Member Avatar for ricosapphire

I tried searching for this topic but couldn't find anything posted about this. When I make new favorites, sometimes the site has a custom icon and is then shown in the favorites. But, they seem to disappear on me, and now I'm back to all of them being the default IE favorite icon. The last thing I did when some icons disappeared was run a virus scan, after that, all remaining custom icons were gone. Anyone have any recommendations?

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Short technical summary plus practical fixes (quick reference for future readers)

Older IE behavior stored the actual favicon bits in the browser cache/history, so a cache clear or disk-cleanup can make site icons vanish — IE7 changed that to keep a hidden copy with the Favorite on NTFS in most cases, which is why behavior varies by IE/Windows setup. For a clear, short explanation from someone who worked on the IE favicon code and how browsers import IE favorites, see the technical notes and Chromium import code. (stackoverflow.com)

Concrete recovery / diagnostic steps (work in this order)

  • Try forcing a fresh download: open the site’s root favicon URL (e.g. ) and then recreate the Favorite.
  • If you want to rescue icons that still exist on disk, open Internet Options → Settings → View Files (Temporary Internet Files) or look in your Favorites folder. Save the .ico file to a permanent folder (for example C:\Favicons), then right‑click the Favorite (in Windows Explorer) → Properties → Change Icon → Browse → select your saved .ico. Use the standard Windows method for changing shortcut icons. (support.microsoft.com)

Checking for hidden copies and ADS

  • On NTFS, IE7 often places the icon in an alternate data stream of the .url file. To list streams use Sysinternals Streams or Windows’ dir /R. Example:
    dir /R "%userprofile%\Favorites"
streams -s "%userprofile%\Favorites"

    If you see a stream like url:favicon:$DATA you can extract or back it up. (learn.microsoft.com)

Make icons persist and troubleshooting notes

  • Save favicon .ico files centrally and assign them to favorites (set the .url to Read‑Only if you prefer IE not to overwrite). On FAT volumes or network shares ADS won’t persist — those systems rely on the temporary cache instead. If icons become blank for whole Windows UI, rebuild the Windows icon cache. (ictpower.it)

Context tied to thread contributors

  • This expands on points from (cache/history causes) and (third‑party installers changing icons); ’s FavOrg note is historically useful, but the manual save+Change Icon or checking ADS with Streams gives you control without installing extra utilities.

If specific commands/files are needed for your Windows/IE version, include OS and IE version and the Favorites path and a short example will be provided.

Recommended Answers

All 10 Replies

Member Avatar for Catweazle

Hi,

This happens because of a few reasons:

- You've 'cleaned' the hard drive, emptying your browser cache

- You've had a browser window 'crash', corrupting your 'favicons'

or a few other reasons. The best way to fix it is to delete the website's 'Favourites' entry, and then add it again.

Member Avatar for TallCool1

I tried searching for this topic but couldn't find anything posted about this. When I make new favorites, sometimes the site has a custom icon and is then shown in the favorites. But, they seem to disappear on me, and now I'm back to all of them being the default IE favorite icon. The last thing I did when some icons disappeared was run a virus scan, after that, all remaining custom icons were gone. Anyone have any recommendations?

Favorite icons will disappear after a while, they are not permanent (part of the History). Here's FavOrg, and an article on it: .

Member Avatar for Catweazle

heh heh..

I saw an article recently on how to make them 'stick'.

This question has made me wish I remembered where I saw it, as I'd like to use it myself!


Edit: Here it is!

Revisit the site. That should make the favicon reload into the browser cache. If not, delete the Faourites entry and add it again.

When you've got them all back, download install and use FavOrg

Ooops - beaten! :lol:

Member Avatar for ricosapphire

Wow, thanks for the quick responses everyone, I'm glad I'm not the only one plagued by this.

Member Avatar for RE2LeonS

I had the same problem to. I did a disk cleanup and they all were gone, I've went to A LOT of webt sites to get help but no one knew what the hell i was talking about. I some how got 2 icons back. And I tried what you said, deleted them from my favorites and readded them but only one came back, the others wont. What gives?

Member Avatar for Bi11yJacK

have the same problem with IE 7 so I removed ie 7 and all the favocons came back !!1 So I thought "Good I'll down load IE 7 again" Well there gone again :( Go Fish

Member Avatar for MidiMagic

I discovered that some of them change when certain software downloads occur. The program that downloaded "took" the files and put its own icon on them.

Member Avatar for MidiMagic

have the same problem with IE 7 so I removed ie 7 and all the favocons came back !!1 So I thought "Good I'll down load IE 7 again" Well there gone again :( Go Fish

That's because the icons are in the files of the previous installation.

Member Avatar for cheroke55

I tried searching for this topic but couldn't find anything posted about this. When I make new favorites, sometimes the site has a custom icon and is then shown in the favorites. But, they seem to disappear on me, and now I'm back to all of them being the default IE favorite icon. The last thing I did when some icons disappeared was run a virus scan, after that, all remaining custom icons were gone. Anyone have any recommendations?

I have had a similar problem for years. My letters in my icons and in explorer disappear and the only way to recover them is to reboot.
Then I surf for several more hours, they deteriorate and turn blank and the only thing to do is reboot again.

Member Avatar for Member #225258

There is no answer here....I'll check back again sometime...

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