macOS Big Sur - Where is the icon file (.icns) for System Preferences.app?

Question

On macOS Big Sur, I believe this is the location for the Sys Prefs app: /System/Applications/System Preferences.app, but I cannot find a .icns icon file for the app anywhere in this directory. So where is the icon file for Sys Prefs app?

Command I use to find .icns file in the current directory (fd can be installed with brew):

fd -e icns

Answer 1

The System Preferences icon...

In macOS Catalina the System Preferences icon, PrefApp.icns, is located at:

/System/Applications/System Preferences.app/Contents/Resources/PrefApp.icns

However, in macOS Big Sur it is now included in its Assets.car file:

/System/Applications/System Preferences.app/Contents/Resources/Assets.car

In Finder, you can right-click on the application bundle and select Show Package Contents to navigate to these files, or copy them using Terminal.

The image below is a third-party utility called Asset Catalog Tinkerer, to which I have no affiliation. You can use it to view the contents and drag and drop out of it the image you want.

Answer 2

Go to /System/Applications/, right click System Preferences, click Get info, and select the icon at the top. Press Command+C, then open preview and press Command+N to make a new file from your clipboard. Now save the file as an icns.