local (file://) website favicon works in Firefox, not in Chrome or Safari- why?

html google-chrome webkit cross-browser favicon

48,402

Solution 1

You can use Base64 data of an image. Put something like this:

<link href="data:image/x-icon;base64,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" rel="icon" type="image/x-icon" />

into the <head> section of an html file.
Base64 data can be received, for example, by favicon.cc

Solution 2

Local `file://` and chrome:

For a local favicon in Chrome - according to an old thread found on linux command it should be possible to place a local favicon with the file:// if it's in the your /Downloads/ directory. So I tried it like this:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Test</title>
    <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon" href="file://localhost/Users/dominikangerer/Downloads/favicon.ico">
</head>
<body>
    <h1>Testing</h1>
</body>
</html>

I don't have a apache or anything running. It's simply the way chrome can access local files using the file://. If I try using the favicon from another part of my filesystem it doesn't seems to work - so maybe that's a solution for chrome.

enter image description here

Local `file://` and Safari:

Still looking for a way - above code doesn't work for my up2date safari.

Interesting topic's:

Security in depth loca web pages (Chromium Blog)

General troubleshooting guide for your favicons:

Have a look at: https://stackoverflow.com/a/16375622/1581725

Solution 3

This is a known issue for years. Your code is right, and I don't think you'll find any way to allow Chrome or IE to include a favicon with a non-remotely way.

Some time ago, I tried a lot of ways, none works, and I wasn't able to find any browser documentation on this point.

<link rel="icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.png" type="image/png" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="C:/files/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="file:///C:/files/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="file:///C|/files/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="file://localhost/C:/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="file://127.0.0.1/C:/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="file://localhost/C|/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />

For Chrome, favicons are stored in a file : User\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Favicons. We can guess local favicons aren't stored in.

Solution 4

Once I've solved it using two lines of code

<link rel="icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"> 
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon">

and also keep the favicon.ico named exatly this and in the webroot folder, if it helps.

Solution 5

Well I have the problem similar with Google Chrome the favicon don't show correctly the problem was the .ico I was using was 16x16 and 32x32 I just used a bigger image and it works for all browsers.

View more solutions

48,402

Author by

Matthew Adams

Hello, world.

Updated on April 28, 2020

Comments

Matthew Adams about 4 years
The Question

When my website is local (using the file:// protocol), the favicon doesn't show up in Chrome or Safari, but it works in Firefox (all on a mac). However, when the exact same site is actually hosted, the favicon works fine in all of the browsers I tried. Why do the webkit browsers not display local favicons?

Details

The favicon.ico file is in the same directory as the index.html page. I am using the following code, although I've tried several variations of it:
```
   <link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
```
Since the favicon works when accessed over http://, I doubt that there's something wrong with the way I'm including it, but you never know...

Update

I've found a few forum posts (nothing too official) that suggest that this is by design, but none of them give the rationale. Also, it sounds like some versions of IE have the same problem. Is there some security risk with local favicons? (I know that some browsers have issues with local cookies, for example.)

Disclaimer: There seem to be a ton of questions in a similar vein, but I haven't found exactly this one. (In fact I have basically the same question as this one, but none of the answers there worked for me.)
Matthew Adams almost 12 years

This didn't work for me, though I have seen some forum posts suggest using two tags like this makes favicon.ico play nicely with all browsers (seems like IE likes "shortcut icon" and most other browsers don't).
Matthew Adams over 11 years

Nice! Plus, using this on the final site has the added benefit of getting rid of an extra http request and speeding things up slightly.
Alex Pritchard about 11 years

Thanks! This works great in chrome/FF, but doesn't seem to work in IE10. Any tips?
Ben over 10 years

The obvious downside of this is that it's never cached. You will have to include it on each and every page you send.
Matthew Adams about 9 years

Good general favicon troubleshooting tips, but please don't spam your top answer on every somewhat related question. This answer sounds like you didn't really read my question or the other answers that are already here.
DominikAngerer about 9 years

I read your question of course - also currently looking for a detailed information why it's not working on safari. And of course also the problems you are facing with the file:// starting I currently try it.
DominikAngerer about 9 years

Still want to figure out why it's not working on safari with the above example. Maybe digging deeper in the safari security "world" will give a good and satisfying answer.
Matthew Adams about 9 years

I'm surprised the downloads directory is given special treatment. +1
DominikAngerer about 9 years

Yeah - It's really strange but using the same approach for safari it doesn't work. I also added an interesting article about locale file security + websites from chromium - it's really interessting because they also explain the idea/solution of the other browsers
DominikAngerer about 9 years

Still can't get it running with safari - looks like there currently no way doing it with file://. Sorry.