What happen to the favicons in the favorites drop-down?

David Ramos 35 Reputation points
2026-06-07T07:25:12.5033333+00:00

The title to my question says it all. After the new Edge version installed, the favicons on my favorites drop down list disappeared. Clearing the cache did not work. Doing a restart restored it for about an hour before disappearing.

Microsoft Edge | Favorites, history, and downloads | Windows 11
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AI answer

2026-06-07T07:25:27.35+00:00

Favicons in Edge favorites can disappear or change because of how Edge caches and looks up site icons. After an update, the favicon cache may be inconsistent, so icons appear briefly after a restart and then revert or disappear when Edge reuses cached data.

Edge uses this lookup order for favicons:

  1. Exact URL cache
  2. Host-level cache (any page on the same host)
  3. Favicon service
  4. Default initial (first letter of site name)

If the exact URL icon isn’t found, Edge falls back to a host-level icon or a default letter icon. This can make favorites appear without their expected icons or show the wrong icon.

To try to restore the favicons more reliably:

  1. Revisit each favorite’s original page
    • Open the site directly from the address bar (for example, https://yourdomain/home.aspx).
    • This refreshes the favicon cache for that exact URL and can restore the correct icon in the favorites list.
  2. Clear cached images and files
    • Go to edge://settings/privacy.
    • Under Clear browsing data, select Choose what to clear.
    • Select Cached images and files.
    • Select Clear now.
    • Revisit the favorite sites so Edge can recache their icons.
  3. (Desktop profile) Clear the favicon database manually
    • Close Edge completely.
    • Open File Explorer and go to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default.
    • Delete the files named Favicons and Favicons-journal.
    • Restart Edge and open the favorite sites again so icons can be redownloaded.

After clearing the cache or database, icons may temporarily show as default letter icons until Edge refetches the correct favicons as sites are visited.

References:

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