How to Change the Music App Icon on iPhone (Shortcut Fix)

Why this happens

An app’s icon is baked into the app itself. The image lives inside the app bundle, and the only way it changes is when the developer ships a new one — or, in some apps, when the developer offers alternate icons you can pick inside the app’s own settings. Apple’s Music app doesn’t offer that choice, so when Apple redrew the icon in black and white, every iPhone got the same new artwork with no switch to flip back.

There is one system-wide lever: the Home Screen appearance setting (Light, Dark or Tinted) that arrived in iOS 18. That changes how all icons are rendered at once, so it can make the Music icon look darker or flatter, but it can’t restore the old colorful artwork for one app.

The workaround people actually use is to stop launching Music from its own icon. Instead you build a shortcut that opens the app, give that shortcut any icon you like, and park it where the Music icon used to sit. The app underneath is unchanged — same library, same playlists, same CarPlay behaviour.

Fixes to try

1. Build an “Open App” shortcut with a custom icon

This is the quickest route and takes about a minute.

1. Open the Shortcuts app.
2. Tap + in the top right to start a new shortcut.
3. Tap Add Action, search for Open App, and select it.
4. Tap the blue App placeholder in the action, then choose Music from the list. The action should now read “Open App: Music”.
5. Tap the shortcut’s name at the top of the screen to open its details. Rename it Music.
6. Tap the icon preview in the details screen. Pick a color, then pick a music-note glyph from the list. Tap Done.
7. Back in the editor, tap Done again to save.
8. Open the shortcut’s share sheet (the Share button, or the … menu depending on your iOS version) and choose Add to Home Screen, then tap Add.

You now have a Home Screen icon that opens Music directly. To clear the old one out of the way, touch and hold the real Music icon, tap Remove App, then Remove from Home Screen. The app stays installed and still appears in the App Library, in Control Center’s Now Playing tile, in Siri and in CarPlay.

One thing to expect: the shortcut icon is a launcher, not the app. It won’t show a notification badge, and it won’t show the little Now Playing indicator some apps display. Everything else works normally.

2. Use a photo so the icon matches the old artwork exactly

If a colored glyph isn’t close enough, you can drop in an actual image — including a copy of the previous Music icon.

1. Save the image you want to use to the Photos app (a screenshot of the old icon works fine for personal use).
2. Open Shortcuts and tap your Music shortcut to edit it.
3. Tap the shortcut name at the top to open details, then tap the icon preview.
4. Choose Photo (or Choose Photo) and pick the image from your library.
5. Tap Done, then Done again.
6. Delete the existing Home Screen shortcut and add it again with Share > Add to Home Screen.

That last step matters. The Home Screen copies the icon at the moment you add it, so editing the shortcut’s icon afterwards won’t update the icon already sitting on your Home Screen. Remove it and re-add it whenever you change the artwork.

3. Check whether it’s just Dark or Tinted mode

Before building anything, make sure the black-and-white look isn’t the Home Screen appearance setting doing its job.

1. Touch and hold an empty area of the Home Screen until the icons jiggle.
2. Tap Edit in the top left, then Customize.
3. Switch between Light, Dark and Tinted at the bottom of the panel.

Tinted pushes every icon toward a single color and Dark dims them, which can make the Music icon look far more monochrome than it really is. If Light gives you an icon you can live with, you’re done — no shortcut needed. Remember this setting is global: it changes every icon on every Home Screen page, not just Music.

If nothing works

If the shortcut won’t stay on the Home Screen, or it opens the Shortcuts app before Music, delete it and rebuild it from scratch — a shortcut that was converted from an older automation sometimes keeps odd behaviour. Also check that you added it through Add to Home Screen rather than dragging it out of the Shortcuts app.

If the icon you want simply doesn’t exist any more and you can’t find a usable image, send feedback to Apple at apple.com/feedback — per-app icon choices are a feature request, not a setting you’ve missed.

If the Music app itself is misbehaving (not just its icon), that’s a different problem: back up the iPhone first — to iCloud or to a computer — then try restarting the phone, and contact Apple Support or book a Genius Bar appointment if playback or library sync is broken. Don’t restore the whole device just to change an icon; a restore won’t bring the old artwork back anyway, because the icon ships with the app.

FAQ

Does the shortcut open the real Music app, or a copy?

The real one. The Open App action launches the installed Music app exactly as tapping its own icon would, so your library, downloads, playlists and CarPlay sessions are all the same. The shortcut is only a different door into the same room.

Will my custom icon survive an iOS update?

Home Screen shortcuts normally persist across updates, but a major iOS release can occasionally reset Home Screen layout or re-add the original app icon. If that happens, the shortcut is still in the Shortcuts app — just add it to the Home Screen again. If you changed the shortcut’s icon in the meantime, remember to remove and re-add it so the new artwork is picked up.

Can I do this for other apps too?

Yes. The same Open App action works for any installed app, which is handy when one redesigned icon clashes with the rest of your Home Screen. You can also hide the original icon with Remove from Home Screen and keep only the shortcut, though the app stays in the App Library and can still be opened from search, Siri or a widget.