iOS app icon not updating with Xcode 13.0 / iOS 15.0

I'm about to release an app update with a new app icon. I've changed the icons several times to try different designs with Xcode 12.x and iOS 14 and never had any issues. Today I updated to Xcode 13 + iOS 15, and no matter what I try, the device keeps showing my previous version of the app icon.

Xcode displays the new icon (e.g. under "Targets" of the project settings).

The correct (new) icon is being displayed when running in simulator.

In the "Devices and Simulators" window, the old/wrong icon is displayed under "Installed Apps".

Things I've tried:

  • I checked all asset catalogs etc. in my project and can confirm the old icon asset is no longer there.
  • Clean build folder.
  • Delete the app off the device from "Devices and Simulators".
  • Delete the app on the device itself.
  • Restart the iPhone whilst app is still on the device.
  • Restart the iPhone whilst app is deleted.
  • Restart Mac.
  • I created a new iOS icon asset and linked that from the iPhone project settings.
  • Increased the build number of the iPhone app.

No matter what I try, the old icon keeps coming back.

It seems like iOS 15 caches the icon and building and running on device from Xcode is not enough. Any ideas

Post not yet marked as solved Up vote post of NickZ Down vote post of NickZ
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  • me too after upgrade to Xcode 13 and IOS 15 , app icon display correctly in simulators , but in real device only show missing app icon

  • Update: The issue exists also in the simulator. On the first run it updates the app icon in the simulator, but then, when I replace the icon image afterwards, it will keep displaying the old icon the the simulator. The only solution I found so far is to reset the simulator and run again.

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I have the same issue with an app currently in development. On new phones the new icon is displayed. But on my development phone (ios15) it does not update the icon.

I've reproduced this issue by creating a brand new project. But keeping the bundle identifier the same as the old app. Running this new project on the phone the icon is the same as the old app. If I then delete that new project app off the phone, change the bundle identifier and display name it then shows the new icon. If I then change the bundle identifier back to the old app it then shows the old icon.

This strongly suggests that it is nothing to do with the xcode project and must only be to do with the phone caching the icon. We haven't released this on the app store as of yet. Does anybody know if releasing to the AppStore with the new icon fixes this issue?

FYI, A solution here half worked. Install the app. Restart the phone with the app still installed. After the phone has restarted the new icon is displayed.

However, deploying from xcode seems to revert back to the previous icon until the phone is restarted again.

  • This is worked for me also. Thank you !

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Me too. Xcode 12.5.1 with device iOS 15.0.2. But after reboot the iPhone, I have seen the new app icon

I have the same issue here. On Xcode an in Simulator. Seems to a be a bug in new software.

Facing same issue.

Facing same issue. Xcode 13.1 device iOS 13.5.1

Facing same issue. Rebooting the iPhone can't help.

I’m having a separate but similar issue with the Testflight app and public link email icon not changing despite icons being corrected. It’s like Apple doesn’t care about this issue

I did delete the app from simulator iOS 15.2 or later and reset the simulator and run the app again works. This is working in m1 MacBook with Xcode 13.

it still happening with xcode 14 and ios 16. Updated icon assests to new icon design and upon update of app on real device from Testflight or from xcode, app icon shows new icon and then reverts immediately to old one.

Anybody, how to fix this?

In my case, my project is a Unity project so I am setting(or changing) my icon on the Unity project and there was no change. What I have done to change;

  1. Found the AppIcon.appiconset folder in Xcode Project folder and deleted(Finder on MacOs).

2)Find my AppIcon in Unity-iPhone->Data->Images (Project Navigator in Xcode) 3)Drag and drop Images to some where in the main project folder (Project Navigator in Xcode) And that fixed my nightmare. Hope helps someone.