[TUTORIAL]How to Customize your Status Bar Icons!!!

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knowledge561

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Alot of people ask me how I get certain icons in my status bar. Simple explanation, I replace the previous ones.
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How do we replace them you ask? Well that is what I am here to teach you. Before I do that, I want to thank GOMORRAH for the framework and systemui icons. I see him as one of the best themers on xda and he inspires a lot of my work and I love recreating his setups. I WILL NOT BE SHARING HIS ICONS. I also want to thank RAADIUS for the Tape and Vinyl music widgets on my homescreen. I also see him as one of the best themers on xda as well. He taught me alot when I had my Evo 4G, only thing is he was on MIUI and I was on CM7.

Now lets get down to business.
Things you will need: ADB Knowledge, 7-zip file manager, Icons:http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1218876 and time. Lots and lots of time.

The first thing your gonna want are icons. I have included a link to the MIUI Carrier Logos thread where I get a lot of my stuff. You can make some also if you want. The preferred size is 38x38, 40x42. The backgrounds have to be transparent and they have to be saved as .png files.

Now that we have our icons, lets get adb started. This is why android-sdk is installed on our pcs' if you didnt know. Your gonna want to go to your android-sdk folder, and either look in tools or platform-tools. ADB will be in either one of these, depending on your setup.
See mines:
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Now slow down, we don't want to just click it as is because it won't open. We will have to go up one folder, hold down shift+right click on the folder where adb is and select "Open Command Window Here"
Like this:
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Then a command prompt will open up, such as so:
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Okay, lets prep the phone. There are 2 ways to do this, wirelessly through adb wireless or plugged in.
Wirelessly: Open up adb wireless and turn it on, it will give you a address that you enter in the command prompt. I'll be doing it this way since I have no idea where my phone is right now but I know adb wireless is turned on already.
Plugged in: Plug the phone into your pc and make sure it is on CHARGE only.

Okay lets get the command going here.
Adb Wireless only, type "adb connect [your address here]". Your phone will connect now.

For everyone. Type "adb devices" this will list the devices connected and your phone should pop up with a long serial number. Type "adb remount" this will mount the phone as writable so we can access root.

Okay here's the selection. The alarm clock, wifi icons, 3g and 1x icons, headphones, vibrate and silent, gps-on and gps-off, and gps-acquiring icons are located in SystemUI.apk in /system/app. The battery icons are located in framework-res.apk in /system/framework. I will be showing you how to do the alarm clock so were gonna mod th SystemUI.apk with this tutorial. It's the same steps for all icons.

Type "adb pull /system/app/SystemUI.apk" this will copy the SystemUI.apk to the same folder where adb is. See SUCCESS
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Now that we have the apk copied, lets open her up and do things to her. <--You like what I said there. ;)

Right click on the file and select 7-zip, open archive. Navigate to /res/drawable-hdpi This is where the icons are. The easiest thing to do right here, is copy the entire drawable-res folder to the desktop(Keep the 7-zip folder open though) so you can see the icons in the folder. That way you can connect the names with what they look like. For example, your not gonna know what the alarm clock icon is called but you know what it looks like right?
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Yea, so we browse through the folder until we see it. FOUND IT. Now copy the name of it to the new icon your replacing it with. I replaced mines with the kanye bear icon. So now my kanye bear will be the new alarm clock icon because it is named Stat_notify_alarm.png which is the original name of our original alarm clock icon.
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If you modded just one icon, drag it into the 7-zipped apk folder we left open. If you modded more than one icon, then drag them all in. This comes in handy when your doing the battery icons. You don't want to drag 101 battery icons individually. It will ask you to "Copy" them. Choose yes. In this case, copy means "Overwrite." That will mod the apk with the icons you wanted.
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Once its done copying, close the 7-zip folder, close the drawable folder that you copied where-ever. Close all folders that you don't feel are necessary to be open. You should still have your folder where adb is still open though, and your command prompt.

Time to push the apk back to your phone.
Type "adb push SystemUI.apk /system/app" and that will move it back. If you look at your phone, your status bar should have completely disappeared. No pulldown either. This is means your phone is waiting for a reboot.
Type "adb reboot" Once your phone is done, you will see your new icon in the status bar.
THE GREY ERRORS I MARKED OUT BECAUSE THEY SAY ERROR: DEVICE NOT FOUND. THATS BECAUSE I DIDNT WANT TO PUSH IT BACK TO MY PHONE. I DIDNT FEEL LIKE RESTARTING IT IN THE MIDDLE OF A CHARGE CYCLE! On yours it will give the copy speed.
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That is it. Enjoy your new icons.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

tbistone

Senior Member
Jun 13, 2010
51
1
booooooooooooooooo =[[ when i root i suppose ill check this out!!! thanks the for the info :D

Anybody suggest a certain root method?
 

thizzlemania91

Senior Member
May 11, 2011
1,533
212
Santa Cruz,CA
alrite so when i attempt to pull out SystemUI.apk it gives me the the same line with the data and everything, but when i look in the platform-tools folder i dont c the apk :(
 
K

knowledge561

Guest
alrite so when i attempt to pull out SystemUI.apk it gives me the the same line with the data and everything, but when i look in the platform-tools folder i dont c the apk :(

Out of all the errors, u get that? Check your tools folder. Remember, it depends on where adb is.

Free Dirk!!!
 

javi_06

Senior Member
Sep 23, 2010
105
6
Kansas City
Awesome tutorial knowledge. Appreciate the time you put into it. I've been searching for a while now and am having a hard time finding more icons. Are there any icons that you can share or maybe a link?
 
K

knowledge561

Guest
Google search Droid x minimal icons and akoe101. He has great battery, signal, and WiFi icon packs. I use his all the time.

Free Dirk!!!
 
K

knowledge561

Guest
If you guys Root explorer to copy and paste, make sure you dont delete the old SystemUI.apk or framework-res.apk on your phone when you copy the new one over. Youll be going to force close and nandroid city. Just paste over it, overwrite it.

Free Dirk!!!
 

creektrack

Senior Member
Jul 20, 2011
85
8
38
Houston
Great DIY...Thanks, it worked great, now I just have to DL Photoshop so I can make some other edits properly...Or do you recommend something better, I tried to use photo editer and it just wouldn't work right...
 
K

knowledge561

Guest
Great DIY...Thanks, it worked great, now I just have to DL Photoshop so I can make some other edits properly...Or do you recommend something better, I tried to use photo editer and it just wouldn't work right...
Photoshop is the best in my book.


Free Dirk!!!
 

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    So you were able to rip open the apk and mod it without using a PC?

    Free Dirk!!!

    Yeah, I'm lazy like that, and I like avoiding using adb as much as possible, so I try to use Root Explorer whenever possible... another user pm'd me about the process, so I guess I can just copypasta my reply:
    (I originally typed this from work, a bit haphazardly, so I've edited a few lines.)
    ********************************
    mazook98 said:
    Just extract the SystemUI.apk. and or the framework.res.apk with Root Explorer, and replace the .pngs in the files with what you want to, whether you get them off the web, from a screenshot, or an Android image editor...that's your call. ***Be very careful replacing these in their respective home folders, as if you don't have permissions already set perfectly (644), they will force close like crazy. Don't install, simply set back to readonly, reboot into recovery, and then wipe dalvik........

    (then, we went a little deeper)

    mazook98 said:
    Yes, you can edit .pngs in Canvas if you need to... Then just rename them EXACTLY what the files you are using them as replacement FOR when you put them back in place (this is ALL still in the extracted APK..your "work in progress ")

    After you have ALL the ones changed how you want,you'll need to rezip the app with Root explorer.
    Lastly, go to where your newly edited .zip file is, and rename it with a .apk extension, (get rid of the zip extension), and 'bam', it's an app again.

    But, (and this is the easiest way i've found to do this.... I'd recommend THIS: MISSPELL the app on purpose, so you can move it back into where it's supposed to be (in /system/app if it's the SystemUI.apk, or in system/framework/ if it's the framework.res.apk) without initially overwriting the original, because that's where you NEED to re-adjust the permissions back to 644.

    After THAT, all you have to do is rename it one last time to the correct spelling, and it'll automatically overwrite the original. Don't do anything else, (Don't actually 'install' your new version of the app).

    Reset system to read-only right before you exit Root Explorer. You're done now, except a quick boot into recovery, where you just wipe dalvik.

    That'll essentially reload ALL the changes you made in your custom versions of the two apps that Knowledge561 was referring to in his OP.
    Hope this helped!

    Sent from my Evo³d
    ***********************
    Anyway, that's this lazy guy's workaround using Root Explorer, and no PC. Gimme a sec, and I'll add a Dropbox link to the 'Canvas' app I was referring to, that was initially written for the Notionink Adam tablet. It's not perfect, but it's got a simple interface and it certainly gets the job done.
    EDIT: 'Canvas' is here: http://db.tt/iGvEMeW, if you'd like to try it. :)

    Thanks again, Knowledge...this was a verycool thing to learn, if I do say so myself, and it has unlimited possibilities.

    Sent from my HTC Evo3D