Understand favicon monitoring

Distinguish the daily favicon resource status from the richer website icon asset.

Last checked 20 August 2026

The favicon.ico row in Site Resources is a daily HTTP observation for the conventional /favicon.ico path. It is separate from the square website icon shown beside a website throughout TechDash.

What the resource row checks

During each daily site-resource run, TechDash requests the website origin plus /favicon.ico. It does not follow redirects and does not download the response body. The row records only the latest HTTP status.

Known statuses receive context such as:

  • 200 (OK)
  • 301 (Redirect)
  • 403 (Forbidden)
  • 404 (Missing)
  • 500 (Server error)
  • 0 (Failed) for a network-level failure or timeout

Before the first daily run, the row says Not checked yet. The scheduler considers the daily resource set due 24 hours after its last completed check and reviews due work every minute while monitoring is active. The actual run can be delayed while the app is closed, the computer is asleep or offline, the website is paused, or the Site resources queue is busy.

The favicon resource status does not currently open its own built-in incident. A missing or changed HTTP status is visible on the card, but it does not by itself open a favicon incident in Sitewide Checks.

How the displayed website icon differs

The displayed brand icon is generated by the website enrichment process. It can consider icon URLs discovered from the site's HTML, icons from web app manifests, and standard fallbacks at /favicon.ico, /favicon.png, and /apple-touch-icon.png. Other enrichment data can supply image candidates before icon selection, but declared icons are preferred and third-party logos from article schema mentions are ignored.

For each candidate, TechDash downloads the image, rejects failed responses and unusable images, and favors a square image over a nearly square one, then favors the larger candidate. Images may differ by up to three pixels in width and height and still be cropped to a square. The selected image is resized to 64 by 64 pixels and stored locally. If no usable image can be fetched, TechDash creates a local placeholder from the hostname's first letter.

This leads to several normal combinations:

  • /favicon.ico can show 404 (Missing) while the app displays an icon discovered from HTML or a manifest.
  • /favicon.ico can show 200 (OK) while the displayed icon comes from a larger, better candidate.
  • A new /favicon.ico status does not immediately replace the locally stored website icon.
  • A failed weekly icon refresh can leave the existing local image in place.

The displayed icon refresh is due weekly, not daily. Brand enrichment waits when the page-check queue is under backlog pressure and retries on a later scheduler pass. Deleting a website removes its locally stored assets.

Troubleshoot the resource status

If the favicon.ico row is unexpected:

  1. Request the exact website origin plus /favicon.ico.
  2. Compare the response from the same computer and network with the card status.
  3. Remove an unnecessary redirect or publish the file directly if you want the conventional path to return 200.
  4. Check CDN, firewall, authentication, rate-limit, and MIME handling.
  5. Confirm you are testing the monitored hostname, including www when applicable.
  6. Select Check now in Site Resources to queue a new daily-resource request.

The button queues all site-resource files, not only the favicon. A successful toast means Site resources queued., not that the request has finished. Check the Site resources lane in Queue Status if the row does not update.

Troubleshoot the displayed icon

If the card status is correct but the displayed icon is stale, investigate the icon source rather than repeatedly running the daily resource check. Make sure HTML icon links and manifest URLs are absolute or resolve correctly, candidate files return a readable image, and the desired icon is square and large enough to be useful.

The current website page does not expose a separate Refresh Icon button. Icon enrichment runs on creation and its weekly schedule. Therefore, Check now updates /favicon.ico status but does not directly force the displayed brand icon to be regenerated.

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