# Why do the little SD icons keep disappearing in my browser?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-little-sd-icons-keep-disappearing-in-my-browser/716181
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [March 28, 2015, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-little-sd-icons-keep-disappearing-in-my-browser/716181 "2015-03-28T02:54:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2015, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-little-sd-icons-keep-disappearing-in-my-browser/716181/1 "2015-03-28T02:54:23Z")
I don’t know the name for them - the little icon that are in the location field in front of the url, and in the history list.
I’m using Safari, and it used to be that there would be little gold and blue “SD” icons. Then a few days ago it reverted to the Safari default, a little blue and white globe. Then the “SD” icon came back. Tonight, it’s the little default globe.
What’s happening? 😕
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### Author:  [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2015, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-little-sd-icons-keep-disappearing-in-my-browser/716181/2 "2015-03-28T03:36:20Z")
Favicons.
Prolly your cache needs clearing. Or there may not be enough memory available ( causing glitches rather than not enough memory to hold infinitesimal them ).
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2015, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-little-sd-icons-keep-disappearing-in-my-browser/716181/3 "2015-03-28T15:11:10Z")
Thanks for that How do I clear the cache? What effects will that have on the operation of my Mac?
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### Author:  [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2015, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-little-sd-icons-keep-disappearing-in-my-browser/716181/4 "2015-03-28T15:41:39Z")
Clearing the browser cache has no effect on the operating system or any of it’s caches/tmp files.
I don’t know about Safari, however here is a thread on clearing the cache from 2012.
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You can enable the Develop menu to clear the cache if you don’t want to clear your history…
From your Safari menu bar click Safari \> Preferences then select the Advanced tab.
Select: Show Develop menu in menu bar
Now from the menu bar click Develop \> Empty Caches\*
**[Apple.Inc Support Forums](https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4448839?tstart=0)**
Remember you only want to clear the cache ( full of seen files preserved by the browser for instant recall ), not your history. Some people like to nuke the history, bookmarks etc., but I have no idea why.
I’d restart after that.
This is not guaranteed to help, but stuff does get warped unless cleared out occasionally.
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2015, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-little-sd-icons-keep-disappearing-in-my-browser/716181/5 "2015-03-28T15:52:35Z")
Try hitting option-command-E to clear Safari’s cache.