MacHabitsAfter upgrading, some people notice their folders don't all look the same anymore: a few stand out in color while others stay plain blue, or the whole set looks bolder and more saturated than it used to. Neither is a bug. They are two separate, documented changes that happen to produce a similar symptom, and the fix depends on which one you're actually looking at.
Two separate things cause this
If some folders on your Mac look different from other folders sitting right next to them, that's folder color customization, a feature Apple introduced starting with macOS Tahoe. If every folder on your Mac looks different than it did before, but consistently so across the board, that's the system-wide icon redesign that shipped with Golden Gate. The two can also compound: a colored folder on top of the new icon base will look different from both an uncolored folder on the new base and from how any folder looked on an older macOS version.
Cause 1: some folders have a custom color
Since macOS Tahoe, folder icons can carry a custom color, and in some cases an emblem, set either by you, by an app (iCloud Drive and certain third-party sync tools sometimes tag folders automatically), or inherited from a template folder you duplicated. If you don't remember setting a color on a specific folder, a few explanations are more likely than a bug:
- You duplicated a folder that already had a custom color, and the copy kept it.
- An app you use, particularly cloud storage or project-management tools, applies its own folder color automatically to folders it manages.
- A Migration Assistant transfer from an older Mac, or a backup restore, can carry old folder color metadata forward even if you never consciously set it.
How to reset a folder back to default
- Right-click (or Control-click) the folder in Finder.
- Choose Get Info.
- In the Get Info window, look for the color swatches near the top, by the large folder icon.
- Click the same color again to deselect it, or choose the default gray/blue option if one is shown, which returns the folder to the standard system color.
If Get Info doesn't show a color option for a particular folder, that folder is likely using the plain default already, and what looks different about it is actually the second cause below, not a custom color at all.
Cause 2: the system icon style changed in Golden Gate
Separately from folder colors, Apple revised how icons render system-wide in macOS 27, including folders. The changes include bolder colors, crisper edges, and a different Liquid Glass refraction effect than Tahoe used. Apple's own description of the change: additional layers of Liquid Glass are now built directly into icon artwork, which the company says makes icons look sharper and more defined in the Dock, in Finder, and when viewed in an all-clear appearance mode. This is a real, intentional design change, documented and photographed extensively by outlets that tracked the beta cycle, not a rendering glitch.
If every folder on your Mac looks bolder or more saturated than you remember, including completely uncustomized ones, this redesign is almost certainly what you're seeing, not anything that needs fixing.
Which one is happening to you
| What you see | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Some folders are colorful, others stay plain, side by side | Custom folder color on specific folders | Get Info > reset color on the ones you want plain |
| All folders look bolder/sharper than they used to, consistently | Golden Gate's system-wide icon redesign | Nothing to fix; this is the intended new look |
| A folder has a small badge or emblem on it | Custom folder icon, or a sync status marker from an app | Get Info to check; some emblems come from cloud-sync apps and clear once syncing completes |
Customizing folder colors on purpose
If you'd like to use the color feature deliberately, rather than undo it, the same Get Info window is where you set it:
- Select the folder, press Command-I to open Get Info.
- Choose a color from the swatches near the folder icon at the top.
- Close the window. The change applies immediately in Finder, the Dock, and anywhere else the folder appears.
Color-coding folders this way can be a genuinely useful organizational tool, for example marking active projects in one color and archived ones in another, once you know it's a feature rather than an inconsistency to chase down.
The short version
- Folders that look different from their neighbors almost always have a custom color, set by you, an app, or carried over from a copy or migration.
- Folders that all look different from how they used to, consistently, are the intended Golden Gate icon redesign, not a bug.
- Reset a specific folder's color through Get Info; there is nothing to "fix" about the system-wide redesign.
- Cloud-sync apps sometimes apply their own folder colors or emblems automatically; check whether that's the source before assuming it's something you did.