How to use .ico favicons correctly in Discourse multisite? Google shows different favicons for main site and forum despite same upload

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Hi all,

I’m managing a Discourse multisite setup with many sites on the same server. For branding consistency, I want to use .ico favicons (32x32) for both the main job sites and their forums.

I’ve uploaded the same .ico favicon to both the main sites and forums — however, when I check Google search results:

  • The main sites show a 16x16 favicon icon (PNG or .ico?), as expected.
  • The forums show a larger 26x26 PNG icon, even though the favicon is the same .ico file.

I suspect Discourse is injecting its default PNG favicon separately, which might cause Google and browsers to pick different favicon versions between main site and forum.

My questions:

  1. How can I properly use .ico favicon files in Discourse?
  2. How can I fully override or disable the default Discourse PNG favicon so only my .ico favicon is used?
  3. Could this favicon inconsistency affect SEO or Google search results? How to fix it?
  4. Any best practices to ensure consistent favicon display across all multisite forums and main sites?

I’m also looking for a solution a multisite discourse setup.

Thanks for your help!