How to refresh favicon?

I updated PHP Junkyard website design two weeks ago, but noticed my browsers (Internet Explorer, FireFox, Chrome and Opera) still showed the old favicon image. This makes sense, because browsers save the favicon image in cache, so it's not loaded every time you visit a website.

However, I wanted the new favicon to appear instead of the old one so I was wondering how can I force the browser to refresh (update) the favicon.

I googled for terms like "favicon refresh", "favicon update" and "force favicon refresh", but most of the websites recommended clearing cache or even manually tempering with the temporary Internet files. Huh? There's got to be an easier way...

Refresh favicon the simple way

I found a very simple way to update the favicon that works in FireFox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera and probably in other browsers too. Just follow these easy steps:

• Start your favorite browser.
• Open the favicon.ico file directly, for example http://www.yourdomain.com/favicon.ico
• Refresh the favico.ico URL by pressing F5 or the appropriate browser Refresh (Reload) button
• Close the browser and open your website - voila, your favicon has been updated!

Easy, right? Enjoy your updated favicon!

Copyright notice

This tutorial is copyrighted by Klemen Stirn. Obtain permission before copying, re-publishing or otherwise redistributing this article.