How do I restore the download icon to toolbar?

It appears as if your question relates to Safari. According to: Download items from the web using Safari on Mac - Apple Support

"The button isn’t shown if the downloads list is empty.

Edit: The linked article also states: "By default, Safari automatically removes an item after one day. To change when items are automatically removed, choose Safari > Preferences, click General, then click the “Remove download list items” pop-up menu and choose an option."

hilary2201 wrote:

That's helpful, but the Toolbar is the problem. Upper right should have a little bar that when downloading shows the progress and stays there when something new has been downloaded.

That would be on a Browser tool bar.

If you go to Safari>View>Customize tool bar you can drag and drop , rearrange your tool bar

The other way is to control click in the Tool bar area of any browser for the contextual Menu>Customize

hilary2201 wrote:

Safari

 To change when items are automatically removed, choose Safari > Preferences, click General, then click the “Remove download list items” pop-up menu and choose an option. This when populated will retain the Downloads icon.

hilary2201 wrote:

Nope.

"Manually" is selected and there are downloads.

One good thing: I've now selected Ask where to Download under File download location.

That's a great work around.

Thank you!

You can always Restore the default tool bar from the> Customize panel.

Have you consulted: Use the Dock on Mac?

Can you describe what you have attempted?

hilary2201 wrote:

Crazy but the icon is MISSING!

Which browser?

Paste ~/ into Finder > Go > Go to Folder… then drag the Downloads folder into the right side of the Dock.

.

As Ferd mentioned, the icon isn't shown until you actually download something.

hilary2201 wrote:

Nope.

Works fine here. Try starting Safari with the Shift key held down.