Favicons. How and where are they stored ? How to fix ?

Mooly

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The problem......

I have a lot of bookmarks in IE11 and certain Favicons persistently give trouble and do not display. This forum is one of them :) I have another 3 or 4 that are troublesome too although the majority are OK.

I googled and searched on this subject and have not come up with a workable answer or explanation as to how Favicons are handled.

This forums Favicon fails to show no matter what I do. The other problem ones seems to appear randomly when they feel like it but once those particular ones are displaying correctly, they remain correct until a disk and browser clean deletes them again. All the remaining Favicons will repopulate instantly when that particular bookmark folder is opened. Just like photo thumbnails in a folder. So there must be a stored cache of the images somewhere. If so then it may be possible to delete it and let it rebuild when the sites are visited.

So a question. Is there a store of the Favicon images somewhere ? If there is I haven't found it... and I've googled and tried the usual stuff and unhidden operating files and looked in App Data and Roaming and Local folders. There's nothing there.

I even tried resetting IE11 to defaults and clearing all settings as a test and then visiting this site and putting it as a fresh favourite. No Favicon.
 

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Check temporary internet files.

Opera is different but the same in browsing history.

screenshot_142.jpg

Try deleting browser history & visit a site.
IE should reload the favicon.
 

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Hi David. I've run a full browser clean (this is what makes the Favicons disappear) deleting all possible files. I've run a disk clean as well.

Two views of the temporary internet files folder. The first is the view from accessing via control panel with IE not having been opened. The second is accessed from IE (tools > Internet options > etc). A handful of Favicons show and yet there are around 25 Favicons correctly displaying in an open bookmark folder. Those Favicons all populate instantly when the folder is opened... apart from the missing few.

I suspect there is another location somewhere but I've never been able to find it.
 

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Here is how I used to do it.
I saved the favicons to a folder.
I right clicked the favorite & clicked Properties & change icon.

I then browsed to the favicon folder & chose one.
This way your favicons will never go away.
A video---

[video=youtube;b9RT9gVSo-E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=b9RT9gVSo-E[/video]

More later...
 

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Thanks David, I've just watched your video :) Somewhat complicated to take in, in just one viewing. Thanks though, appreciate it.

I'd still like to find IE11's default storage location for all these. Out of around 50 bookmarks and there are perhaps 5 problem ones that don't display.
 

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Here is a video showing how to save favicons to a folder---

[video=youtube;FRNVG0Hfilc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=FRNVG0Hfilc[/video]
 

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Thanks David, I've just watched your video :) Somewhat complicated to take in, in just one viewing. Thanks though, appreciate it.

I'd still like to find IE11's default storage location for all these. Out of around 50 bookmarks and there are perhaps 5 problem ones that don't display.

They are stored here---

screenshot_142.jpg
 

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    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
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    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
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    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
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    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
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    AMD K140
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OK, I see what you are doing there... I'm impressed and can see your system is highly customised... but remember I am missing the icons in the first place. I've no image to copy and paste, although I can bring it up from the header bar and typing the sites Favicon address into the browser.

I just really want the standard settings to work and to understand where they are all stored. They must be on the system somewhere because they mostly all appear instantly.
 

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Visit a site where the favicon is missing.
If it appears in the address bar open Internet Options & view files & it should be there for you to copy.
 

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    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
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    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
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    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
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Some success. So I copied the Favicon and just dropped it into a folder, then as you suggest, browse for and change the icon and it works :) I'll have to rep you for that if it will let me... I bet it won't.

OK, so we have a workaround... which is great.

I'd still really really really like to know where all those Favicon images are stored though. I just have a feelong that if the cache were deleted then it would regenerate correctly.
 

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Nope, it won't let me rep... I hate that rep thingy do dah

Here's a :thumb: instead.
 

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To delete cache do this---

screenshot_143.jpg
 

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Deleting as you show is what makes those Favicons disappear. (My standard IE settings that work really well are actually to delete on exit and to have these settings applied. None of these seem to make any difference to the Favicon issue though)

I still feel there must be a folder somewhere with all those images cached, how else could it repopulate them all instantly without visiting the sites... in which case there must be a folder that I can open and see.
 

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Oh, and thanks :) Just seen it.
 

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I wonder......

Just a thought. I got hit with some suspected malware from a dubious link on another site, in fact the last 45 minutes or so have been while I restored back to yesterdays incremental image. And guess what... some of the missing Favicons have mysteriously appeared.

Could it be some weird, odd, bizarre DNS issue or something where a sites page is made up from different "layers" hosted on different servers.

Is that possible ?
 

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In folder options choose to see hidden OS files.
Then do as in the picture---

screenshot_143.jpg

I think this is what you are looking for. :)
 

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    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
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    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
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I have a shortcut in that location pointing to Temporary Internet Files but access is denied.
 

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Try taking ownership of it.

or changing permissions in Properties.
 

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    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
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It won't let me alter permissions on the shortcut. My pay grade obviously isn't high enough :what::)

I was looking at your picture above. I'm kind of expecting to find a folder full of all the Favicon images, forty or fifty of them in total in my case.

I'll keep coming back and having a look into this but for now I might just do as you suggested earlier and put the problem favicons (which I can get from the site/s concerned via entering favicon.ico as an address direct into the browser) in a separate folder and apply those to the relevant bookmarks. That seems to work OK.
 

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  • OS
    W10 x64 pro and W8.1 x86
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    4Gb/2Gb
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    Intel i5 internal/NVidia GEFORCE GO 6100
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    250Gb SSD and 120Gb
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    76 down, 20 up
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Learning a lot with all this. I find if you take the icon from the site and do a right click and select "save picture", that the file then saved varies depending on the site. This site for example saves it as a .ico file that opens OK as a picture and looks like a picture in thumbnail view in a folder. Others save as a .ico but appear in thumbnail view in the folder as just a white folder. These do open as a proper picture when selected but can not be applied to the bookmark in the same way that the others can. The solution I found was to open the picture in "Paint" and resave it as a bitmap file (.bmp). That seemingly attaches to the bookmark OK.


Isn't Windows fun :)
 

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    Memory
    4Gb/2Gb
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    Intel i5 internal/NVidia GEFORCE GO 6100
    Sound Card
    Realtek
    Hard Drives
    250Gb SSD and 120Gb
    Mouse
    HP Z4000
    Internet Speed
    76 down, 20 up
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    MS Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
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