Safari Favourites favicons display initials

Question

Safari Favourites favicons display initials

In the Safari browser, some favicons do not load on the Favourites page. Instead of the website icon, only the initial of the website name is displayed (see screenshot). I have tried clearing Safari history as well as the favicon cache (/Users/<username>/Library/Safari/Favicon Cache) multiple times, but the issue persists. When I clear all history, the favicons appear briefly and then disappear again. I have also tried deleting the affected website favourites and recreating them, but that did not resolve the issue.

Has anyone encountered this behavior before or found a fix? Any help would be appreciated.

Safari version: Version 26.2 (21623.1.14.11.9)

OS: macOS Tahoe 26.2

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 26.2

Posted on Feb 5, 2026 10:26 AM

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Answer 1

Camelot

Level 9

58,719 points

Feb 5, 2026 1:05 PM in response to Vikramaditya84

That's because you're looking in the wrong place :)

This icon has nothing to do with favicon.ico. The favicon is a miniature logo (typically 32 x 32 pixels) that is shown in the address bar.

The Favorites Bar (despite sounding similar) relies on content in the respective web page that points to a full-size image that the web developer wants to associate with their site.

The image reference is embedded in the page HTML source, via a <link rel..> tag, like:

<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/my-favorite-icon.png">

When Safari loads the page, it checks if the appropriate <link rel> tag exists, and downloads the associated file.

Off hand, I'm not sure where this is cached, but you'd need to check the sites in question to see if they include that tag. If they don't, then Apple post the generic initial icon.

A quick check. and Google Translate has the tag:

where apple-touch-icon-precomposed is the legacy method that debuted with iOS way back in the day. It's been superseded by apple-touch-icon, and it may be that recent OS versions have deprecated support for the -precomposed version and Google haven't yet caught up.

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Answer 2

Zurarczurx

Level 4

2,720 points

Feb 5, 2026 10:37 AM in response to Vikramaditya84

I get the same behaviour with most websites in Safari, including all the Apple web pages that I have bookmarked, including these forums, so it's unlikely to be a favicon compatibility problem. I have always assumed it's a Safari feature. You could send a suggestion to Apple.

Product Feedback - Apple

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Answer 3

Feb 6, 2026 5:07 AM in response to Camelot

As soon as I clear my history, most of the actual favicon for my favourites briefly appear before vanishing. It’s quite strange.

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