Favicon Checker: audit a site and fix the common issues it finds

Favicons fail silently. A missing icon can look like "it is fine" on your machine because your browser has a cached copy.

If you want a quick, objective answer, run the tool:

• Favicon Checker audits a URL and reports the icons it can discover and fetch.

What the checker does (in plain terms)

When you enter a URL, the checker:

• Fetches the HTML
• Finds favicon-related tags (rel="icon", apple-touch-icon, manifest link, and more)
• Resolves relative paths to absolute URLs
• Requests each icon URL to see if it is reachable
• Tries to read image dimensions so you can spot mismatched sizes

This is the fastest way to stop guessing and see what a new visitor will see.

How to use the report

1) Start with broken URLs

If an icon URL returns 404/403/500, fix that before anything else.

Typical fixes:

• Correct the path in your <link> tag
• Deploy the missing file
• Remove a tag that points to a file you do not ship anymore

2) Fix size mismatches

A classic issue: the page claims sizes="32x32" but the file is actually 16x16 (or vice versa).

Fix:

• Regenerate the icon pack so file names and sizes match, or
• Update the tag to match the real file

If you do not want to hand-maintain this, generate a pack and paste the snippet:

• Favicon Generator

3) Fill the platform gaps

If you see only one or two icons, add the missing platform essentials:

• apple-touch-icon.png for iOS
• site.webmanifest for PWA installs
• A multi-size favicon.ico for legacy support

The generator pack includes all of these.

Common issues the checker surfaces

"405 Method Not Allowed" on icon URLs

Some servers block HEAD requests. If your server returns 405 for HEAD, the checker will report it as unhealthy even if a browser GET would succeed.

Fix:

• Allow HEAD for static assets, or
• Point the checker at a URL where icons are served normally

Icons blocked by hotlink protection

If you serve icons from a different domain with strict hotlink rules, the checker may see 403 responses.

Fix:

• Serve icons from the same origin as your site, or
• Adjust your rules to allow your own pages to load them

Redirect chains

Redirecting /favicon.ico to another file can work, but it is fragile and can get cached in weird ways.

Fix:

• Serve icons directly at stable URLs when possible

Next steps

• Generate a clean baseline pack + snippet: Favicon Generator
• Convert a single PNG into favicon.ico: PNG to ICO
• Extract embedded PNGs from an old ICO: ICO to PNG