Understand website icons and homepage screenshots

Learn how TechDash creates and refreshes local brand assets.

Last checked 21 August 2026

If a website icon or screenshot is missing, old, or wrong, first decide whether the website itself is being monitored correctly. Open the website and check Monitored Pages, Site Resources, SSL, and domain information. If those areas are updating, the problem is limited to a presentation asset and does not mean monitoring has failed.

Use Refresh Screenshot or Refresh Icon from the website card's context menu to retry only the affected asset. If the result remains unchanged, TechDash may have rejected an unusable replacement and preserved the last good image.

What TechDash displays

TechDash stores an icon and two possible homepage images locally on this computer:

  • The card on Websites uses a screenshot of the visible browser area.
  • The website overview prefers a full-page screenshot and falls back to the card image.
  • The icon appears with the website to make it easier to recognize.

If no suitable icon is found, TechDash shows a placeholder based on the first character of the hostname without www.. The placeholder is an expected fallback, not an error.

Where the icon comes from

TechDash looks for common website-provided images, including favicons, Apple touch icons, web app manifest icons, Open Graph images, and logos in structured data. It also checks /favicon.ico, /favicon.png, /apple-touch-icon.png, and /apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png. Classic Windows .ico favicons are decoded when the image library cannot read them directly, including 8-bit palette icons. When a CDN blocks TechDash's direct download client, it retries the icon URL through the same browser session used for the homepage.

It prefers declared icons (link tags, manifests, and conventional favicon files) over Open Graph images and structured-data logos. Structured-data logos are limited to Organization, Brand, or WebSite entities that belong to the monitored site, so logos for mentioned third parties (for example LinkedIn or another brand named in article schema) are ignored. Social network hosts and share-button asset paths are rejected.

It rejects unreadable or unusable files and prefers suitable square images. A nearly square image can be cropped slightly. Transparent pixels are flattened onto white (#FFFFFF), then the image is resized and saved locally.

Contact the website administrator when the live website does not publish an appropriate icon or logo. Ask them to provide a valid, publicly accessible square favicon, touch icon, manifest icon, Open Graph image, or structured-data logo. Also contact them if the image URL is blocked, requires a login, returns an error, or serves an invalid image. TechDash cannot correct missing or broken assets on the website.

How screenshots are captured

TechDash opens the configured source page using the website's saved user agent and HTTP Basic Authentication settings. It waits for visible content, attempts to dismiss recognized cookie and promotional overlays (including common CMP hosts such as OneTrust and UniConsent), captures the visible area, and scrolls to help lazy-loaded images appear. It then attempts a full-page image.

The visible-area image is required for screenshot success. The full-page image is optional. TechDash reduces animation during capture and retries with normal animation if needed.

Contact the website administrator when a challenge, mandatory sign-in page, persistent consent overlay, server error, or blank application shell prevents the homepage from displaying normally. Ask them to confirm that the page can load from this computer with the selected user agent and that automated browser access is allowed. A normal HTML or SSO sign-in cannot be completed by TechDash.

Refresh timing

Screenshot and icon work starts when you add a website. Each asset becomes due again one week after its own last checked time. Scheduled refreshes skip paused websites. If page checks are backlogged when a site is added, TechDash waits and retries brand enrichment when the page-check queue is idle or on the next minute sweep.

Refreshing the screenshot can replace the display name only while the saved name still equals the hostname. Once homepage information or a manual edit has produced another name, later screenshot refreshes preserve it.

Page checks have priority when the queue is busy, so asset work may wait. A locked or unusable license also prevents new asset work from entering the queues.

What to do when an asset is wrong

  1. Open the configured HTTPS source page in a normal browser and confirm the final landing address and visible content.
  2. If access requires HTTP Basic Authentication or another user agent, use Edit Website, expand Advanced Settings, correct the settings, and select Save changes.
  3. Confirm the license is usable. For a scheduled refresh, also confirm that the website is not paused.
  4. Open Queue Status and allow any page backlog to clear.
  5. Select Refresh Screenshot or Refresh Icon once.
  6. If the live site's asset or page behavior is the cause, contact the website administrator with the failing URL, the expected image or page, what appears in a normal browser, and the time you retried.

TechDash checks image dimensions and visual content before replacing files. A blank, tiny, transparent, or otherwise unusable result does not overwrite a usable existing file. A later successful screenshot clears a previous screenshot-capture error on the website card.

Privacy and deletion

Icons and screenshots remain in TechDash user data on this computer. Selecting Delete Website removes the website's local directory and both assets. Pausing retains them.

If the page loads normally with the saved access settings, queues are clear, and a requested asset remains missing without a useful card error, open Help & Support. Include the TechDash version, operating system, hostname, requested asset, attempt time with time zone, selected user agent, whether Basic Authentication is configured without its password, and screenshots of the card and Queue Status.

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