Favicons in bookmarks - How to get rid of them? (Firefox 3)

[fig]

Thanks for verifying, tanstaafl. And thanks for quoting me...it showed me I made a mistake by saying "Set...to '0'" LOL. I meant to say "Set...to 'false'". Proofreading...I should try that sometime LOL. I edited that post accordingly to say 'false'.

Did you try the method that worked for me? Ensure both of those settings are still 'false', then open one of your favicon'd bookmarks. Delete that favicon'd bookmark, then use 'Clear Private Data'. Last, re-bookmark the page you have open.

Hopefully, the favicon won't reappear.

[nieto]

On reading the thread's title, at first I thought someone wants to remove favicons because they look ugly. Ok, I can understand that... But no, he wants to remove them because they spy on him? Omg, I have favicons AND cookies enabled!

Really, what's the big deal? If evil websites are tracking me, and after some weeks/months of data recopilation, they use that information for evil stuff such as showing me targeted ads (that I block anyway), I'll clean my cookies and all their tracking efforts will be rendered useless, I'm anonymous again!
What, they'll still be able to find me due to my IP? Well, then what do they need cookies/favicons for?

No, I really don't understand...

[SK.]

Moving to Firefox General.

[tanstaafl]

Did you try the method that worked for me? Ensure both of those settings are still 'false', then open one of your favicon'd bookmarks. Delete that favicon'd bookmark, then use 'Clear Private Data'. Last, re-bookmark the page you have open.

No, for two reasons. One is I'm not willing to lose all of my private data. The other is its too labor intensive. While right now I have only 300 bookmarks I have many others stored in a seperate .html file from my prior PC that I want to import.

I just tried the method in viewtopic.php?p=3378671#p3378671 - it created a bookmarks.html file that looks perfect, but it failed too. I suspect FF3 keeps bookmarks.html for backwards compatibility but does not normally use it. Later today I'll try deleting places.sqlite and then import a bookmarks.html file that does not have any favicons. Hopefully that will create a places.sqlite file with no favicons, and the settings you suggested will keep FF3 from adding favicons the next time a bookmark is added.

[fig]

LOL, yeah, I understand my way is time consuming with a bunch of bookmarks. To me, it was worth the time. Once I had the flow of open favicon'd page from bookmarks, delete that bookmark, delete the cache, re-bookmark the page, it took around 20 seconds per bookmark.

A word of caution. Remember earlier I told you I wiped the first FF3 and re-installed (subsequently accidently finding my method.) I had screwed up the first install by deleting the 'places.sqlite' file. Restarting FF will recreate the 'places.sqlite' file. Coolness. I imported my bookmarks, and there were no favicons! Whoohoo...uber cool! Man, I'm friggin' rockin' now! However...the bookmarks disappeared entirely on FF restart. Oh, oh. Reimported bookmarks, no favicons, restarted FF, bookmarks disappeared again, etc, etc. Did that about 5 times, then decided I had to have a full fresh re-install of FF3.

I hope it works for you, but deleting 'places.sqlite' made my first install useless for retaining bookmarks at all. Sounds like you got the backups available, so just thought I'd mention that this might happen. Maybe it was just bad luck on my part LOL.

Hope you find a useable, easy way for others who don't want the bookmark favicons.

Maybe if you, or anyone reading this, could try my method on only one bookmark...proof of concept LOL...and post back. Might be of interest to those willing to take the time.

[alterna]

As posted:

Bookmarks > Organize Bookmaeks , export as html, open in browser, cleanse with javascript, save whole page, close browser, remove places.sqlite AND .json backups, open browser, import html. then reorganize. WFM One swell foop.

edit - removed mistake in html

[Jack 1000]

Time Out,

OK maybe for newbies could it be explained what a Favicon is? Is it a bookmark extension or a cookie in FF 3? If it's a cookie, I understand that cookies are almost always harmless. If you don't visit third-party sites that try to sell your information, you should have nothing to worry about. Or am I missing something here?

Jack

[Jack 1000]

On reading the thread's title, at first I thought someone wants to remove favicons because they look ugly. Ok, I can understand that... But no, he wants to remove them because they spy on him? Omg, I have favicons AND cookies enabled!

Really, what's the big deal? If evil websites are tracking me, and after some weeks/months of data recopilation, they use that information for evil stuff such as showing me targeted ads (that I block anyway), I'll clean my cookies and all their tracking efforts will be rendered useless, I'm anonymous again!
What, they'll still be able to find me due to my IP? Well, then what do they need cookies/favicons for?

No, I really don't understand...

See my previous post on this topic above. I agree with Nieto.

Jack

[cma6]

I would like to get rid of all favicons, but the suggested changes in about:config did not help.
Is there a file on the system I can delete?
My real problem is that I get incorrect faviocons on the toolbar, e.g., the Google "g" icon for MyYahoo.
Thanks, CMA

[tanstaafl]

alterna's instructions worked fine for me. Combined with changing the settings fig recomended all of my favicons are gone, and I don't get new ones when I add bookmarks.

[cma6]

"I've also tried setting 'browser.chrome.load_toolbar_icons' to '0'."
I could not find this in about:config.
Also, as for Alterna's instructions, I did not know where the folders he referred to are.

[fig]

@tanstaafl - glad to hear you have the favicons removed. Also glad to hear alterna's method worked perfectly...and so much faster than mine LOL.

@alterna - I think cma6 and I would like a step by step way to do your method. Once I fully understand it, I'm gonna put it in my notes for future upgrades. Heck of alot better than the way I did it LOL.

@cma6 - not only can you modify and/or reset entries in about:config, but you can add brand new ones, too. The 'browser.chrome.load_toolbar_icons' is one you have to add...that's why you couldn't find it. Adding preferences is easy...and I like easy LOL. Here's what ya do:

- Open about:config.
- Context-click (right-click) anywhere in the list of entries. (a shadow bar will appear highlighting the nearest existing entry. Ignore that, for what you're gonna do next will not effect that highlighted entry.)
- Move your pointer down the list to 'New'. Then move your pointer down the list to 'Integer'. Click it. ('Integer' is for adding an entry that uses only numbers. 'Boolean' is for adding entries that use only True or False. 'String' is for adding text entries.)
- After clicking 'Integer', a box saying "Enter the preference name" will appear. Put 'browser.chrome.load_toolbar_icons' in there. Click 'OK'.
- A box saying 'Enter Integer Value' will appear. Enter '0' (or whatever numeric value you want). Click 'Ok'.
- You're done. I usually restart FF as a matter of habit. You should then be able to search for and find 'browser.chrome.load_toolbar_icons'.

Personally, I just don't like seeing all the distracting eye-candy, so that's why I get rid of the favicons.

[dickvl]

Firefox 3 falls back to a JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder if you delete places.sqlite and those JSON backups have the favicon data in it. So you need to delete places.sqlite and (re)move the JSON backups and remove the favicon data from the bookmarks.html file in the profile folder with the bookmarklet to get rid of the favicons, and of course the icon prefs need to be correct (false and size 0).

[Frank Lion]

Personally, I just don't like seeing all the distracting eye-candy, so that's why I get rid of the favicons.

Hi Figi, if that's all you want to do, then you don't need to jump through all these hoops - you can just hide the favicons.

Btw while I think of it, to the guy that asked? favicons = website icons, little pics you see on your tabs, etc.

I do this on themes, Mac style themes do not show favicons on the Bookmark Toolbar Folder by default, they exist but are hidden. You could have just a few code lines in your userChrome.css that would do this. Add a few more lines and the ones in bookmarks, history or even on tabs could be hidden.

I'd need to look it all up, but seriously it's a damn sight easier than all this stuff above. dickvl is very good on userChrome snippets, if I'm not around.

Of course, if you are concerned about file size or 'security' then you will have to continue on editing SQLite path... sounds like a lot of effort to me. Someone is bound to bring out a revamped Favicon Picker extension sometime.

[cma6]

[quote="Frank Lion"][quote="fig"]Personally, I just don't like seeing all the distracting eye-candy, so that's why I get rid of the favicons.[/quote]
Hi Figi, if that's all you want to do, then you don't need to jump through all these hoops - you can just hide the favicons.

How do you do that?