The emoji icon is missing when raising a topic:
Has anyone experienced thi, is there a fix?
AI-generated summary
The discussion Emoji icon missing!? started with Joe_F reporting that the emoji icon is missing when raising a topic or replying. Arkshine suggested checking the Discourse version and enabling safe mode to troubleshoot the issue. After Joe_F confirmed their version as 3.5.01, Arkshine asked about customizations, theme components, or plugins that might be causing the issue.
Joe_F found that the button works in safe mode, suggesting a theme-related issue, and Arkshine recommended disabling theme components individually to identify the culprit. However, after trying this, Joe_F was still unable to find the issue. Arkshine then suggested checking for plugins and trying ?safe_mode=no_plugins to isolate the problem.
Eventually, Arkshine discovered that the face-smile icon was missing from the SVG icon subset setting, which was causing the issue. Adding it to the site setting fixed the problem. Joe_F thanked Arkshine for their help in resolving the issue.
Just to add also on replies 
What is your discourse version? Does safe mode help?
3.5.01 if I have done that correct (I am new)
Thanks
Did you add customizations? Theme components or plugins?
You can try to enable safe mode to see if the issue still appears.
The button works there and is visible in safe mode, does this suggest an issue with the theme?
I am using the air theme but branded differently.
You can try to disable theme components individually to figure out who is responsible.
Done (I only have 3) and the button icon is not there, what is perculiar is I have a test instance i used to design the theme etc before going live and that has it!
Everything is like for like
To be sure, is it the official version, or did you fork Air Theme?
I tried to install Air Theme as it is, and I see the icon.
Do you have plugins? If so, you can also add ?safe_mode=no_plugins to the URL to see if the issue is specific to a plugin.
Thanks, still not there! and yes I used air as a base and altered it somewhat cannot find out what is preventing the button.
altered it
Is there a way to see what changes you made? Or your forum URL? You can PM me if you want to keep it private.
Usually, when an icon is missing from the default SVG subset, you can add it to the SVG icon subset setting (but that would be odd for that icon to be absent).
If that’s the case, you can look at your browser’s console, you might see a warning.
Otherwise, maybe some CSS is hiding it.
To answer this, for some reason face-smile was missing from the SVG icon subset. Adding it to the site setting fixed Joe’s issue. 
Massive thanks to @Arkshine for all the help!