Iconpackager is driving me CRAZY - Keeps Changing Icons Around

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Need to know more.

1) Windows 10 version. Please use Winver.exe for full version numbers.

2) Icon Packager version.

3) If you apply Icon with package that come with Iconpackager, does it work?

Thanks

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Thank you for the reply.

The latest version of IP I imagine, as I downloaded it from the link when paid, just a couple of days ago.  Will check ...  It is:  Version 10.03  Copyright (c) 1999-2017 Stardock Software, Inc

System:

Top

And yes, when I choose one of the themes it comes with or which I have downloaded, it seems to work although some themes are not complete and so I have some updated folders and such, and some older/default yellow ones.  

I did see, after I posted, that although I thought all of my custom .pngs were converted to 256x256 .icos, in Dimensions, in Windows, I see some of them were 128x128, and so I tried to make then 256, but my resizing program read them as 256.  I then did so online and so they are all now 256x256 .icos, but not sure if that even makes a difference because I see that the icons in some other packages are sometimes smaller. 

Any ideas are welcome.

Hello,

Thanks for the information. I have forwarded your questions/problems to the Stardock Support team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience.

BTW, best if you try out the latest design on IconPack and work from there : https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/iconpackager

Thank You,
Basj
Stardock Community Assistant.

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

Are there screenshots/video you can upload to a cloud service (GoogleDrive, DropBox, OneDrive), and post a shared link here, that could help illustrate your issue(s)?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

I do have a little experience with building IconPackages and some of the issues related to such. I'm here to help if needed.

-- Ace --

Thank you, Ace.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Hi.  Not sure if this will work.  It's pretty low quality and not sure you can understand me.  Can do it again from my phone, instead, but truthfully, while you can see what I am speaking about in terms of it not updating all of the icons one can readily see (more to do with the package), I can't really replicate the issue unless I want to spend another hour or two on it.  I basically "cleaned" out the entire folder except for a couple of themes, and deleted most of the 'packages' I had built/was working on, because they did not work. 

As explained, when I start out with a package and go on to build or customize from there, it seems to work as I add or change icons, but then it goes haywire at a certain point or points, but I'm not sure at what point, because I see it as okay onscreen, until I refresh the actual screen / folders or save and refresh.  A few times now, I have gotten pretty far into making it work, with most of my icons THERE, but the thing is - that many "become" assigned to the wrong thing - and then it becomes a crazy game of trying to change and fix those too and some work, and some only jump around to another folder they are not supposed to be [on].

Wow.  I don't even know if that makes sense.  Anyway ... will maybe try again in a bit since we are mostly self-quarantining and I am bored enough to try it again, and will rerecord with phone.   Sorry for using Mediafire, but I create custom content for the Sims 4, and have lots of space here versus pCloud: 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/0f2ren4b9xbq3mu/IconPackager.mp4/file

Thanks for any help!

Thanks, have tried with the latest ones (cheated and used different browsers to download lots - lol), and its the same issue with all.

Hi Ace.

May I link my custom icons?  Maybe there is something wrong with them and perhaps you'll be able to tell.  Note that there are probably duplicates now since I just joined all the ones I've been working with into the same folders when I cleaned up all the package folders I had made, and which did not work, plus there are a few from other packages (not mine). 

Linked them anyway, in case you care to take a look. 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/1kqsc9ahd121b4i/Boxed_Out_in_Red.rar/file

Sorry.  Did not realize it was such a big file.  17MB.

Thanks!

Ello.  One more thing ... I thought I had read that icons needed to be 256x256, but the package which I have been working off of in order to keep 5 of its folders (icons) - I just saw are mostly all 24x24 icons.  Would this be causing the problem?    I doubt it is, as I am pretty sure I started with another couple of themes before I tried with this one.  What are the chances they too were smaller (I've deleted almost all packages now).  I guess I can try with one that seems to be all 256's ... but just wondered, as I'm wary of trying again and getting the same results.   

Hope someone can help.  Thanks!

o.k. well ....I can see right away what the problem is. This will probably be quite a long response but I'll do my best to try and keep it short and simple. Most people when they look inside the folder of a completed iconpackage think that it is just a bunch of icons loaded into a folder, but it is much more than that. Everything must be precise and exact in the placement of the icons in that folder, including the way that they are named and numbered , including any icons that you want to replace. This is like a map or a code that iconpackager uses to make sure that it displays the icon in the proper place. Here is a screenshot of the inside of an icopackager folder that is properly set up :

Take note how each individual icon is labeled and numbered in numerical order. The name of this particular package is 

Dragon Fire, so you will see it labeled as such. Then you see that each icon is numbered this way :

"Icon 102.ico" or whatever icon you may be looking at, but the point is, that it's extremely important that you follow this exact format. The icon number is actually a "location" that IconPackager uses to know what item that particular icon is representing. Now , for example, if you want to change one of the icons in the package above to a different icon that perhaps you like better, you can do so, BUT....you must name it precisely the same as the one you are replacing. ( it may be a good time to remind you to backup your packages before you start swapping icons) So, if say you want to replace 

Icon 102.ico with your own custom icon, then you must name your new custom icon the SAME as the one you are going to replace. So here we have:

Dragon Fire

Icon 102.ico   

which is what you must rename your custom icon to replace the original. Rename it before you paste or drag it into the folder and when prompted, agree to the replacement.

Next, very important. You CAN NOT just add an icon to a COMPLETED iconpackager folder. The program will try to rearrange and re-number the icons in the folder and this will throw everything out of whack, and the icons will not display properly. 

Play around with this for awhile and get back to me here on this thread.

-- Ace---

P.S. --  Stardocks "IconDeveloper" software is the very best for editing icons and converting images to icons. Plus it allows you to add more sizes to your icons before saving.

So.... I watched the video you uploaded, it was a bit garbled so I didn't understand it very well. It looked as though you were trying to customize an already completed IconPackage by drag and drop, which is fine, very easy way to customize a package. I reproduced what I think you were attempting to do and it worked fine for me. I suspect maybe you are missing a step in the process and that is why you are having difficulties, I'll get back with you next time I see your response here.

-- Ace --

Hi Ace,

Thanks for your response! 

I thought I noticed that IP renamed and numbered the icons as they are added and then created a copy in the Users\Public\Documents\Stardock\IconPackager folder (under the name one gives to the new or saved package).  Again, I think I noticed that, but it was late and I had been at it for a while so I might be wrong.  Upon seeing that, though, and not seeing another solution, I did exactly as you have described, and actually began matching and renaming each of my icons to the icons I was attempting to replace (documents to documents, empty recycle bin to empty recycle bin, full to full, etc., etc.).  That DID seem promising at first, but by the time I got to "Others" the ones I had replaced before had begun to change around again.  :/ 

It was at that point I posted about it here. 

All that said, you are most likely correct, but I might be exacerbating it further due to the icons sizes.  Let me explain (thanks for your patience), and please tell me what you think.  

When I first tried IconPackager and then began trying to change some icons, I was using 128x128 icons with a Theme called DaBlue.  Later, I found and really liked the folders on a theme called  SKYTECHNOLOGYProReD.  I tried changing icons ad-nauseam (SOOO many times) with this theme because I wanted to keep the folders.  At this point I had begun to use 256x256 icons instead of the 128x128 ones too, but still, nothing worked, which is when I attempted the renaming/re-numbering structure as mentioned above.  

So, last night while kind of revisiting this a little, I saw where the original icons in the SKYTECHNOLOGYProReD (the ones I was trying to replace with 256x256), are all, actually, 24x24 icons.  Hmmm?  I wondered if that was the issue, so I looked at the icon sizes of the PlasticFantastic theme, and since those are all 256x256, I loaded that theme up, changed a few icons - mostly the drives and desktop - saved it as a new package, and so far, it has 'held'.  This morning most of my folders are in disarray.  I am missing some old icons I had manually added a while back, my folders and icons are a mix of black, yellow, red, blue, plastic, windows default and who knows what ... BUT the few icons I did add over the PlasticFantastic 256x256 icons and hen saved as a new package, remain steady and where they should be.

I am not getting my hopes up and I have not yet picked this back up again, but will probably try adding more tonight or tomorrow.

Oh, and yes, this is actually my back-up laptop which is far from me and connected by KVM switch to my main one and my monitor so the sound was super-warbled.  Sorry.  It is much better from my main, but I always test out new stuff on this one first.

Not sure if YouTube links are allowed, but sound is better when recorded on main.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3dKej6NvHHZ1dNvGxHs9GA

Sorry for these walls of text!  Haha.

When getting this to work had failed a few times, I downloaded IconDeveloper, but then uninstalled it.  I can't remember why.  Will give it another try. 

As for: "You CAN NOT just add an icon to a COMPLETED iconpackager folder ...", good point.  I might be getting ahead of myself as I don't even know if I can get this all to work yet, but for new additions, do I just continue the numbering sequence if indeed I do have to rename them?

Thanks!

The numbering sequence is not something that you can do manually yourself, it's done automatically by the IconPackager program depending on how many icons eventually end up in that particular package. If you add or subtract an icon to a package, you must re-save that entire package or save it as a new package with a different name.... the iconpackager program will handle the number sequence automatically.

Addressing the question of icon sizes -- Icon sizes have nothing to do with icons displaying in their proper locations , even low resolution icons will display properly if the package is built properly.

here are all the resolutions I include in all my packages:

768x768 , 512x512 , 392x392 , 256x256 , 192x192 , 162x162 , 128x128 , 96x96 , 64x64 , 48x48 , 40x40 , 32x32 , 24x24 , 20x20 , 16x16

Using the IconDeveloper software I only enable 32 bit depth for my icons and the icons in bold above are the custom sizes I add using the software.

Okay.  This is what I thought, but then was a bit confused in regard to them needing to be in that 'language' it would recognize which you mentioned.  Agreed: IP names and numbers them as added, ... which takes me back to the beginning, as to why it was not working, especially if the icon sizes do not matter either.  I am [apparently] doing everything correctly: (re-saving entire package or saving it as new with a different name + have both continued to work with old package and kept re-saving "as" the new packages(s) and also then tried, instead, to save as new package, applied that package, then continued to work with the new one while saving it every few changes + also saving as new package, applying it, then continuing to work with the new one while saving it as different, even newer packages so that changes made up to that point would be "safe" ... and on and on).  I don't believe there is anything I haven't tried.  SO, by process of elimination and the points you've made, it HAS to be my icons.

As such, as a last attempt, will download IconDeveloper and will try to work with them through that.  Barring that working, I think I'm done with it.  Cleaning house sounds better than looking at these icons anymore.  WHAT did I just say?

Thanks for all the help and info.!

There's something I'm curious about, just wanting to make sure you're doing things in the right order: 

When you drag and drop your own custom icons to replace the default icons , are you first clicking the 

"Apply My Changes" button Before you are "Saving as.... ( an iconpackage)"  ?

Hi Ace!

Gave up on it a while back, but pretty certain I tried both ways.  I know I remember trying to save the package as a new one too, both before and after hitting Apply (saw the value in both and was trying everything at that point). 

Not sure how many seats my one payment is/was valid for, but also put it on another laptop and have not tested it yet to see if it's just the first laptop that's wonky, or if it was my icons or what.  I kind of grew tired of seeing them to be honest, and in the end found a nice box set online and manually went with a filesman programs and individually changed the ones that mattered most.  My desktop looks gorgeous.

Thanks for all the help.  Will update if I do ever get around to trying it on the other laptop.

You are very welcome. The Filesman Program is a great alternative when changing icons, I have it on my computer as well. I also have a gallery of over 40 IconPackages you can download for free, right here on Wincustomize should you be interested in expanding your collection --https://www.wincustomize.com/users/3987811/AceMatrix

Please do check out some of the other great IconPackage artists here at Wincustomize as well. They have created some of the most stunning Icon sets you'll ever find on the Web. Have Fun  !!

-- Ace --

I ran into the same thing and was quite confused for a while.  Everything posted above is true, but it still took a few more steps before I could reliably change icons and have the changes stick. 

Here's the process:

1a.  Copy the .png or .ico file you want to use into the package folder and give it a unique name.  Say you have an icon you want to the "pictures" personal and public folders -- it could be named myPackage.folders.pictures.ico.  This unique name is crucial to the theme working if you make any changes.

1b.  If you want to use an icon in the package for another purpose, to the same thing:  make a copy and give it a unique name.  Say you like the "myPackage icons 11.ico", which is the closed folder in my current package.  Make a copy and call it "myPackage.folders.closed.ico". 

1c.  Do /not/ attempt to pick a numbered icon like "myPackage icons 26.ico" for anything because this will confuse iconPackager when it renumbers all the icons, completely goofing up much of the scheme.  For example, if you pick icon 26 for what iconPackager thought was icon 11, that switch might work, but then icons after #11 can get renumbered.  All of a sudden everything will be out of whack and you'll have to reassign half the package.  

1d.  Also, when you reassign an icon, pick the physical file name -- don't just pick "change icon" and then click on one that looks good.  If you do that, it will likely pick a numbered icon, and then things get weird again.  Instead, either copy/paste the name of the icon file path into the file field at the top of the dialog box (you can copy a full file path by doing a shift-right-click on the file in windows explorer and picking "copy as path"), or click on the Browse button and pick the actual uniquely-named non-numbered icon file.

2. Pick the uniquely-named icon when modifying the package.  Pick myPackage.folders.pictures.ico for the pictures folders and myPackage.folders.closed.ico for any folders you want to use the generic closed folder for.   You can re-use a uniquely-named non-numbered icon as many times as you want for as many parts of the package as you want.

3.  Apply changes.

4.  Save changes to the package.

5.  If the changes don't seem to stick, don't mess with the package.  Instead, apply another icon package and then switch back.  Sometimes rebuilding the icon cache helps, but I've found that I have more reliable success by switching packages and then switching back.

---

It sounds more complex than it is.  Basically, pick uniquely-named icon files every time to reassign an icon and you should be okay.

My packages have a complete set of unique icons -- myPackage.folder.closed.ico, myPackage.folder.open.ico, myPackage.file.txt.ico, and so forth, along with all the numbered icons that iconPackager creates.  I work only with my icons, leave iconPackager to figure out all of its numbered icons, and everyone is happy.

I just now saw your reply.  It's been quite a while since I used IP exactly because I could not get it to work.  Your solution(s) make a lot of sense.  THANK YOU.   

You're welcome.  It's completely logical after you see what's going on, but also completely nonsensical beforehand -- why would setting a single icon confuse half a package?