In the past couple of days, I have seen a spike in the number of complaints around favicons disappearing from the Google Search result snippets. The complaints started a couple of days before Google's August 2026 spam update, so I doubt they are related to that, but they have indeed spiked. It makes me think that Google changed something on its end, versus all these site owners making a technical change.
Here is what the favicon should look like:
Here is a random example of a broken favicon in Google Search (I have no idea if this example is a Google bug or a site owner bug):
But I am seeing a ton of complaints, both in the Google Webmaster Help this site and on X. Here are some of those complaints:
Google removed my website's favicon from the search results. Why? Traffic is still at rock bottom.
I'm experiencing the same thing. Favicon has been gone since Monday.
My website is still showing Google’s generic globe icon in search results instead of its favicon. Both /favicon.ico and /favicon.png return 200 responses, are valid 128×128 square images, are referenced directly in the homepage HTML, and are not blocked by robots.txt. I have requested reindexing through Google Search Console numerous times. Is there anything else that could prevent Google from displaying the favicon?
The favicon used to appear beside the website in Google Search results, but recently it disappeared and Google is now showing the default/globe icon instead.
For couple of months i have seen that favicon in google search is getting removed & added for many of the websites.
— Amit Chauhan (@Amitchauhan27_9) August 19, 2026
Is this is a crawling issues ?@rustybrick @googlesearchc @JohnMu
Hi Barry, can you look into why the favicon isn't showing for a small sample of sites on Google SERP over the last week?
— Lumdy® (@lumdys) August 19, 2026
Lots of people posting the same on @rustybrick site
— Cap Puckhaber (@Cap_Puckhaber) August 20, 2026
Wrote about it, too. Here is an example:
— SEO Südwest (@seosuedwest.bsky.social) August 19, 2026 at 10:32 AM
[image or embed]
I did ask Google's John Mueller about this and waiting to hear back:
@johnmu.com I am seeing a number (about 7) complaints in the past day about favicons disappearing around Monday from Google Search. Any ideas?
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick.com) August 19, 2026 at 9:19 AM
Forum discussion at Bluesky.
Update: Shortly after posting, one of the examples I posted above now works, so maybe a fix is rolling out?
Update 2: Google's Rajan Patel said he is looking into it:
Looking into it...
— Rajan Patel (@rajanpatel) August 20, 2026
Update 3: Still going on...
LinkedIn lost its favicon over the past 12 hours or so. Seeing it gone consistently now across queries. Favicon looks good, square 64x64, crawlable, etc. So maybe on Google's end (like others have seen recently). pic.twitter.com/wbDVdpLiHg
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) August 21, 2026
Update 4: Google confirmed it is a bug with Google Search and it’s being worked on:
It's an issue on our end. We identified the issue and we're addressing it as quickly as we can. Sorry that this happened.
— Rajan Patel (@rajanpatel) August 21, 2026
Update 5: Favicon situation is getting better but not fully fixed:
Not fixed yet, but should be in the next 12 hours or so.
— Rajan Patel (@rajanpatel) August 22, 2026
Update 6: It should be fully fixed by Saturday night/Sunday morning - August 23rd:
The Google favicon bug should be 100% fixed now - old story at https://t.co/r8qjCGgHuz https://t.co/mBAQuYnzzI pic.twitter.com/KSJlPNP34Q
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) August 23, 2026
