FolderHue
Folder icon not changing or not showing? How to fix it
You changed a folder's icon, but File Explorer still shows the old one, or a blank folder. Almost always Windows is showing a cached picture. Work through these fixes in order.
Steps
Refresh the window
Press F5 in File Explorer, or open the folder's parent again.
Restart File Explorer
Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc), find Windows Explorer, right-click it and choose Restart.
Refresh the icon cache
Press Win+R, type
ie4uinit.exe -showand press Enter. Windows reloads its icon cache.Repair in FolderHue
If you used FolderHue, open My folders and click Repair. It rewrites the icon and its desktop.ini entry.
The folder shows blank after moving
This happens when the icon file lived outside the folder, for example with icons set through Windows' Customize tab. FolderHue saves the icon inside the folder, so moving it doesn't break it.
Network drives and work PCs
Windows needs to write a desktop.ini file and set the folder's read-only attribute. Some network shares and company-managed folders don't allow that. Try a folder on your own drive to check.
OneDrive and cloud folders
Custom icons sync with the folder. If another PC shows the old icon, give the sync a minute, then refresh File Explorer there.
Questions
Why does my folder icon revert after a restart?
Usually because the icon file was deleted or moved, or a cleanup tool removed desktop.ini. FolderHue keeps the icon inside the folder to avoid this; Repair puts it back.
Thumbnails show instead of my icon
In some views File Explorer shows a preview of the files inside. A custom icon from desktop.ini takes priority; refresh the cache with the steps above.
