SOLVED – Missing Web Page Icons in BookMarks After Safari 11 Update OSX El Cap 10.11.6

Quick Update: Safari 11 now appears to be generating Webpageicons.db-shm and Webpageicons.db-wal files in the ~/Library/Safari folder, but deleting them following after a Safari “Reset” (Clear Cache & Clear All History) has no effect on restoring the Web Page Icons in Bookmarks.

After the Safari "reset" -- quit Safari, delete the Favicon files listed above, and relaunch Safari. This restores the Web Page Icons every time.

Greetings Friends -- sorry for the long delay but my Macbook Pro (early 2011) failed due to the well-documented defective ATI|Radeon graphic chip failures that have plagued tens of thousands of Macbook Pro owners. I've cobbled together a temporary laptop solution while the Macbook Pro problems and Apple's failure to address those problems with any integrity, are being sorted out. In the meantime, I've been experimenting with this Web Page Icon issue on another laptop running El Cap while Safari has gone through an additional upgrade over the last few weeks.

My prior solution, though able to restore the older Web Page Icons established prior to the first Safari update – did not restore the newer web page icons visited after the first Safari update. Also, after the second Safari update, it appeared that the Webpageicons.db file may have been moved into the ~/Library/Safari/Favicon Cache folder.

Here's what worked for me:

Move the Webpageicons.db file and it's supporting Webpageicons.db-shm and Webpageicons.db-wal files back into the ~/Library/Safari folder (if it's not already there). Now, BEFORE "resetting" Safari, i.e., "Emptying Caches" and "Clearing History", first do the following:

1) Quit Safari

2) Copy the following to a folder on your desktop or wherever you prefer to store them:

~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist

~/Library/Safari/Webpageicons.db

~/Library/Safari/Favicon Cache/favicons (folder)

~/Library/Safari/Favicon Cache/favicon.db

3) Launch Safari and Empty Caches (Develop Menu should be enabled so you can access this command), and then, Clear History.

4) Quit Safari

5) Put the following folders in the trash:

~/Library/Safari/Favicon Cache/favicon.db

~/Library/Safari/Favicon Cache/favicon.db-lock

~/Library/Safari/Favicon Cache/favicon.db-shm

~/Library/Safari/Favicon Cache/favicon.db-wal

6a) Copy the following files from step 2 back into their original locations, making sure you instruct the Apple pop-up to "Replace Existing File"

~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist

~/Library/Safari/Webpageicons.db

6b) Copy the following files from step 2 back into their original locations, making sure you instruct the Apple pop-up to "Replace Existing File"

~/Library/Safari/Favicon Cache/favicons (folder)

~/Library/Safari/Favicon Cache/favicon.db

Steps 2, 5, 6a and 6b can be easily automated with Automator-built Apps. I've separated steps 6a and 6b because they each need a separate app (due to Automator's architecture) even though they perform identical functions.

Step 2 applet would be one App

Step 5, 6a and 6b applets can be grouped together to run as a single applet.

What you end up with is one applet to "export" the files in step 2, and a second applet that restores all your Web Page Icons from Applets 5, 6a, and 6b.

I run this process at least once every day. It takes less than ten seconds and restores ALL my Web Page Icons every time! Good luck one and all!

Greetings jhull5151 – Sorry to hear you're having difficulties. Some food for thought... the (relatively) recent updates to both OS X (beginning with Yosemite) and Safari, appear to affect this particular issue. The recent updates to Safari in particular, seem to affect this issue. I mention this because it would appear that you're running OS X Sierra 10.12.6. You're also running an older version of Safari (11.0.2) which has been updated to 11.0.3. Take note that the solution above, as noted in its Subject Line/Title was developed for OS X 10.11 El Capitan. It was not tested for OS X Sierra. In either case, it would probably be wise to update to Safari 11.0.3.

That said, if you've performed the steps exactly as written in the exact sequence written, then returning the copied files from step 2 back to their original locations (replacing current files) should restore your web icons to exactly where they were prior to emptying your cache and clearing history. This has been tested and proven multiple times on different computers running El Cap and Safari 11.0.3. But I honestly cannot speculate on how this would work for OS X Sierra.

Bottom line, if, BEFORE you emptied caches and cleared history, you've made copies of:

~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist

~/Library/Safari/Webpageicons.db

~/Library/Safari/Favicon Cache/favicons (folder)

~/Library/Safari/Favicon Cache/favicon.db

...then you've got all your bookmarks and web icon data intact. You just have to figure out how to redeploy those files to their original locations and eliminate their related -wal, -shm, and lock files to make the solution work for OS X 10.12 Sierra. Hope that sheds some light. Best of luck!