Manually refresh favicon.ico files in Firefox 3
Update (1/10/09): Try the new Favicon Picker 3 extension. When I originally wrote this post Favicon Picker for FF3 wasn’t available. If you need to refresh an old bookmark’s favicon, after installing the extension, try this: right click on bookmark -> properties -> Icon: “Reset”, then restart Firefox. When it restarts the new icon should appear. If that doesn’t work for you, you can try the complicated old school way below.
Original (6/12/08):
I have been working on some favicon.ico files for a couple different sites and I noticed that Firefox 3 has trouble refreshing the favicon image in your bookmarks, despite showing the newly updated favicon on the tab bar.
Firefox 3 now stores bookmark data in a SQlite file named “places.sqlite”. This makes it harder to go in make manual changes to your bookmarks. Additionally, Favicon Picker 2 for Firefox doesn’t work with FF3.
This is how I accomplished a manual refresh of the favicon image on my bookmarks toolbar… To get into the .sqlite file, and manually “refresh” the favicon icon for my bookmark toolbar, I installed the SQlite Manager Add-on for Firefox.
Now After installing the Add-on, I fired it up via “Tools–>SQlite Manager”. To open up the places db choose “Database->Connect Database”, then locate the “places.sqlite” file (C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\”default profile”\places.sqlite on a windows xp machine) and open it.
Once opened, click on the table named “moz_favicons” listed on the left hand side. This will load the favicon db. Click the tab “Browse & Search”. Now either manually search through the results or click on the search button and enter the url of the favicon for the bookmark you wish to refresh (example: http://www.google.com/favicon.ico), into the empty field next to the big aqua colored arrow on the “url” line. The click “OK”.
Once you have located the desired favicon, double click the table entry to edit the row. Click the red “X” that corresponds to the “data (Blob)” field to delete the old cached favicon.ico file for the bookmark. The click “OK”. You will be prompted asking if you want to perform the operation, click “OK”.
Now close the database by going to “Database->Close Database”. Click “OK” when prompted. Now close SQlite Manager, and then close Firefox. Upon re-opening Firefox 3 you will see that the bookmark you edited no longer has a favicon. Visit the bookmark and you will see the updated favicon on the tab. The new favicon image for the bookmark will show up after restarting Firefox one more time.
That’s a heck of a lot of work to refresh a favicon, but if you have a new favicon and you’re dying to see it show up next to your bookmark on the bookmark toolbar in Firefox 3, then this is how you will have to do it until someone makes a nice Add-on which does it for you.
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- Searching for a favicon
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- Deleting a favicon
16 Responses to “Manually refresh favicon.ico files in Firefox 3”
Not specifically related to Favourites, more the icon in the URL bar or the tab icon, but if you type in the url of the updated .ico file (shift refresh if you have to), FF will “become aware” of the change… worked for me anyway :)
R Shaw August 13th, 2008 at 9:17 pmThat is a good suggestion R Shaw, and definitely something someone should do first if they are experiencing a problem like this. I was using a release candidate of FF3, when I had this problem. After trying the technique you mentioned I still had no luck, and ended up having to dive into the favicon sqlite file.
Tim Dupree August 14th, 2008 at 5:30 pm[...] Manually refresh favicon.ico files in Firefox 3 | Tim Dupree - tdupree.com. 0 comments.©2006-2008 WestWideWeb.com [...]
Degrees of Separation » Manually refresh favicon.ico files in Firefox 3 | Tim Dupree - tdupree.com August 19th, 2008 at 2:40 pmThis looks like a potentially useful tool for debuggers and developers, but if there is no other way for mainstream users to kill obsolete favicons in one’s bookmark than to install an extension, I consider that to be a serious design flaw (bug) in the basic Firefox product.
It would seem to me if Firefox is smart enough to notice that a web site has a favicon.ico file and assign it to a bookmark, then it should also be smart enough to replace the icon on the bookmark when the favicon.ico on the server is updated. Wouldn’t you agree?
- Rich
Rich Pasco October 25th, 2008 at 12:17 amIn Vista, the path to places.sqlite is c:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\default profile
Darwa October 25th, 2008 at 7:47 amThis was a great help, and I finally fixed the problem. Thanks!
Dave October 26th, 2008 at 1:51 amI find other solution ’cause this one failed. On the adress board, ckik on the favicon, and then “More Info”. There, choose Media Item and be sure your favicon place is ok, if necessary check in or off… now it works for me.
dom November 4th, 2008 at 2:16 pmthank you. this was the only solution that worked for me.
bee November 21st, 2008 at 5:59 pmThank you very much, Tim, for the info plus very clear instructions.
Firefox 3.0.4 still has the problem. Although I changed the favicon with Favicon Picker 3, the old one came up over and over again each time I merely visited, or bookmarked a new page under the same WWW domain at a certain website. I needed to change it with Favicon Picker 3 for every single page manually if I wanted to see the new one.
Thank You November 28th, 2008 at 9:20 pmMy new favicon refused to show up in my bookmarks toolbar. I know a favicon is not a big deal but it was irritating. Your solution was perfect. Thanks a whole bunch.
Bill December 10th, 2008 at 8:24 pmThanks Tim for your detailed instructions! Another approach that worked fine for me:
1. Click the bookmark with the non-working favicon.
Peter @ Sthlm December 15th, 2008 at 3:59 pm2. Drag the (working) favicon in the left of the address bar to the bookmark toolbar.
3. Click on the new bookmark and wait for a few secs.
[...] such as Firefox, the favicons in their bookmark menus may not necessarily update. (In Firefox 3, there is a longer process you have to go through to change the bookmark [...]
Behind The Blog » Blog Archive » Updating the Favicon (URL address bar) in WordPress MU for the corporate brand December 29th, 2008 at 11:03 amYou can also try this extenstion:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7849
Favicon Picker
Change your bookmark icons! Right-click any bookmark, and select “Properties”, then “Browse” for a new image or paste in a url. Works with Firefox 3.
It has a reset button, not sure if he gets the original icon from the site, but worth an install
Andre January 10th, 2009 at 4:37 amThanks. Worked beautifully. Google changed their favicon.ico yet again and I wanted to pick it up.
Dandapani January 10th, 2009 at 12:07 pm@Thanks Andre for the tip. I just tried the new Favicon Picker and was able to get a bookmark updated to a new Favicon. When I wrote the post Favicon Picker hadn’t been updated for FF3.
Tim Dupree January 10th, 2009 at 12:48 pmThanks for the fix. I had changed the favicon for my site, http://www.photocitizen.com, but could NOT get it to appear in Firefox. IE found the new icon right away.
Now, thanks to your info about the Favicon Picker 3 extension, Firefox does too. Thanks again.
Alan
Alan Haynes March 24th, 2009 at 11:37 amphotocitizen.com
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