Microsoft Edge v149 bug wipes favicons from favorites and history for some users (workarounds inside)
Some Microsoft Edge users on version 149 are reporting a frustrating visual glitch: the small site icons known as favicons — the branded logos that appear next to bookmarks and history entries — have vanished, replaced by a generic globe placeholder.
Reports have surfaced on Reddit and Microsoft’s own community forums. Affected users say the problem appeared after updating to Edge v149 on Windows. Opening the favorites menu or history panel now shows a wall of identical globe icons instead of recognizable site logos.
The bug doesn’t appear to target specific websites. Users Report losing icons for major platforms like Google, YouTube, and Reddit, alongside smaller, less-visited sites. Favicons inside bookmark folders are affected the same way as top-level entries.
Temporary Fixes, Then Gone Again
The behavior is inconsistent, which has made the issue harder to pin down. One user reported that icons briefly reloaded after clearing the browser cache and restarting Edge, only to disappear again about an hour later. Others say new bookmarks and history entries never receive proper icons at all.
Some users suspect a corrupted favicon database — the file Edge uses to store and retrieve site icons — inside their browser profile. Others believe Edge v149 may be failing to refresh or cache icons properly following the update.
PiunikaWeb, which first reported the issue, said it could not reproduce the bug on its own Windows test systems running Edge v149.0.4022.52. That suggests the problem is not universal, and its exact trigger remains unclear.
Workarounds to Try
Several potential fixes are circulating in forums, though results have been mixed.
Delete the favicon database files. Fully close Edge, navigate to your browser’s profile folder, and delete the Favicons database files. This forces Edge to rebuild the database from scratch on the next launch. Some users say this restores icons temporarily or permanently; others report the icons vanish again after a period of normal browsing.
Create a new Edge profile. At least one user found that favicons displayed normally in a freshly created profile. This supports the theory that something in the original profile’s favicon storage has become corrupted. The downside is that migrating to a new profile can be cumbersome, especially for users who rely on stored passwords or multiple profile configurations.
Basic troubleshooting steps. Clearing the browser cache, disabling extensions, and restarting Edge or Windows have provided only temporary relief for most affected users. The built-in reset settings option in Edge helped some users briefly but made no difference for others.
Anyone attempting these steps should proceed with the understanding that none have been independently verified as a reliable fix. Microsoft has not issued a public statement on the bug as of publication.
