How to Test Your Favicon - Complete Testing Guide (2025)
Test your favicon in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and mobile browsers. Step-by-step checklist to verify favicons work correctly across all devices and platforms.
You've generated your favicon package and installed it on your site. Now comes the big question: does it actually work everywhere? Testing favicons is trickier than you'd think—browsers cache them aggressively, and different platforms have different requirements.
This guide gives you a practical testing checklist to verify your favicon works in all major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) and on mobile devices (iOS, Android). Takes about 10-15 minutes to run through the full checklist.
Step 1: Quick check in your main browser
Start with the browser you use every day. Open your site in a fresh tab and look at the tab icon. If you see your new favicon, great! But don't stop here—browsers cache favicons, so you might be seeing an old version.
Do a hard reload to bypass the cache: press Ctrl+F5 (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+R (Mac). The favicon should reload. If it still looks wrong or shows the old icon, open an incognito/private window (Ctrl+Shift+N or Cmd+Shift+N) to see what new visitors will see.
Step 2: Test in multiple browsers
Don't assume your favicon works everywhere just because it works in Chrome. Open your site in at least 3 different browsers on the same computer—Chrome, Firefox, and Safari (or Edge if you're on Windows). Each browser handles favicons slightly differently.
In each browser, check the tab icon, bookmark the page, and look at the history. The favicon should appear consistently. If it works in Chrome but not Firefox, you're probably missing a specific size (like 16×16) or format (like ICO). Use our Image Converter to regenerate the full package.
If you have access to both macOS and Windows, test on both. Safari on Mac and Edge on Windows sometimes have platform-specific quirks. If you don't have both, ask a friend or use a service like BrowserStack to test remotely.
Step 3: Inspect favicon requests with DevTools
Open DevTools (press F12), go to the Network tab, and reload your page (Ctrl+R or Cmd+R). Filter by "favicon" or "icon" to see which files the browser is requesting. You should see requests for favicon.ico, favicon-16x16.png, favicon-32x32.png, and maybe apple-touch-icon.png.
Look for 404 errors (file not found). If you see any, the browser is looking for a file that doesn't exist. Check the file path in the error—it'll tell you where the browser expected to find the file. Make sure you uploaded all the files from the ZIP to the correct folder (usually your site's root directory).
Check the file sizes. Favicons should be tiny—usually under 10 KB each. If you see a 500 KB favicon, something's wrong (maybe you uploaded the wrong file or didn't compress it). Large favicons slow down page load, especially on mobile.
Step 4: Debug common favicon problems
Problem: Favicon works for you but not for other users. This is almost always a caching issue. Your browser cached the new icon, but other users' browsers (or your CDN) are still serving the old one. Solution: Add a version number to your favicon file names (favicon-v2.ico) or add a query string (?v=2) to force browsers to download the new files.
Problem: Favicon looks blurry or pixelated. You probably didn't provide enough sizes for high-DPI displays (Retina screens, 4K monitors). Make sure you have 32×32 and 48×48 PNG files, not just 16×16. If your source image was low-resolution, regenerate the favicon package from a higher-quality logo (at least 512×512).
Problem: Favicon doesn't appear at all. Check your HTML <head> section—the <link rel="icon"> tags should be there, not in the <body>. Open DevTools Console (F12) and look for errors. If you see "Failed to load resource" or 404 errors, the file paths are wrong. Compare your HTML with the code snippet from our Image Converter.
All tests passed?
If your favicon shows up correctly in all browsers and on mobile devices, you're done! Document which browsers and devices you tested so you can repeat the process after future updates. If you found issues, check our Troubleshooting tutorial for specific fixes.