Question

I am using setIcon:forFile:options: method of NSWorkspace class for setting custom icon for file and directory. My problem is that , the Finder is not reflecting icon change in icon view until restart.

Icon view:

List view (outline view):

Answer 1

From Carbon development tips and tricks .

You need to send a kAESync AppleEvent to the Finder passing it an
alias to the file that was changed.

Below code is written by JWWalker

OSStatus    SendFinderSyncEvent( const FSRef* inObjectRef )
{
    AppleEvent  theEvent = { typeNull, NULL };
    AppleEvent  replyEvent = { typeNull, NULL };
    AliasHandle itemAlias = NULL;
    const OSType    kFinderSig = 'MACS';

OSStatus    err = FSNewAliasMinimal( inObjectRef, &itemAlias );
if (err == noErr)
{
    err = AEBuildAppleEvent( kAEFinderSuite, kAESync, typeApplSignature,
        &kFinderSig, sizeof(OSType), kAutoGenerateReturnID,
        kAnyTransactionID, &theEvent, NULL, "'----':alis(@@)", itemAlias );

    if (err == noErr)
    {
        err = AESendMessage( &theEvent, &replyEvent, kAENoReply,
            kAEDefaultTimeout );

        AEDisposeDesc( &replyEvent );
        AEDisposeDesc( &theEvent );
    }

    DisposeHandle( (Handle)itemAlias );
}

    return err;
}