I'd like to retire an emoticon so users can't use it. However, deleting it will result in broken images across the forum.

Is there a way to make it unusable?

If you upload the image to the old location after deleting the emoticon in the ACP, I guess nothing would break in the old posts. 

On 12/21/2016 at 3:13 PM, opentype said:

If you upload the image to the old location after deleting the emoticon in the ACP, I guess nothing would break in the old posts. 

I think I tried that once, but it didn't work properly (still appeared broken). Does anyone know if it works for sure?

It would be really nice if there was a way to retire emoji in the ACP.

2 minutes ago, Thomas K. said:

I think I tried that once, but it didn't work properly (still appeared broken). Does anyone know if it works for sure?

Yes, I just tried it on my test installation.

you can try to delete it from the admin Emoticons under customization see if that works

Why not replace the image? Replace it with a new emoticon or make a 1X1 pixel image which you could also make transparent. All you need to do is rename a new emoticon or the pixel image the same name as the emoticon you want to "retire" and upload it to your server. If you want to remove the emoticon or the pixel image from your list in the editor find emoticon management in the control panel and click on the remove button. That only removes it from the list but it will still show in posts as whatever you changed it to.

19 minutes ago, Ford Doctor said:

That only removes it from the list but it will still show in posts as whatever you changed it to.

I tried that. It actually deletes the image, so you have to at least upload an image again with the same file name. 

2 hours ago, opentype said:

I tried that. It actually deletes the image, so you have to at least upload an image again with the same file name. 

Silly question - what version are you using? 3 or 4? 

I am still stuck on version 3. I disabled a couple emoticons and they remained in any posts that they were used in but do not show up in the editor. Disabled emoticons are in a list below the active emoticons in version 3. I am thinking that has changed.