How to display favicons in Safari tabs: Complete guide with tips and solutions

For those of us who spend our days jumping between tabs, the small icons on each website make all the difference: with a simple glance, we find exactly what we're looking for. For years, Safari went against the grain and didn't display them in its tabs, leading many to seek out third-party fixes and utilities. Today, the situation is better, but there are still nuances. Tricks and limitations that should be known so that Favicons appear in Safari where and how we expect.

These lines compile everything you need: how to enable site icons in Safari tabs from your preferences, how to fix it with an external app if you need to, what to do when the icon is outdated or incorrect, and a review of the most common cases in iOS, where bookmarks sometimes display a question mark or a generic icon. We'll talk about the Faviconographer utility, the Safari cache, and the Particularities that users have reported in macOS communities, as well as linking to useful official resources.

What is a favicon and why does it matter in Safari?

The favicon is that small logo that represents a website; it appears in tabs, bookmarks, and other places in the interface. Its function is clear: to allow us to identify each page at a glance. In browsers with dozens of open tabs, having the favicon speeds up navigation and reduces clutter. That's why many Safari users missed this detail, which, although so simple, makes a big difference in productivity and comfort.

In the Apple ecosystem, the favicon is also reflected in the bookmarks bar and, depending on the context, in shortcuts or web clips. When it's missing, or the generic web icon or even a question mark appears, the experience suffers. Hence the importance of enabling the feature in Safari when it's available and, if something fails, knowing how to do it. Force Safari to reload icons correctly.

Enable site icons in Safari tabs (Safari 12 and later)

Apple added the ability to display site icons directly in tabs starting with Safari 12. This was made available via an update in the Mac App Store for macOS 10.12 Sierra, macOS 10.13 High Sierra, and macOS 10.14 Mojave. If you're on one of these versions or higher, just check a box to, next to the title of each tab, the favicon of the website appears.

To enable it, go to Safari's preferences and visit the Tabs section. There you'll see the option "Show website icons in tabs." Once enabled, the browser displays the icons in all tabs that support it. This is a simple but highly requested improvement for those who work with many pages simultaneously, as it shortened There identification of each site and helps you move faster.

This new feature came alongside many other browser improvements: blocking video autoplay, an improved reader, improved performance, and anti-tracking measures. In fact, it was reported that Safari in macOS High Sierra used differential privacy techniques to detect which websites degrade the experience; these aren't visible changes like favicons, but they explain why. Many users still choose Safari for its performance and privacy..

When Safari doesn't have the option: Faviconographer as an alternative

Before Apple introduced the option to show icons in tabs, some users turned to a free utility called Faviconographer. The idea behind the tool is simple: it places each site's favicon "above" the tab bar and in the bookmarks bar of your currently active Safari. It doesn't modify Safari internally; rather, it overlays the icons at the system level when the Safari window is in the foreground, so It serves as a visual patch for those who miss favicons..

The installation is simple: download a DMG file and drag the app to the Applications folder. When you open it for the first time, it requests access to accessibility tools, which is granted in System Preferences, Security & Privacy, Privacy tab, Accessibility section. After granting it, the configuration window becomes operational and you'll see options to choose whether you want to display the icons in the tab bar, the bookmarks bar, or both, in addition to activate automatic start with the system if you are interested in keeping them always visible.

It's worth noting that this solution isn't perfect. The icons only appear when the Safari window is active, and like any third-party app, it can occasionally close; simply reopen it if this happens. The advantage is that it doesn't affect anything at a low level: if you delete the app, the favicons added by Faviconographer disappear, and that's it. It's a lightweight option, without any unusual configurations, designed to address this historical shortcoming of Safari before Safari 12. Even today, it can come in handy in specific scenarios.

Favicons not updating or incorrect: How to force them to reload

Sometimes Safari displays the wrong or outdated icon. It could be that the website changed its favicon and Safari didn't download it again, or that one tab displays another's icon (yes, it happens). The most effective solution is to clear the favicon cache so Safari regenerates everything from scratch. It's a quick process and, in most cases, fix the problem the first time.

Two variations of the same procedure have been shown to work. The short version is to close Safari, delete the contents of the favicon cache folder, empty the trash, and reopen Safari. In practice, you'll see the tabs begin to populate with correct icons as you load sites. To do this in more detail, you can follow these steps from the Finder, which explain exactly where the folder is:

1. With Safari closed, open Finder and go to the Go menu. Click “Go to Folder…”. Paste the path ~/Library/Safari/Favicon Cache/ and confirm.
2. Select all the items that appear in that folder and move them to the trash. If you want to be thorough, empty the bin at the moment.
3. Reopen Safari. You'll see how, little by little, the sites begin to populate their correct favicons again. In 99% of cases, display errors are fixed.

If nothing changes after clearing, keep in mind one thing: the specific page may not have defined a favicon, or it does so in a non-standard way, leaving Safari with nothing to display. However, this cache clearing also helps with bookmarks that had been left blank, as it forces Safari to request the icons again from each website; when the site does offer a favicon, It will download and appear without any extra intervention.

Markers on iOS with missing or generic icons

En iPhone y iPad There is an additional case. Some users have reported that certain sites do not display their favicon in Safari bookmarks on iOS, specifically in the list where bookmarks are saved on the home screen, while the correct icon does appear in the Safari tab bar and when creating a web clip for the home screen. In specific cases, a question mark has been seen for a PrestaShop store or the generic icon for a Joomla site, although the rest of the places in the system do show the correct image.

This behavior indicates that iOS handles icon fonts and sizes differently depending on the context (tabs, bookmarks, home screen). If the favicon exists but the bookmark still doesn't display it, iOS may be using an internal cache or relying on a format/size that isn't always resolved from that specific bookmark. Since the icon does appear in web clips and tabs, the problem isn't the lack of the favicon, but rather how the bookmark retrieves it. In these cases, repeating the favicon cache clearing on macOS won't fix the iOS issue, but it does help rule out a possible source. be an outdated favicon on the Mac.

As a general guideline, if a bookmark on iOS displays a generic icon or a question mark, check if the icon appears correctly elsewhere in Safari on iPhone. If so, you may need to wait for the system to refresh it or recreate the bookmark. While there are plenty of guides on how to provide icons for different contexts (classic favicon, apple-touch-icon, etc.), here we stick to what we've observed: even with correct icons in tabs and web clips, bookmarks can not reflecting it in some specific places.

What communities say and where to find official help

The macOS forums and communities are full of threads about favicons that come and go. Users comment that, depending on the site, the icons are saved well and remain, while on others they don't appear or take a long time to reload after clearing the history. And it's just like that: some sites serve up perfect icons in seconds, while others, due to their configuration, they resist a little moreFortunately, when icons get stuck or outdated, deleting the “Favicon Cache” folder is usually a lifesaver.

Among the useful external resources, there's a tutorial that explains exactly how to force Safari to redownload favicons. If you'd like to check it out, you can search for it on Applesfera or access it directly: Fix favorite icon errors in SafariAnd if you're interested in general bookmark management, Apple's documentation includes procedures and best practices, although it doesn't explicitly mention favicons: manage bookmarks in Safari. In any case, between the practical guide to clearing the cache and the official help, You will have everything you need on hand to keep your icons up to date..

Step-by-step guide: Three typical scenarios and how to solve them

Below we've compiled three common situations and the best way to get your icons back in their proper place. It's nothing esoteric: with two or three well-directed actions, favicons usually behave.

• I want to see the favicons in the tabs and I'm using Safari 12 or later: Go to Safari Preferences, Tabs, and enable “Show website icons in tabs.”
• I use an older version and I don't have the boxTry Faviconographer to overlay icons on your tab bar and bookmarks. Remember to grant accessibility permissions in Security & Privacy.
• Icons not updating or appearing incorrectly: close Safari, delete the contents of ~/Library/Safari/Favicon Cache/, empty the trash, and reopen the browser.

Practical details of Faviconographer that you should know

While no longer strictly necessary in modern versions of Safari, Faviconographer is still useful for those who want icons in the bookmarks bar or are looking for an immediate visual solution in environments where the Safari option isn't available. By installing it from its DMG and accessing it in Accessibility, the app works instantly. You can choose to show icons in tabs, in the bookmarks bar, or both, and turn on that Boot when starting your Mac so you don't have to worry about it anymore.

Its limitations are clear: it only works on the active Safari window and can occasionally close itself. No problem; you reopen it and the favicons reappear. The good thing is that it doesn't modify anything fundamental to the system: if you decide to leave it, just drag it to the trash and that's it. That's why many have seen it as a very clean "bridge" solution. without altering Safari internally.