safari favicons not showing in bookmarks

Safari Favorites Icons Missing? 7 Ways to Get Them Back

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Safari favorites icons, or favicons, are a celebrated convenience that allows you to quickly see the website you want in history, bookmarks, or tabs. Unfortunately, these favicons tend to appear incorrectly or go missing. This article shows you how to get back missing favorite icons on your Mac.  

If you notice that your Safari favorites icons are missing , clearing your cache and restarting Safari is the fastest way to get them back . There is another alternative way of opening the affected website in a private Safari window; I will look at it in detail later in the article.

How to Find Safari Favorites Icons Missing? 

• Method 1: Clear Safari favorites icons cache 

Method 2: Use Safari Private Window

Method 3: create new user, method 4: verify your preferences, method 5: restore items from time machine, method 6: download updates.

• Method 7: Use the safe mode        

In Conclusion

If the favorites icons are missing in Safari on your Mac, try going to “Safari” > “Preferences” > “Tabs” and check the box next to “Show website icons in tabs.” If this doesn’t solve the issue, try resetting the Safari browser by going to “Safari” > “Reset Safari” and selecting the appropriate options. If the issue persists, try restarting your Mac or updating the operating system.

How to bring back Safari Favorites Icons

When Apple first introduced the favicon feature on Safari, most people unsurprisingly jumped on it enthusiastically. The convenience of quickly locating your favorite website on a tab or bookmark list was too good to pass up. Precious seconds are saved by that little image appearing in the history list of the Safari browser, while not seeing it can put some people off whatever they are doing on the internet. Even though the Safari favorites icon appears distorted or missing, we’re here to tell you that you can quickly recover the icon by following a few simple steps on your MacBook. 

Method 1: Clear Safari favorites icons cache  

Clearing the Safari favorites icons cache and starting over is the universal way of solving the problem of incorrect and missing favicons on your computer. Follow the steps below to get your favorite icons back. 

• Shut or quit Safari.
• Go to Finder on your Mac.  
• Next, click on Go, then select Go To Folder on the visible menu.
• A pop-up menu will appear, and you will need to type in/Library/Safari/Favicon Cache/ 
• Once you’ve typed that in, you need to click on Go.
• You must send all the items in the folder on your screen to Trash. Pressing the Command and the A key simultaneously selects all the files in the folder, then you can drag them to the trash. You can also right-click the files and select Move To Trash on the menu that appears on the screen. 
• Empty the entire trash or delete the items from the favicon cache folder only. The simplest way to empty your trash is by right-clicking the trash icon on your dock and selecting Empty Trash. 
• Open your Safari browser again and visit your saved sites. 

The incorrect or distorted images should appear correctly. The favicon cache rebuilds itself as you visit your saved sites. However, in rare cases, some alternatives might help. I’ll now look at some of the methods that you can use. Feel free to try them all, as none take a long time to complete.

Also Read: How to Fix Finder Not Responding on Mac

There is no guarantee that this alternative method will work, but it is worth a try if clearing the favicon cache is not working or if you prefer not to use it. Safari has a private window that does not store browsing history, and you can use this feature to try and refresh your favicons.

• Right-click on Safari in the Dock
• Select New Private Window
• Visit the site with the incorrect or missing favicons
• Close Private Window

The favicons should return to normal working conditions after this. You can try these further steps in the Private Window.

• Select Preferences and click on Privacy on the Safari menu
• Click on Manage Website Data, and a list of sites will appear
• Choose the site that is causing issues and click on Remove
• Click on Done to finish the process
• Go back to the non-private window and open the website again.

Your Mac should be able to rebuild the favicon cache on its own. If you know your way around the device, you can manually make another favicon cache folder, but this is not a recommended route. It is better to contact the Apple Support center.    

If you continue having issues with favicons, create a new user on your Mac. This method has worked for others on the Apple Community Forum , where users try to help each other solve various challenges with Mac. One user managed to retrieve all the missing favicons using this method. 

• Select System Preferences (System Settings on macOS Ventura and above) on your menu and click Users & Groups
• Click on Add at the bottom of the dialogue box.   
• Choose the type of user, preferably the Administrator. 
• Enter the name of the new user and a password.
• Click on Add User.

The first time you open Safari under the new user profile, favicons should all work perfectly. \

Also Read: How to Change Admin Name on Mac

The Mac has a preference setting that allows tabs to display icons when you’re on Safari. Check that your preferences are set correctly by following these simple steps. 

• Open Safari 
• Click on Safari in the menu bar
• Select Preferences 
• Click on Tabs, and a list of preferences will show up
• Tick the box allowing website icons to be shown. 

The image below shows the box that you should tick. You can try doing this a couple of times while restarting your device. Try this method several times, restarting your device each time. 

If you use Time Machine to backup files, then you can use it to retrieve files and items. The good thing about Time Machine is that it works with almost all Mac apps. Here is a reminder of how to open Time Machine and retrieve files and items. 

• Click on the Time Machine icon. If the icon is not there, go to System Preferences (System Settings on macOS Ventura and above) and click Time Machine on the Apple menu.
• Click on Show Time Machine in the menu bar to browse backups and local snapshots.
• Use the arrows to look through your missing files and items. When you see the files you need, click Restore. 

You can restore all the files at once or one by one. When restored, the files return to the original folder. Remember, you need to have already set your device to back up to the Time Machine for this method to work perfectly.   

Also Read: How to Turn off Time Machine on a Mac

Your Safari favorites icons missing challenge can also be solved by updating your device. The macOS Catalina 10.15.7 Combo update fixes issues that prevent files from syncing with iCloud and resolves graphics. You can download this update and see if the problem is solved. 

Follow these steps to download software updates on your Mac. 

• Open the Apple menu and choose System Preferences (System Settings on macOS Ventura and above).
• Click on Software Update.
• Open the Software Update preferences for the Safari folder.

You can also find a list of available updates in the Apple Store or set your device to check for software updates in the System Preferences (System Settings on macOS Ventura and above) automatically. However, for this particular issue of missing favicons, the Catalina 10.15.7 Combo update should be able to help. 

Method 7: Use the safe mode         

One way of solving issues on your Mac is to restart it in safe mode. The safe mode allows your device to start and run with limited functionality as you try and solve specific issues. You must determine if your device uses Apple silicon, then follow these steps. 

• Shut down your Mac device.
• Turn on your Mac and hold the power tab until the startup options window appears.
• Choose the startup disk. 
• Click the Continue in Safe Mode tab while holding down the shift key.
• Log in, and if asked to, do it again.

If your device uses the Intel processor, follow the instructions below.

• Turn on the Mac
• Press and hold the shift key immediately
• Release the shift key when the login window appears
• Login as per instruction

All the methods mentioned here should help retrieve missing or distorted favicons. If you continue having issues after everything I have touched on here, you may need to reinstall your macOS to ensure that all the third-party apps are up to date. 

Also Read: Best Mac OS Version

Always keep your Mac device updated, as this helps solve issues before they arise. Clearing your favicon cache is the simplest and fastest way of retrieving your missing favicon. If it does not work, you should get joy from the other methods mentioned above. As a last resort, reinstall the operating system. None of your data is removed by reinstalling macOS. Click on the Reinstall macOS tab in the Utilities window and follow the instructions to complete the process. 

Do not close the lid on your Mac until the reinstallation process is finished. Your device will load all the latest software updates and be as good as new. Besides everything I have covered here, you can also contact Apple support and get help.   

Favicons provide a convenient way of quickly identifying websites on tabs, bookmark lists, and browser history. For those using the internet for work, favicons save valuable time and energy since you do not have to type the first few letters of sites to get where you want to be.

Ujjwal is a tech enthusiast with a special interest in everything Apple! He manages and writes on MacMyths.com where sharing anything and everything related to Apple devices and services is his daily thing to do.

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How to refresh website favicons in Safari on Mac

A favicon is the small website logo you see in your browser tab. The ability to see favicons for websites in Safari is convenient. It lets you spot the site you want at a glance by seeing just the icon on your tab, in your bookmark list, and in your history.

But have you ever noticed favicons that go missing or are incorrect, showing the wrong icon? You can “refresh” the website favicons in Safari on Mac in just a few steps, and here, we’ll show you how.

Delete Safari’s favicon cache

If you’re experiencing favicons that aren’t right, maybe they have icons for different websites; clearing the cache and starting over is a good option. Here’s how to do that:

1) Close and quit Safari .

2) Using Finder, click Go > Go to Folder from the menu bar

3) Enter ~/Library/Safari/Favicon Cache/ in the pop-up window and go to this location.

4) Select all items in the cache folder and move them to the Trash . You can select all with the keyboard shortcut Command + A and then drag them to your Trash or right-click and pick Move to Trash.

5) Empty your Trash or delete those items from it. (For help with both options, check out our tutorial on How to Empty Trash on Mac .)

6) Open Safari .

The Safari favicon cache folder will rebuild itself as you visit websites. And you’ll need to visit the sites you have saved for the favicons to appear. But those that were incorrect or missing should show up correctly.

Related : How to skip the Trash and delete files on Mac immediately

Alternative option

If you’d rather try something else, there is one other option that may or may not work.

Open the website with the incorrect favicon in a private window in Safari. You can do this easily by right-clicking Safari in your Dock and selecting New Private Window or selecting File > New Private Window from the menu bar.

Visit the website in the private window, and when you return to your non-private Safari, the favicon may be correct.

The suggestion comes from the Apple Community Forum . This method did not work for the user with the question, nor did it work for me; however, it’s worth a try if you’d like.

Enabling favicons in Safari

As a reminder, you can enable favicons in Safari on older versions of macOS by following these simple steps:

1) With Safari open, click Safari > Preferences from the menu bar.

2) Select the Tabs tab.

3) Check the box for Show website icons in tabs to enable favicons.

Hopefully, either rebuilding the Safari favicon cache or opening a specific site in a private window works for you. And if you have another method to refresh favicons in Safari that works for you, please share it in the comments below!

Useful Safari tips:

• 11 tips to customize and personalize Safari on iPhone and iPad
• How to pin tabs in Safari on iPhone, iPad, and Mac
• How and why to update Safari, Chrome, and other web browsers on iPhone and Mac
• How to open multiple websites at once on Mac

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How to Show and Hide Favicons in Safari Favorites Bar

In Safari 17 and macOS Sonoma , Apple has introduced support for displaying favicons in the Favorites bar. Keep reading to learn why favicons can be useful, and how you can disable them if they aren't for you.

Favicons can usually be found next to anything in a browser's interface that identifies a website. This can include bookmarks, tabs, history results, and search bars.

In Safari 17, if you have the Favorites Bar enabled ( View -> Show Favorites Bar in Safari's menu bar) the favicon for each site will appear beside its title, allowing you to more easily spot it in the bar.

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On Safari in iOS 12 to iOS 14, users have access to the Favourite icon, known as Favicon. It is a tiny visual webpage indicator on the title bar and tab bar. These little icons let you see the websites open in your browser at once. This can eventually be of great help to avoid juggling multiple tabs and trying to keep things organized. So, let’s take a look at how to  enable favicons in Safari on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

How to Turn ON Favicons in Safari on iPhone and iPad

How to show website favicons in safari for mac.

• Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
• Scroll down, tap on ‘Safari’

• Open Safari browser on your Mac, if you haven’t yet. Locate and tap the Safari tab at the top left corner next to the Apple icon.

Close the pop-up window and continue using your browser. The feature gets active instantly.

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With its recent updates, iPhone, iPad, and Mac are adorned with many features and design elements. In case you still haven’t upgraded your device or are unaware about the offerings, or have any other query/feedback, please feel free to connect with us through our comment section or drop a direct mail. We’d be delighted to hear from you.

You may also like to read these posts:

• How to Enable Safari Popup Blocker on iPhone
• How to Delete Frequently Visited Sites in Safari
• How to Search Within a Webpage in Safari in iPhone
• Translate Webpages in Safari on iPhone

Mayank is a published author and a tech-blogger with over ten years of writing experience for various domains and industries. At iGeeks, he mostly writes about blogs that solve user-problems and guide them on unleashing the full potential of their Apple Device. He can often be found with his headphones on, typing to the rhythm of some country song.

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How-To Geek

How to add favicons to safari on macos.

We've been clear: Mac users should ditch Chrome for Safari.

We've been clear: Mac users should ditch Chrome for Safari . It offers much better battery life, better performance, and content filters are way better than ad blockers.

Related: Mac Users Should Ditch Google Chrome for Safari

Safari is better than Chrome in every way, bar one: Safari lacks favicons. Which is weird: these little icons are a great way to identify which tabs are which. Maybe Apple thinks they're ugly, or maybe they just don't want to clutter up the user interface, but for whatever reason Safari doesn't offer favicons out of the box.

Enter Faviconographer . This third party program does one thing: add favicons to Safari. It's not perfect, but it works, and unlike other solutions for this, you don't even need to disable System Identity Protection .

Installing is simple: just download Faviconographer , open the DMG file, and then drag the icon to your Applications folder.

The first time you launch the program, you'll need to change some permissions so that Faviconographer can control your computer using accessibility features .

Click the button to head to the appropriate panel in System Preferences, click the lock at bottom left to allow changes, and then ensure that the "Faviconographer" option is enabled in the list.

And just like that, Faviconographer is set up. Open Safari and you should see the favicons.

Things get a little weird when you move or resize the window: the icons lag a little behind. And you won't see the icons at all when Safari isn't the active window. So yeah, it's not perfect, but it's better than nothing, and it's very light on system resources.

There isn't much in the way of settings.

You can display the favicons for tabs (enabled by default), and you can also add them to your Favorites Bar if you use that feature. There's also a checkbox for launching the app automatically when you log in.

Note also that there's no menu bar icon for this program. If you want to change settings, or quit the application, simply re-launch it---this open the settings window again.

Safari User Guide

• Change your homepage
• Import bookmarks, history, and passwords
• Make Safari your default web browser
• Go to websites
• Find what you’re looking for
• Bookmark webpages that you want to revisit
• See your favorite websites
• Use tabs for webpages
• Pin frequently visited websites
• Play web videos
• Mute audio in tabs
• Pay with Apple Pay
• Autofill credit card info
• Autofill contact info
• Keep a Reading List
• Hide ads when reading articles
• Translate a webpage
• Download items from the web
• Share or post webpages
• Add passes to Wallet
• Save part or all of a webpage
• Print or create a PDF of a webpage
• Customize a start page
• Customize the Safari window
• Customize settings per website
• Zoom in on webpages
• Get extensions
• Manage cookies and website data
• Block pop-ups
• Clear your browsing history
• Browse privately
• Autofill user name and password info
• Prevent cross-site tracking
• View a Privacy Report
• Change Safari preferences
• Keyboard and other shortcuts
• Troubleshooting

If bookmarks are missing from the Favorites bar in Safari on Mac

If you didn’t accidentally delete the bookmarks, try these suggestions.

Open Safari for me

Some features, such as adding bookmarks for specific sites, may not be available if Screen Time browser restrictions are set for your account. Check with a person who has an administrator account on your Mac.

If your Mac has Safari enabled in iCloud Preferences, you may have removed the bookmarks on another device.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Favicons for bookmark bar in Safari

I used to have Firefox where i had organised all my bookmarks in the bar just by icons (by removing the name only the icon would show). I foud that safari is capable of showing the icons in the tabs (in Safari>Preferences>Tabs>"Show website icons on tabs") but apart from opening the Favorites tab there is no other way for the icons to show. It is very useful for regular sites like Facebook, Google, Amazon etc. I suggest that you apply it as I've seen many users complain about it as I searched for a solution.

MacBook Air 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 29, 2020 10:50 AM

Posted on Apr 4, 2020 5:29 AM

I submitted a request as you said but the rest is not what i was talking about so I'll try to clarify.

I know the icons show on the tabs but the dont show on the bookmark bar.

See the first is the Safari (left) bookmark bar (desmos.com,hearthstonetopdecks.com,...) there are no icons as opposed to Firefox (right) where they show on the bar (Icons of instagram.com,shazam.com,messenger.com). In both browsers the icons show on the tabs but only in Firefox the show on the bookmark bar too.

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• Favicon for websites not showing in Safari I really want to use Safari as my main browser now that I am using a new M1 MacBook Air, in order to make the best use of battery. I have used both Chrome and Firefox as my main browser. One of the things I REALLY like about those browsers is that I can add favourite/bookmarks to the toolbar with *just* the website's icon (favicon) and quickly pick from that. I imported bookmarks from Firefox to Safari, but the favicons are missing. I did try visiting those sites to pull in the icons (this is the behaviour with Firefox if starting from fresh). I have ensured that 'Show website icons in tabs' in selected in Preferences, FWIW. The screenshot below shows how the favourites with icons are great in Firefox but poop in Safari. Honestly, this is the only blocker to me using Safari as main browser. I really cannot understand why these icons are not showing 🤷‍♂️ 1999 1
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Apr 4, 2020 5:29 AM in response to dominic23

Mar 29, 2020 11:25 AM in response to sotosgreen13

Please submit a feedback/feature request to Apple.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/safari.html

If a user has a folder placed which has bookmarks in it, right click it and choosing "Open in tabs',

tabs will have favicon showing.

For additional info;

Tabs for webpages.

https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/use-tabs-for-webpages-sfri11576/13.0/mac/10.15

Apr 4, 2020 6:15 AM in response to sotosgreen13

At present bookmarks in the Bookmarks bar are "text only".

A user can create a bookmarks folder and then add bookmarks to it.

Upon clicking the bookmarks folder open, the dropdown will show bookmarks along with favicon

Safari also has Favorites sheet drop down feature.

I am aware of the fact that Firefox has a different setup.

https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/see-your-favorite-websites-sfri22092/mac