This should have been fixed on M49, according to  Issue #449306 ; however, bookmark app icons still don't sync for me on Dev 51.0.2699.0.  I just created a brand-new one on my Glimmer, and the icon synced to my Alex-he is the generated 'letter' version.

The only way to get the new icon on both machines is to unpin it on the second device, then navigate to the webpage, and select Add to Shelf again.  

#CBC-RS/TC-watchlist

Extensions team: please triage.

I reproduced this issue. On sync side everything gets synced successfully. I think the reason icon is not displayed on destination device is because synced app specifics for bookmark app has empty list of linked_app_icon. I think it should be populated in chrome/browser/extensions/extension_sync_data.cc

Here is example of sync entry:
"SERVER_SPECIFICS": {
    "app": {
      "app_launch_ordinal": "zzyn",
      "bookmark_app_icon_color": "#FED8A2",
      "bookmark_app_url": "https://www.amazon.com/",
      "extension": {
        "disable_reasons": "0",
        "enabled": true,
        "id": "dfmohblocfmbgckfbldmimjbjomogdom",
        "incognito_enabled": false,
        "installed_by_custodian": false,
        "name": "Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Elect...",
        "remote_install": false,
        "update_url": "",
        "version": "0"
      },
      "launch_type": "REGULAR",
      "linked_app_icons": [],
      "page_ordinal": "t"
    }
  }

Triaging -- @rdevlin.cronin, can you take a look or assign to someone who can?

Can still repro for Google forums and drive. Does not repro for a docs page (perhaps because its already in the shelf)

I wanted to see if there is any sort of progress moving on this. I can verify that this issue affects CNET's swanky new PWA (https://www.cnet.com/?homepage=1&setDevice=mobile) among many other sites that I have added to my shelf (with and without manifest). I end up with a bunch of unrecognizable icons that make it really difficult to quickly find what I'm looking for. I know it's not a top priority, but it does slow my workflow and makes my shelf/app list look silly.

I don't recall who works on bookmark apps nowadays - Ben, I think you might know?

Having a real user comment on this has just bumped it up my priority list...

 Issue 639661  has been merged into this issue.

 Issue 449306  has been merged into this issue.

This is supremely annoying to have happen after a powerwash.  I love my Chromebook because its state is consistent across powerwashes and different machines, and this breaks that illusion.  It's not really a loss of functionality though... 

+ortuno. This syncing stuff is definitely a challenge to get right.

The following revision refers to this bug:
  https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/c3011ee3972d2b8568df02cf0797e100fb832392

commit c3011ee3972d2b8568df02cf0797e100fb832392
Author: Ben Wells <benwells@chromium.org>
Date: Fri Sep 08 07:12:10 2017

Fix syncing bookmark app icons to stable channel.

Without this fix, the icons would sync to stable channel but then be
lost of all computers synced to afterwards.

Bug:  601646 ,  629726 
Change-Id: Iff1bda32960e22c5004f517355785aa1fb5a1517
Reviewed-on: https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/656867
Reviewed-by: Giovanni Ortuño Urquidi <ortuno@chromium.org>
Commit-Queue: Ben Wells <benwells@chromium.org>
Cr-Commit-Position: refs/heads/master@{#500532}
[modify] https://crrev.com/c3011ee3972d2b8568df02cf0797e100fb832392/chrome/common/extensions/api/_manifest_features.json

This should be fixed once it rolls out to stable. Sorry about how long this took, it was very simple but very hard to find.

Thank you for the hard work. It'll be nice to have this working now.

The following revision refers to this bug:
  https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/92831e6dc997672c90aaf2b51d80dfbcbef67f94

commit 92831e6dc997672c90aaf2b51d80dfbcbef67f94
Author: Ben Wells <benwells@chromium.org>
Date: Tue Sep 12 07:49:51 2017

Fix syncing bookmark app icons to stable channel.

Without this fix, the icons would sync to stable channel but then be
lost of all computers synced to afterwards.

TBR=benwells@chromium.org

(cherry picked from commit c3011ee3972d2b8568df02cf0797e100fb832392)

Bug:  601646 ,  629726 
Change-Id: Iff1bda32960e22c5004f517355785aa1fb5a1517
Reviewed-on: https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/656867
Reviewed-by: Giovanni Ortuño Urquidi <ortuno@chromium.org>
Commit-Queue: Ben Wells <benwells@chromium.org>
Cr-Original-Commit-Position: refs/heads/master@{#500532}
Reviewed-on: https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/662007
Reviewed-by: Ben Wells <benwells@chromium.org>
Cr-Commit-Position: refs/branch-heads/3202@{#161}
Cr-Branched-From: fa6a5d87adff761bc16afc5498c3f5944c1daa68-refs/heads/master@{#499098}
[modify] https://crrev.com/92831e6dc997672c90aaf2b51d80dfbcbef67f94/chrome/common/extensions/api/_manifest_features.json

The icon synchronization now works mostly correct in Chrome 62 stable (Windows), but all existing bookmark apps have to be removed and readded again for the icons to appear on other Chrome installations (I don't know if that can be fixed to make the transition easier).

However, a small issue/bug remaining is that icons from apps hosted in the local network are still not syncing (e.g. for https://nas), which might be an issue for corporate intranet applications.

Thanks for the info. That's right, the apps will need to be readded again. Sorry about that, that isn't something that will be fixed in 62 (although there is a chance it might get fixed eventually if we teach bookmark apps to update their icons).

Hmmm ... can you file a new bug with more details about the local networks issue? I think I know what would be going on but without more details it's hard to know.

For everybody trying to fix existing apps: All synced Chrome installations need to be online during the process for this to work. After deleting an app you need to wait until it's removed from all instances before readding it again. If you have a lot of bookmark apps, it might be easier to just do all the app reinstallation on one instance and then completely remove and readd your Chrome profile on the other instances (for everything to sync from scratch).

I'm strongly in favor of your suggestion to "teach bookmark apps to update their icon" (once in a while in the background). As mentioned it would make the transition of existing apps less painful (the workaround is also not obvious for the average user). 

But also icons change over time (or get available in higher resolution when web app manifests are added) and users would be stuck forever with old ones otherwise. This can already be seen for many (bookmark) apps in the Chrome Webstore which were not updated by their developers in ages (including Google's own apps).

There should be a sustainable alternative to Webstore apps which Google seems to deemphasize increasingly (Google apps slowly disappearing one by one from from the Webstore or never made it there). At least in theory, the Webstore would have provided the possibility to update icons.

Slightly related thought: I wish Google would push the concept of web apps (being "real" apps and making them easily accessible) a lot more in Chrome. This could be done by e.g. making app bookmarking much more prominent in the UI (similar to regular bookmarking or at least not hide it in the submenu "More tools"). Also, by reintroducing an integrated app launcher directly in Chrome for Windows/Mac/Linux and therefore making apps more visible we would maybe see providers embrace app install banners (on desktop) a lot more (similar to the extension Apps Launcher https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/apps-launcher/ijmgkhchjindcjamnckoiahagecjnkdc). This would also make the transition to Chromebooks more obvious for Windows/Mac/Linux users.

As requested, I filed a separate bug for the issue of icons not syncing for intranet applications:  Issue #776433 

As it happens we are giving these types of apps a major overhaul, with changes to the UI flow for installing these as well as how they run. Note that we'll also be changing what kind of websites are eligible to be installed (they will need to work offline and have the correct set of meta data) but we won't take away any existing shortcuts you've added.

Part of this will probably deal with handling icon / name updates from the web sites. We need to be careful with this though, as it has security aspects (e.g. web sites could change their name and icon to spoof a bank) and we'll need some kind of notification / warning flow to be designed.

#26 I'm sad about your last comment:

"Note that we'll also be changing what kind of websites are eligible to be installed (they will need to work offline and have the correct set of meta data) but we won't take away any existing shortcuts you've added."

None of the apps I added to any of my Chromebooks is working offline, but I like to add those and others in the future, too. Accessing sites from the shelf is much more how I use to do, than opening a new tab page, that brings up the bookmarks-bar (which I usually have switched off) and clicking on a bookmark instead.

Please keep that in mind for further decisions. 

#27 Thanks for the feedback. Just to be clear, you'll be able to add any app to your shelf. What's changing is whether or not these will run in a window or a tab.

Apps that work offline and have a web manifest containing some metadata (which we take as a signal that the app will work well without browser UI) will run in a window, other normal web sites will run in a tab.

#28 thank's for the feedback! This is much more than OK for my kind of usage. I loved the option to be able to select if it will open in a tab or a new window. For example: if I add a site from my favorite streaming-service I don't need the browser-interface, nor the onmibox. All needed navigation happens on the site and the portal looks like an app without. 

Following your last reply, this one will only open as a browser-tab in the future. That's no Armageddon to me but also "not so nice" like I can handle it now.

I'm also glad that the possibility to add any page (whether or not it has a web app manifest or qualifies as a PWA) is not going away. It will probably take years for a broad adoption of the web app manifest. Also, it's somewhat fluent what can be considered a "web app" and some will never get a manifest.

In the meantime it should be possible to add any page which then can be accessed side by side with "full" PWAs. This keeps the workflow consistent as all apps can be opened in the app launcher without having to think about in which case it's necessary to look for the app in the bookmarks.

Also for consistency reasons I would prefer to keep the option to choose whether the app should always be opened in a tab or in a separate window. Most of the apps will probably remain in tabs and it breaks the experience when some of them open in windows. 

Practical example: Inbox, Calendar, Drive, and Play Music are currently pinned tabs in my browser window as I heavily use them and often switch between them. But I also heavily use Keep which currently opens in a window when using the Webstore version. I am used to it but it's an unnecessary mental burden from an UX perspective when always having to think about where to look for an app (be it tabs vs. windows or app launcher vs. bookmarks).

To come back to my previous comment, I think it's important to provide an easily accessible app launcher in Chrome for Windows/Mac/Linux (it's obviously already there in Chrome OS). I was sad to see the Windows taskbar app launcher shortcut go away, but I see the issue of "duplicating existing functionality of the OS" creating confusion. However, an easily accessible app launcher popup directly in Chrome next to the address bar would be much better placed.

I'm currently using an app launcher popup extension to have quick access to around 60 apps (most of which I have added manually). The launcher looks very much like the launcher on my Android phone as there is a large overlap in the type of apps. I think such a launcher is key to the acceptance of the "web as an app platform" (web apps being "real" apps) and drives usage of web apps through easy accessibility.

Just to add my experience.
-I deleted a shelf items on both of my chromebooks
-I readded them on one
-They appeared on the other, but the icons did not sync
So then I...
-Deleted them from both
-Turn app syncing off on one
-Added them on the other
-Waited 5min, then turned app syncing back on on the other
-after a few min they appeared, with correct icons.

And to add to the discussion: I see the push Google is making toward android apps on chrome os. It's fine. I do think web apps should in theory be better overall, as they're platform independent. But unless you're getting buy in from web/app developers, it's tough. That said, having to go to menu > more tools > add to shelf  to make a webpage appear like an app, is virtually guaranteeing that web apps will fail. No one will discover that capability/work flow option. I have a mix of android and web apps on my shelf, and would really like to keep that option unless android apps consistently get a lot better (also my chromebox doesnt do android apps). 

Thanks for fixing the icon syncing Ben!