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Why doesn't my new Favicon display?

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Last Updated: September 17, 2008 1:06 PM

Various issues could prevent your new favicon from displaying correctly after you have updated to replace an existing one. Commonly, display issues are due to the browser accessing a cached version of your page. The following suggestions generally remedy browser-related issues.

Clear Your Cache

Browsers tend to cache Web pages and images and keep them. This means that although you uploaded a new or different icon, the browser is accessing a version of your page it saved before your update. Therefore, you need to try and clear your cache.

To Clear Your Cache

  1. Delete all references of your link in your favorites.
  2. Clear the file cache in your browser.
  3. Shut down all instances of your target browser.
  4. Reopen your browser and navigate to your Web site.
For assistance clearing your cache, consult the Help files for your particular browser and version.

Manually Delete Your Favicon

For those using Internet Explorer, clearing your cache may not be enough to clear the old favicon and display the new one. You may need to remove your existing favicon file completely.

To Manually Delete Your Favicon on a PC

  1. In Windows Explorer, navigate to your local directory (typically C:\).
  2. Right-click Documents and Settings and select Search.
  3. In the All or part of the file name field, enter the name of your favicon image file.
  4. Click Search.
  5. Delete all old favicon files associated with your site, except the one you want to use.
  6. Upload the new icon and test your site.

To Manually Delete Your Favicon on an Mac

  1. Using the Spotlight Search function, enter the name of your favicon image file.
  2. Press Enter.
  3. Delete all old favicon files associated with your site, except the one you want to use.
  4. Upload the new icon and test your site.

Force-Refresh

If you are using Firefox® and you're using an .ICO file as your favicon, you may need to do a "Force Refresh" to get the icon to display properly.

To Perform a Force Refresh in Firefox

  1. Using Firefox, navigate to your Web site.
  2. Change the URL to point directly at your favicon image file at the root of your site. For example, www.coolexample.com/favicon.ico.
  3. Right-click in the browser window and select Refresh.

The forced refresh prompts Firefox to reload the icon instead of a cached version. The updated icon displays in the address bar. However, you may need to restart Firefox to get the icon to display on tabs and in Favorites.

For information on applying your favicon to your Quick Shopping Cart, see Uploading a Favicon.