Import & Export

Back up your icon configurations or transfer them to another Mac.

What Gets Exported

An export file (JSON) includes:

App aliases — your custom search name mappings
Cached icons — the actual icon data and application paths
Light/Dark icons — both assigned appearance slots, including incomplete pairs
Settings — display, background restoration, update, language, and API behavior

Plain JSON exports never include API keys or other Keychain secrets. Set an optional password in the GUI to create an encrypted .icconfig backup that can include those secrets. Export files are written with owner-only permissions.

Exporting

From the GUI

Go to Settings > Advanced > Configuration, and click Export.

From the CLI

iconchanger export ~/Desktop/my-icons.json

Importing

From the GUI

Go to Settings > Advanced > Configuration, and click Import.

From the CLI

iconchanger import ~/Desktop/my-icons.json

Validating

Before importing, you can validate a configuration file:

iconchanger validate ~/Desktop/my-icons.json

This checks the file structure without making any changes.

Automation with Dotfiles

You can automate IconChanger setup as part of your dotfiles:

#!/bin/bash
DMG_URL="https://github.com/Bengerthelorf/macIconChanger/releases/latest/download/IconChanger.dmg"
DMG_PATH="/tmp/IconChanger.dmg"

# Install the app
curl -L "$DMG_URL" -o "$DMG_PATH"
hdiutil attach "$DMG_PATH" -mountpoint /Volumes/IconChanger
cp -R /Volumes/IconChanger/IconChanger.app /Applications/
hdiutil detach /Volumes/IconChanger

# Install CLI (from the app bundle)
sudo cp /Applications/IconChanger.app/Contents/Resources/IconChangerCLI /usr/local/bin/iconchanger
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/iconchanger

# Import your icon configuration
iconchanger import ~/dotfiles/iconchanger/config.json