Google Chrome: How to Change Icons on the Bookmarks bar

Contributor Icon Contributed by shamanstears Date Icon September 10, 2008  
Tag Icon Tagged: Google

I added quite a few bookmarklets to my Bookmarks bar and was unhappy with the same default icon that showed for each one. There are no settings currently available within Chrome to change the icon, but there is a way to fix them that works quite well.


First, you’ll need to download and install the free SQLite Database browser.

Now, open Google Chrome and visit the site(s) that have the favicon you want displayed in your Bookmarks bar. After you have completed this, close Google Chrome.

We are ready to change icons:

1. Open SQLite Database browser.

2. Go to the toolbar and select the Open (folder) icon to bring up the Open window.

3. When the open window appears, you will need to browse to the following directory:

In Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default

In Windows Vista:
C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default

Note: change username to your username.

4. Open the History file.

5. Select the Browse Data tab.

6. Select urls from the Table dropdown.

7. The table will appear with the following columns: id, url, title, visit_count, typed_count, last_visit_time, hidden, favicon_id and starred_id. Our main focus will be on the favicon_id and starred_id columns, but you will need to pay attention to the title column as well. Any row that has a value other than 0 in the starred_id column is a bookmark. Any row that has a value other than 0 in the favicon_id column has an icon associated with it (if it has a 0, it will use the default icon).

8. Locate one of the sites you browsed to earlier that contains the desired favicon that you wish to use. Make sure it has a value in the favicon_id column. When you have located it, make note of the value that is in the favicon_id column.

9. Now locate the bookmark that you want to assign the favicon to. The title may appear more than once, so you must make sure that you select the record that has a value in the starred_id column.

10. Double-click the favicon_id record (the one that is 0) to open the Edit database cell window.

11. Change the 0 to the value you got from Step 8.

12. Click the Apply Changes button.

13. Repeat this process until you have finished assigning icons to your bookmarks.

14. Go to the toolbar and click the Save icon.

Now open up Google Chrome and check out your Bookmarks bar.

Here are some before and afters of my Bookmarks bar:

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  • robert
    yeah, that's way easier than just visiting a site in IE7 - good grief
  • N8Lane
    I don't have a "Starred_ID" column. I did on my XP computer, but I don't on my Vista. I tried changing the # in the Favicon_ID column, to the same as the one from the site I wanted.

    I am trying to add: <javascript:q = "" + (window.getSelection ? window.getSelection() : document.getSelection ? document.> and not just have the little notebook page as the Icon.

    When I click the save Icon on the tool bar I get this error message:

    "Error: could not save the database, Message from database engine: database is locked"

    Two hrs later I still can't figure it out. I thought I was a geek.

    Can you help me?

    Thanks,

    N8
  • Robert Stacy
    I DO NOT HAVE a starred_id column?

    Any idea why not?
  • Ferdil
    Same problem here.
  • matheaks
    I don't have one either!...
  • planetstrider
    I have been able to do it^^ this way don't need the sterred_id but it's the way by force.

    First, You should close Google Chrome before doing Step4 because the table doesn't appear if Google Chrome is opening.

    Next, if you can see the tables, you do Step 6.(select urls)
    You select the unnecessary record for you in the urls tables.(e.g. Google search result URLs)

    Finally, you change the url cell's value and favicon_id cell's value to your URL (I changed it to the bookmarklet URLs) and your favicon_id (You'll get it in Step 7).

    Probably, you can see your favicon in Chrome.
    Good luck.
    Thanx:)

    ps: I'm a Japanese so I'm not good at English
  • TKR
    Thanks planetstrider, this did the trick!
  • rymo
    Thank you, 1000 times, thank you!! I use Chrome's Application Shortcuts feature for my Google hosted mail and calendar -- for some reason my laptop was stuck with a little blue "g" as the icon when running (despite the red and white gmail envelope logo as the shortcut on the desktop and quick launch). I found it unbelievably difficult to find my e-mail window every few minutes without that envelope in the task bar! Your SQLite method was just what I needed. I'd also point out that opening the Thumbnails database (also in the User Data\Default folder) can help in matching favicon_id to actual favicon URL.
  • anon
    In Step "5. Select the Browse Data tab." Nothing appears in the Table drop-down list. History file is loaded, but nothing appears in the Table list. So... oh well.
  • n1cks
    Yeah, same deal for me.
    Could it have something to with the fact Chrome is now out of beta....
  • iconless in wisconsin
    Hi, I did everything as mentioned and the icons in my bookmark bar were changed to the ones I wanted. I thought it was great until I clicked on those links and when the page loaded, the favicon went blank again. I can go back and successfully change them back, but I always lose them once the page loads. Any suggestions on how to keep the changes permanent?
  • Zachary M Vogt
    I had the same problem. I was able to use the instructions on this page to query/update the History database, and it appeared to work at first, but on subsequent visits to the urls, the icons would just get reset to a value that was rendered as a generic page icon. I did notice that the blank icons that I wanted to replace were non-zero values. If you want to change a non-zero generic icon, query the History data base to get the favicon_id values for the value you want to replace and the value you want to use in its place. Then open the Thumbnails database and execute something like:
    update favicons
    set image_data = (select image_data
    from favicons
    where id = <ID of good image>)
    where id = <ID of bad image>

    That worked for me and so far seems to be more permanent.
  • Morgan
    This is lovely, but is there anyway to change individual folder icons? I make extensive use of folders.
  • RBL
    Doesn't work on production release. Loading History file displays no data.
  • ein*1
    Same for me. No table names are available in the drop down list after loading the history file. I am using Google Chrome 2.0.172.33.
  • lostntaiwan
    I can't see the starred_id column.
    I have tried several ways but no matter what I can't see it. Is there another way to do this?
    I am using Google Chrome build 2.0.172.39
  • ok, I had the same problem. There is no "starred_id'..
    but I found the the way to change bookmark icon.

    All I wanted was add icon to "Add to Delicious" Bookmark. So I visited Delicious' main page to make Chrome add a record about it to his history. Then I found that record and replaced it's url (http://delicious.com) with my bookmark's url (javascript:(function(){f='http://delicious.com/save?url='+en ... ). And that's all.
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