Blank webloc Icons?

[wdegillio]

Greetings!

I recently did the most recent Security Update and Safari 14.0.1 update, and found that all my webloc (Safari) icons are blank. I have tried the recommended fixes (Safe Boot/Restart, Zap PRAM, Safari Bookmarks and Finder Cache cleaning) but with no success. The only fix I haven't tried is a Mac OS reinstall (since you can't just reinstall Safari). My question is, will a Mac OS reinstall completely erase my boot drive first, or will it reinstall leaving all other apps (3rd party) and data untouched on the drive? Since it is only a cosmetic issue, I can live with it for now if it means reinstalling all my apps, since the webloc links still work(??). Thanks in advance for your help.

[mikehalloran]

Keep in mind that when I post the following info, I'm answering anyone who might have similar questions. Some of this doesn't apply to your situation.

Web icons will likely reappear as you revisit the web sites.

Alias icons reappear when you do a Safe Boot by holding the Shift key down on startup and logging into your User Account when prompted..

An OS reinstall will not erase your data. With anything older than Mojave, you may have to reset your clock using Terminal first as the installer certificate has probably expired. I recently ran into this with an Internet Recovery reinstall of El Capitán — which surprised me. The easiest way to do reset the clock and reinstall the OS is while in the Repair Partition.

You can normally update Safari to the last version that will run on your OS but that will not fix your issue.

As of a few days ago, an internet reinstall of Mojave will install 10.14.7 but will not include the latest Security Update. This may no longer be true.

I'm planning to test that later today on my MBP if you need to know.

[wdegillio]

Thank you for your help, Mike! Much appreciated!