Working with a Mac Book Air, 2020 version with an M1 chip.
After I access a website, in order to have that site recorded as a "favorite" I would go to "add a bookmark"and have the site's icon go to my Safari page, icon. In the past I've gone to Safari History and clicked on "Clear History" and all the favorite usual icons were undisturbed. This time, all icons just disappeared. However, if I go to "start page" and "Bookmarks" I get a list of the sites that were saved as icons initially but are now just written favorites like "bank" or "weather" or "Apple" and are displayed along the left side of the screen. If I click on one of them Safari takes me to that site. "add as a bookmark" does not appear anywhere so I don't have an opportunity to save the visit as an icon.
Truly frustrating!
Thanks for any suggestions1
Jeff L.