macOS Tahoe swaps the skeuomorphic Macintosh HD icon for a generic one representing flash storage

The fifth beta of Apple’s macOS Tahoe 26 operating system has retired the familiar Macintosh HD icon, replacing it with a generic version that isn’t winning any hearts.

The physical hard drive icon labeled “Macintosh HD” has been a familiar sight on the desktop of Mac computers since the very first version of Mac OS X Cheetah 10.0.0 was released on March 24, 2001. However, macOS Tahoe has ended its 24-year run and replaced the beautiful skeuomorphic icon with a new one that looks fairly generic in the fifth beta of the operating system.

As you may imagine, the internet has flipped. That’s hardly a surprise. The new icon looks very basic, and people have been emotionally attached to the old icon for so many years that many of them don’t like the change.

macOS Tahoe retires the skeuomorphic Macintosh HD icon

Like iOS 26 and other upcoming Apple operating systems, macOS Tahoe 26 represents a complete overhaul of the user interface. I don’t have anything bad to say about the Liquid Glass design, but people have been used to the classic Macintosh HD icon for so long that they’re going to miss the old icon.

At least its skeuomorphic design resembled a hard drive with screws, vents and a warning sticker whereas the new one looks more like a modern solid state drive with rounded edges and a big Apple logo right in the center. As many people noticed online, the perspective of the new icon feels off compared to the old one.

I get it, Apple no longer offers Macs with built-in hard drives and the new icon simply reflects that trend, but the change has nevertheless upset some longtime Mac fans, who took to social media to vent their frustration. At least the new disk icon is still aluminum instead of receiving a glass treatment like the rest of the interface in Tahoe.

OS X Cheetah 10.0.0

I get it, macOS Tahoe is meant to be a complete OS redesign. But when you’ve used something for so long, it becomes familiar. The Macintosh HD is one of those things. Maybe if the new design weren’t so bad? pic.twitter.com/LGTEZ98flm

— Mr. Macintosh (@ClassicII_MrMac) August 5, 2025

macOS makes it easy to change icons

Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t provide a toggle to bring back the old icon, but that shouldn’t be much of a problem as macOS makes it easy to set custom desktop icons for storage devices like hard drives, flash media and more. Just open the Get Info window for the selected drive and paste in your own icon.

macOS Tahoe also brings a new look for the built-in Disk Utility app. These aren’t the only polarizing design changes in macOS Tahoe. In earlier Tahoe betas, Apple flipped the decades-old Finder icon by swapping the dark and light sides. Following an uproar online, Apple fixed the icon in a subsequent beta so that it now shows the dark side on the left, as has been the case for many, many years.

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/08/06/macos-tahoe-macintosh-hd-icon-change/