diff --git a/commafeed-client/src/components/content/FeedFavicon.tsx b/commafeed-client/src/components/content/FeedFavicon.tsx
index cbf10464..b84c0546 100644
--- a/commafeed-client/src/components/content/FeedFavicon.tsx
+++ b/commafeed-client/src/components/content/FeedFavicon.tsx
@@ -10,11 +10,18 @@ export interface FeedFaviconProps {
 export function FeedFavicon({ url, size = 18 }: Readonly<FeedFaviconProps>) {
     // the backend always returns a favicon except when the feed has never been fetched
     // this can happen when the user subscribes to a feed, the feed is added to the tree but the feed has not been fetched yet
-    // in this case we just retry every second until the feed is fetched and the favicon is available
+    // in this case we retry every second up to 3 times until the feed is fetched and the favicon is available
     const [timestamp, setTimestamp] = useState(0)
+    const [retryCount, setRetryCount] = useState(0)
     const { start: retry } = useTimeout(() => setTimestamp(Date.now()), 1000)
 
     const urlWithTimestamp = url + (timestamp === 0 ? "" : `?t=${timestamp}`)
+    const handleError = () => {
+        if (retryCount < 3) {
+            setRetryCount(c => c + 1)
+            retry()
+        }
+    }
     return (
         <ImageWithPlaceholderWhileLoading
             src={urlWithTimestamp}
@@ -25,7 +32,7 @@ export function FeedFavicon({ url, size = 18 }: Readonly<FeedFaviconProps>) {
             placeholderHeight={size}
             placeholderBackgroundColor="inherit"
             placeholderIconSize={size}
-            onError={retry}
+            onError={handleError}
         />
     )
 }
diff --git a/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/favicon/RootFaviconFetcher.java b/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/favicon/RootFaviconFetcher.java
index 73306b00..b28a1fa6 100644
--- a/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/favicon/RootFaviconFetcher.java
+++ b/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/favicon/RootFaviconFetcher.java
@@ -30,9 +30,10 @@ public class RootFaviconFetcher implements FaviconFetcher {
 			url = feed.getUrl();
 		}
 
-		URI uri = URI.create(url);
-		String faviconUrl = "%s://%s/favicon.ico".formatted(uri.getScheme(), uri.getHost());
 		try {
+			URI uri = URI.create(url.trim());
+			String faviconUrl = "%s://%s/favicon.ico".formatted(uri.getScheme(), uri.getHost());
+
 			log.debug("getting root icon at {}", faviconUrl);
 			HttpResult result = getter.get(faviconUrl);
 			return new Favicon(result.content(), result.contentType());