How do I add App Icons ?

Can anyone help me get my App Icons working on Apple TV? I've tried two different ways and still see nothing except an empty white icon on the Apple TVs home screen for my App.


Method 1

I used the Parallax Previewer tool to create a two layer 400 x 240 image and exported it to my Resources folder with the filename "AppIcon.lsr" and added it to my project. Then I added the following lines to my Info.plist file:


<key>CFBundleIconFiles</key>

<array>

<string>AppIcon.lsr</string>

</array>


Built the project and deployed it to my Apple TV devkit .... nothing but a white App Icon.


Method 2


Removed the stuff from Method 1 then clicked on "Use Asset Catalog" next to "App Icons Source" under my project's General tab. That created an Images.xcassets file in my Resources folder containing an empty "BrandAsset" folder. Then I clicked on the + button and selected "App Icons & Launch Images > New tvOS AppIcon and Top Shelf Image".This created another folder called "Brand Assets" above the "BrandAsset" folder. I then dragged my two 400 x 240 and two 1280 x 768 icon layer png files to the "App Icon - Small" and "App Icon - Large" image wells (used the Front and Back ones and left the Middle one empty). Everything looked good on the image previews and the icons moved around in parallax with the lighting. However, when I deployed the App I just got a white App Icon again. I then tried dragging the "App Icon - Large" and "App Icon - Small" assets from the "Brand Assets" folder to the "BrandAsset" folder and then started getting warnings "The brand asset collection "BrandAsset" has an unassigned item "App Icon - Large" and "The brand asset collection "BrandAsset" has an unassigned item "App Icon - Small". Do I have to add something to the Info.plist file to tell it what icons to use? I'm not sure what I'm supposed to assign these icons to or what I'm doing wrong here. Help !!!!!

Answered by Spuddy in 61661022

SUCCESS !!!


Okay, I've figured out how to fix this. The warning about unassigned items occurs when you drag an icon to another folder. This seems to break things and appears to be a bug. What I didn't realize was that there's a section in the XCode project's Build Settings called "Asset Catalog Compiler - Options". It's under all the Apple LLVM sections so scroll nearly all the way to the bottom and you'll see it. There you can change "Asset Catalog App Icon Set Name" and "Asset Catalog Launch Image Set Name" to whatever folder name you've created in the asset catalog.


So here are the steps you need to take to add an App Icon:


1) If you've clicked on the the arrow next to "App Icons Source" then click on your "Images.xcassets" file that it created and delete the "BrandAsset" folder.

2) Also delete the "Brand Assets" folder if you created one just to be safe.

3) Making sure no folders are selected in your asset catalog, press the + button and select "App Icons & Launch Images > New tvOS App Icon and Top Shelf Image". This will create a new "Brand Assets" folder containing your App Icon and Top Shelf image wells.

4) Rename the "Brand Assets" folder to whatever name makes sense. I changed mine to "tvOS Icon" which is what the DemoBots project uses but it really doesn't matter what you call it.

5) Drag your Large and Small png files over to the approprate image wells in the "App Icon - Large" and "App Icon - Small" image layers. You can delete or add layers as you need to.

6) Now, this is the important part .... go to your project's "Build Settings" tab, scroll down to the "Asset Catalog Compiler - Options" section near the bottom and change the "Asset Catalog Launch Image Set Name" to the name you changed the folder to in step 4 (eg "tvOS Icon").


Build and deploy and you should see your App Icon finally! Delete the App from your Apply TV device if you don't (Settings > General > Manage Storage) but you shouldn't have to.


Dragging items between folders in the asset catalog causes problems. Don't do it !!!

Same issue. Cannot figure out how to do the app icons for TV.

I just tested this out and it worked just fine.


Get rid of the folders you tried creating in your Asset catalog. Then, inside of the asset catalog, create a "New tvOS App Icon and Top Shelf Image". Assign your asset to the large and small icons as you described above. Then make sure that in your project settings the App Icons Source is pointing at the "Brand Assets" folder that you created.


Alternatively, using the folders that are generated automatically in a new project works as well, and the project settings are already pointed at them.

Did you originally start out with an app on the device without an icon? Try deleting the app off the device and reinstalling it. It works this way on iPhones, Xcode doesn't always copy resources to the device so the app installs faster when debugging.

I'm still having zero luck and wasting alot of time on this. This is how my "Images.xcassets" file is laid out .... (I took some screenshots but there doesn't appear to be anyway to add images to this forum so it'll have to be text)


BrandAsset (folder)

App Icon - Large (folder)

Front (image)

Middle (empty)

Back (image)

App Icon - Small (folder)

Front (image)

Middle (empty)

Back (image)

Top Shelf Image (empty)


and my project points to the BrandAsset folder ....


App Icons and Launch Images

App Icons Source [BrandAsset]

Launch Images Source [Use Asset Catalog]


(btw I have no idea how to change "BrandAssets" in the "App Icons Source" drop list to a different name, does anyone know how to do that ?)


Then I get a bunch of warnings ....


Images.xcassets

The brand asset collection "BrandAsset" has an unassigned item "App Icon - Small".

The brand asset collection "BrandAsset" has an unassigned item "Top Shelf Image.

The brand asset collection "BrandAsset" has an unassigned item "App Icon - Large".

The brand asset collection "BrandAsset" has an unassigned item "App Icon - Small".

The brand asset collection "BrandAsset" has an unassigned item "App Icon - Large".

The brand asset collection "BrandAsset" has an unassigned item "Top Shelf Image.


Creating this asset catalog seems to have prompted XCode to modify my Info.plist file as "Icon files (iOS 5)" and "CFBundleIcons~ipad" dictionaries have appeared that weren't there before but they have no items in them ....


So I'm not sure why I'm getting those warnings about unassigned items in my Images.xcassets file and I'm still getting an empty white App icon on the Apple TV devkit. I've deleted the App from the device's Settings / General / Manage Storage / screen and re-deployed but still no luck !

Delete the current asset catalog referece (none), the do an option-clean build folder, then redo the asset catalog selection. Delete the app off the device and build again.

Doesn't matter what I do. I can't get rid of those warnings about unassigned items and I can't get an icon to appear. When I select "Use Asset Catalog" next to "App Icons Source" it creates an empty "BrandAssets" folder in my asset catalog. Then if I click on this "BrandAssets" folder to select it and then hit the + button and choose "App Icons & Launch Images / New tvOS AppIcon and Top Shelf Image" it creates another folder called "Brand Assets" (with a space) inside that BrandAssets folder. Is that how it's supposed to be laid out or doesn't it matter what sub-folders icons are in ? I've tried deleting the entire builds folder and my App off the device and nothing helps. Still get warnings about unassigned items and still a white icon.

If I build Apple's DemoBots project for tvOS and deploy it to my devkit then their icon appears fine. However, if I then go into their asset catalog, open their "tvOS Icon" folder and drag their "App Icon - Small" folder to the trash and then create a new one from the "New tvOS App Icon and Top Shelf Image" menu, then drag that new "App Icon - Small" folder into the DemoBots "tv OS Icon" folder then I start getting the same problems - warning "The brand asset collection "tvOS Icon" has an unassigned item "App Icon - Small". Then when I deploy DemoBots to my device their icon has disappered and gone back to the white default one. So ... is this a bug or do I need to assign my new icon in the project settings somewhere ?


DemoBots project download ....

https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/tvos/samplecode/DemoBots/DemoBotsBuildingaCrossPlatformGamewithSpriteKitandGameplayKit.zip

When you say "go their asset catalog..."


Via Xcode or the Finder? In Xcode is the folder yellow or blue? Are you juggling names/renaming to match Apple's example, or?

This is brutal. I'm having the same problem with a pre-existing, converted project and have burned two hours trying to figure it out. My icon and top shelf image look good when previewed in xCode, but I get neither on the simulator or on hardware. I've cleaned-up old iPhone and iPad plist entries, cleaned the build folder, deleted the app and re-deployed it, etc. to no avail. The structure is "BrandAsset" > "Brand Assets" > "App Icon - Small" with five images within. "Top Shelf Image" is below, at the same level as "App Icon - Small". Within it, I right-clicked and selected "Apple TV" under devices, and then dragged a 1920 x 720 JPG onto the "Apple TV" placeholder this created. For what it's worth, all images were created with GIMP, though the icon images were PNG (vs. JPG) for the sake of transparency. All render fine in xCode.

>This is brutal.


My opinion concerning asset catalogs in general is they can be/have been unreliable, so maybe that continues w/tvOS...

Accepted Answer

SUCCESS !!!


Okay, I've figured out how to fix this. The warning about unassigned items occurs when you drag an icon to another folder. This seems to break things and appears to be a bug. What I didn't realize was that there's a section in the XCode project's Build Settings called "Asset Catalog Compiler - Options". It's under all the Apple LLVM sections so scroll nearly all the way to the bottom and you'll see it. There you can change "Asset Catalog App Icon Set Name" and "Asset Catalog Launch Image Set Name" to whatever folder name you've created in the asset catalog.


So here are the steps you need to take to add an App Icon:


1) If you've clicked on the the arrow next to "App Icons Source" then click on your "Images.xcassets" file that it created and delete the "BrandAsset" folder.

2) Also delete the "Brand Assets" folder if you created one just to be safe.

3) Making sure no folders are selected in your asset catalog, press the + button and select "App Icons & Launch Images > New tvOS App Icon and Top Shelf Image". This will create a new "Brand Assets" folder containing your App Icon and Top Shelf image wells.

4) Rename the "Brand Assets" folder to whatever name makes sense. I changed mine to "tvOS Icon" which is what the DemoBots project uses but it really doesn't matter what you call it.

5) Drag your Large and Small png files over to the approprate image wells in the "App Icon - Large" and "App Icon - Small" image layers. You can delete or add layers as you need to.

6) Now, this is the important part .... go to your project's "Build Settings" tab, scroll down to the "Asset Catalog Compiler - Options" section near the bottom and change the "Asset Catalog Launch Image Set Name" to the name you changed the folder to in step 4 (eg "tvOS Icon").


Build and deploy and you should see your App Icon finally! Delete the App from your Apply TV device if you don't (Settings > General > Manage Storage) but you shouldn't have to.


Dragging items between folders in the asset catalog causes problems. Don't do it !!!

Awesome, thanks! When I gave up last night, I had made up my mind that it must be some sort of naming mismatch issue. It's odd that everything can match under the general tab of the target and under these settings and it still not work. In any case, starting over (yet again) in the manner that you suggested and using the flatter folder structure with a custom name corrected the problem for me too. Thanks again!

*works* thank you!

Thanks! This was a big help. I've never had anything but huge problems with the asset catalog interface.

Great suggestions, but none are working for me on tvos Beta 2. I keep getting


App icon - Small.imagestack//.imagestacklayer has multiple embedded image sets.


I don't really get the error, because it's a PNG with an alpha channel for transparency of the parts of the image. So it should be a flat PNG file. I get that error on all sizes of icons. The images were made in Photoshop CS6, expotred the layers to individual png files, and imported them into the existing image assets as well as the suggestions in this post. Made sure the image catalogs were correctly identified.


The documentation talks about LSR files and LCR files, Xcode seems to hate them, regardless, no matter what I import into Xcode, even if the image is the right dimentions, I get the error mentioned in my post above.


In beta2, you can update the Assets library in the Build Settings, but the text turns red when you look at the info under the General tab. It won't give another option to change libraries there and defaults back to App Icon & Top Shelf Image.


I do love this forum! I've got some great answers here. 🙂

How do I add App Icons ?
 
 
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