I’m reporting what appears to be a reproducible regression affecting Brave 1.84 on Windows 11. It removes every favicon from the bookmarks bar, replacing them with identical grey circular placeholders. The problem persists across multiple machines and user profiles. I’ve summarised the technical details and troubleshooting already performed below for clarity.
Bookmark Bar Favicons Missing After Update (Replaced by Circles)
Summary
After updating Brave Browser to version 1.84 (Stable) on Windows 11, all bookmark-bar favicons have disappeared and been replaced by identical circular placeholders.
Tab favicons still display correctly, as do address-bar and history thumbnails.
The issue is reproducible across multiple Windows installations and Brave profiles.
Environment
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Product | Brave Browser |
| Channel | Stable (also reproduced on Beta) |
| Affected Versions | 1.83 → 1.84 |
| OS | Windows 11 Pro, Version 24H2 (Build 26100.1) |
| Hardware | Two Intel-based PCs (laptop + desktop) |
| Sync State | Occurs on both synced and unsynced profiles |
| Extensions | Standard set; disabling all has no effect |
| Network | Standard broadband, no proxy (DNS = 1.1.1.1) |
Description of the Issue
Immediately after Brave updated to version 1.84 — or following Brave’s built-in prompt to “Clear browsing data to free disk space” — every favicon on the Bookmarks Bar and inside bookmark folders vanished.
Each icon was replaced with a uniform grey circle placeholder.
Opening those bookmarks in tabs does not repopulate the favicon cache, though favicons load normally on open tabs.
The same profiles displayed all bookmark favicons correctly prior to the update.
This behaviour is now confirmed on two out of three separate Windows 11 systems, indicating a regression in Brave’s internal mapping between Bookmarks entries and favicon IDs stored in Top Sites / Favicons databases.
Steps to Reproduce
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Use Brave 1.83 with a populated bookmarks bar (icons visible).
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Allow automatic update to 1.84 (or trigger Brave’s low-disk cleanup prompt).
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Reopen Brave — observe all bookmark icons replaced with grey circles.
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Visit bookmarked URLs manually → icons still not restored.
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Restarting, clearing cache, or disabling extensions has no effect.
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Syncing the profile propagates the same blank icons to other devices.
Expected Result
Bookmarked sites should retain or re-fetch their unique favicons automatically.
Actual Result
All bookmarks show a single circular placeholder icon, regardless of site.
Tab and address-bar favicons remain functional, confirming image retrieval works — only the bookmark-metadata mapping is broken.
Workarounds Tested
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Clearing Favicons/Favicons-journal/Top Sites— no improvement -
Visiting bookmarked sites — no repopulation
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Creating new user profile + HTML import — favicons appear initially, implying schema or mapping corruption in existing profiles
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Export / re-import bookmarks — temporary fix for some users only
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Brave Sync off — no change
Impact Assessment
High usability impact. Users who rely on bookmark-bar icons for rapid site recognition lose visual navigation entirely.
Reproduces consistently across devices and profiles, suggesting an upstream regression rather than local corruption.
Hypothesis
Recent Brave changes to favicon cache or “Top Sites” management (inherited from Chromium) may have broken the reference link between stored bookmarks and their favicon IDs.
Triggered either by the v1.84 update itself or the new low-disk-space cleanup routine, which purges favicon data without re-initialising bookmark metadata.
Attachments / Diagnostics
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Screenshot showing affected bookmarks bar (all circular placeholders).
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Brave version output (
brave://version). -
OS details: Windows 11 Pro 24H2 Build 26100.1.