An open community 
of Macintosh users,
for Macintosh users.

FineTunedMac Dashboard widget now available! Download Here

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Firefox - Bookmark favicons
#56599 10/23/20 06:20 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 4
grelber Offline OP
OP Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 4
I am running Firefox as my default browser — currently 78.4.0esr, the latest available version for OS X El Capitan 10.11.6.

Over the past several versions some of my bookmark favicons — for no apparent reason — have haphazardly disappeared, only to be replaced by a generic "globe" favicon.

Normally, one would expect the favicon would be refreshed simply by accessing the bookmark (ie, bookmark's destination) but that has not been the case.

All attempts to remedy the problem (eg, close and restart Firefox) have not resolved the problem.

Examining the favicon configuration items (3 in total) leads nowhere.

Most remedies for this apparently frequent phenomenon are hopelessly out-of-date, as any internet search will illustrate.

A bygone solution was to install an add-on extension (Favicon Reloader) which is no longer available — check out https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/faviconreloader/ .

The only ostensible solution is to delete the sqlite file where such favicons reside, but then all favicons would be deleted and only restorable by individually accessing every website — a wholly untenable solution (with hundreds of bookmarks). Cluster bombing is not a viable/reasonable fix.

Any helpful hints to address the issue?

[In passing I would also note that I can find no way to impose the FTM favicon on my FTM bookmark, despite my opting for "ubbthreads finetunedmac" under Style Chooser. Any thoughts on how to resolve such?]

Re: Firefox - Bookmark favicons
grelber #56603 10/24/20 12:02 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Online

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Originally Posted by grelber
[In passing I would also note that I can find no way to impose the FTM favicon on my FTM bookmark, despite my opting for "ubbthreads finetunedmac" under Style Chooser. Any thoughts on how to resolve such?]
Do you see any favicon at FTM? Since the update to Safari 14 I've not seen the FTM favicon, but it's been replaced by the UBB favicon.

Logging in to a test user account didn't correct my problem, but booting into safe mode did, although I've never been able to pin down its cause, even with the knowledge imparted by the safe boot.

In my experience, the Style Chooser governs only FTM's screen appearance...has nothing to do with the favicon.

Afterthought: I had either a MFIF or FTM favicon problem once before, and that time it was corrected by flushing the DNS cache, but it required going into Terminal, which I know you don't care to do, but if you want to give it a try, I'll post the command.

Last edited by artie505; 10/24/20 05:06 PM. Reason: More

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Firefox - Bookmark favicons
artie505 #56633 10/26/20 07:13 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
Moderator
Offline
Moderator

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
Originally Posted by artie505
Do you see any favicon at FTM? Since the update to Safari 14 I've not seen the FTM favicon, but it's been replaced by the UBB favicon.
It took me a while to figure out what is going on, but I finally figured it out. I had long ago captured FineTunedMac URL as
Code
https://www.finetunedmac.com/forums/
which takes me directly into the forums and assumes I am still logged in. In Safari 14.0.1 and Safari Technology Preview Release 115 (Safari 14.1, WebKit 16611.1.3.5) the favicon that appears in the Favorites sidebar is the UBB favicon If I change the URL to
Code
https://www.finetunedmac.com/
the favicon in the sidebar instantly changes to the SITE favicon. Apparently the favicon that is displayed is that of the the specific PAGE pointed to in the URL. I checked and Firefox duplicates this behavior.

On the other hand, the favicon on the Safari Start page apparently only shows the SITE favicon and not the specific PAGE favicon.

WHY THE CHANGE:
  • A difference in how/where the favicon was added to the site coding?
  • A change in the W3C standards implemented in the latest browser versions?
  • This has been true all along but because there was no favicon for the lower level pages the default was the site favico, but the UBB favicon was added to their web pages in the new release?
  • As to the difference between the Favorites menu and the Start Page I can only speculate that it is either an intentional design decision or the start page coding hasn't caught up with the change - yet?


Quote
In my experience, the Style Chooser governs only FTM's screen appearance...has nothing to do with the favicon.
I cycled through all of the different styles, and it had no effect on the favicon either way. Besides that the Favorites menu is unaware of the UBB style CSS in effect.

Last edited by joemikeb; 10/26/20 07:15 PM. Reason: better word choice

If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Firefox - Bookmark favicons
joemikeb #56639 10/27/20 02:55 AM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Online

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Originally Posted by joemikeb
If I change the URL to
Code
https://www.finetunedmac.com/
the favicon in the sidebar instantly changes to the SITE favicon. Apparently the favicon that is displayed is that of the the specific PAGE pointed to in the URL.
We're on the same page: I use the same "/forums" URL as you, and I actually already reported here that the "start" page favicon is the FTM favicon and that it changes to the UBB favicon when I click past it.

I also reported that the issue didn't manifest itself when I booted into safe mode, but your post prompted me to test that, and I don't know what happened the first time, but this time I got the UBB favicon. (My only guess is that I forgot to click past the "start" page the first time. blush ?)

At any rate, even though we haven't got a definitive answer about why what's happening is happening, I at least now know to not waste any time agonizing over a conflicting startup item.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Firefox - Bookmark favicons
grelber #57064 11/23/20 08:24 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 4
grelber Offline OP
OP Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 4
RE "Any helpful hints to address the issue?"

4 weeks later ... nada ... so I guess not.

Re: Firefox - Bookmark favicons
grelber #57079 11/25/20 03:39 AM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Online

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Have you tried trashing the offending bookmarks, quitting Firefox, and then revisiting the sites and creating new bookmarks?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Firefox - Bookmark favicons
artie505 #57080 11/25/20 09:15 AM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 4
grelber Offline OP
OP Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 4
Originally Posted by artie505
Have you tried trashing the offending bookmarks, quitting Firefox, and then revisiting the sites and creating new bookmarks?
Yes ... to no avail.


Moderated by  alternaut, dianne, MacManiac 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.4
(Release build 20200307)
Responsive Width:

PHP: 7.4.33 Page Time: 0.023s Queries: 28 (0.016s) Memory: 0.6058 MB (Peak: 0.6825 MB) Data Comp: Zlib Server Time: 2024-03-28 13:41:45 UTC
Valid HTML 5 and Valid CSS