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  "path": "/jamiepark-design/how-browsers-actually-load-favicons-and-why-yours-wont-update-172c",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-23T00:57:15.000Z",
  "site": "https://dev.to",
  "tags": [
    "favicon",
    "webdev",
    "frontend",
    "browser"
  ],
  "textContent": "You changed your favicon three hours ago. Your browser still shows the old one. Here's why.\n\n##  The Favicon Cache Is Not Your Regular Cache\n\nBrowsers cache favicons differently from images, CSS, and JavaScript. Chrome stores favicons in a separate database—the Favicon Cache—that survives cache clears, hard reloads, and sometimes browser restarts. Firefox has a `favicons.sqlite`file that ties icons to history entries. Safari stores them in a system-level icon cache.\n\nClearing your browser cache won't touch any of these. That's why you still see the old favicon three hours after deploying the new one.\n\n##  The Version-Busting Trick\n\nAdd a query string to your favicon URL:\n\n\n\n    <link rel=\"icon\" href=\"/favicon.svg?v=2\">\n\n\nChange the `?v=2` to `?v=3` each time you update the favicon. The browser treats it as a completely new URL—bypassing the dedicated favicon cache entirely. This works because the URL change triggers a fresh fetch, not a cache lookup.\n\n##  Mask-Icon Has Its Own Cache\n\nSafari's pinned tab icon (mask-icon) is cached separately from the regular favicon. I once spent an afternoon debugging why Safari tabs still showed a purple icon after a full rebrand to amber. The mask-icon URL hadn't changed. Safari refreshed the standard favicon and completely ignored the pinned tab icon. Add the same version query string to your mask-icon link.",
  "title": "How Browsers Actually Load Favicons (And Why Yours Won't Update)"
}