database. If you want all PDF files to show a custom picture:

1. Create a folder ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/mimetypes/.
2. Place application-pdf.svg (or .png) inside.
3. Run gtk-update-icon-cache ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor.

The new icon appears wherever a PDF file is displayed (Nautilus, Gedit, etc.).

5.3 Reset Everything to Ubuntu Defaults

If you ever want to go back to the stock look:

# Remove user‑installed icon themes
rm -rf ~/.local/share/icons/*

# Reset the GSettings key
gsettings reset org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme

# Delete any overridden .desktop files you created
rm -f ~/.local/share/applications/*.desktop

# Log out/in (or restart GNOME Shell) to clear the cache

6. Appendix – One‑Liners & Reference Commands

7. Quick‑Start Cheat Sheet (Copy‑Paste)

# 1. Install Tweaks + Extension Manager
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y gnome-tweaks gnome-shell-extension-manager

# 2. Enable the "User Themes" GNOME extension
gnome-extensions enable user-theme@gnome-shell-extensions.gcampax.github.com

# 3. Create the local icons directory (if it does not exist)
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/icons

# 4. Download & extract a theme (example: Papirus)
cd ~/Downloads
wget -O papirus.tar.gz https://github.com/PapirusDevelopmentTeam/papirus-icon-theme/archive/refs/heads/master.tar.gz
tar -xzf papirus.tar.gz
mv papirus-icon-theme-master ~/.local/share/icons/Papirus

# 5. Activate the new theme with Tweaks (or via CLI)
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme "Papirus"

# 6. Change a single app icon (example: Terminal)
cp /usr/share/applications/gnome-terminal.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/
gedit ~/.local/share/applications/gnome-terminal.desktop   # edit the Icon= line
#   Icon=/home/youruser/.local/share/icons/custom/terminal.svg
# Save → close → log out/in

# 7. Change a folder icon (via Nautilus)
#   Right‑click folder → Properties → click the small icon → pick your image

# 8. Refresh (if you don’t see the changes)
#   Xorg: Alt+F2 → r → Enter
#   Wayland: log out & log back in

🎉 Wrap‑Up

• Whole‑system icon changes are the fastest way to give Ubuntu a fresh visual identity.
• Per‑application tweaks give you fine‑grained control without altering the whole theme.
• Folder icons are a neat way to make a project directory pop out in the file manager.

All of the steps above use standard Ubuntu packages (gnome-tweaks, gnome-shell-extension-manager) and no third‑party configuration tools. They work on any Ubuntu installation that ships the GNOME desktop (the default for the last several releases).

Enjoy your newly‑styled Ubuntu desktop! 🌟