Simple Local Avatars WordPress Plugin – Features & Review | WPWizzy

This usually means a caching issue or that the local avatar is not set as the active avatar. Go to Users, then the specific user profile, and verify the local avatar is uploaded and selected. Clear all caches. If the theme or plugin displaying avatars uses its own avatar function instead of the standard WordPress get_avatar function, Simple Local Avatars will not intercept it. Check the theme or plugin documentation for avatar display settings.

Check the plugin settings under Settings, then Discussion. Simple Local Avatars has an option to restrict who can upload avatars. If it is set to restrict uploads to administrators only, regular subscriber or author roles cannot upload. Change the restriction setting to allow the appropriate user roles to upload their own avatars. Also ensure the user actually has media upload capability — some role configurations restrict this.

Avatar upload failures are usually caused by file size limits or file type restrictions. Check the upload error message for specifics. If the image file is too large, resize it before uploading — profile photos do not need to be larger than 300×300 pixels for most display contexts. If the file type is rejected, ensure you are uploading JPEG, PNG, or GIF. Also verify that your WordPress uploads directory is writable by checking wp-content/uploads folder permissions.

In the plugin settings under Settings, then Discussion, enable the option to only use local avatars. This prevents WordPress from making any Gravatar requests. Users without a local avatar will see the default mystery person avatar instead of a Gravatar image. This is the most privacy-preserving configuration as no user email addresses are sent to external servers.

Yes. Go to Settings, then Discussion, and look for the Default Avatar option. You can set a custom default avatar image that appears for users without a local avatar. Upload your preferred default image through the media library and enter its URL in the default avatar field. This creates a consistent branded appearance for users who have not personalised their profile photo.

Gravatar requires sending the MD5 hash of each user email address to Gravatar servers to retrieve profile images. This is a privacy concern because email hashes can be used to track users across sites. It is also a performance concern because each avatar requires a DNS lookup and HTTP request to Gravatar CDN. Local avatars eliminate both issues — no data leaves your server and avatar images load from the same origin as the rest of your site.

Simple Local Avatars hooks into the WordPress user system, so it works with any WordPress user including WooCommerce customers who have accounts. Avatars appear on user profile screens and wherever the standard WordPress get_avatar function is called. WooCommerce account pages that use the standard avatar function will display local avatars correctly.

Not immediately. By default, Simple Local Avatars falls back to Gravatar for users who do not have a local avatar set. Users with Gravatar accounts will still see their Gravatar image until they upload a local avatar. To prevent any Gravatar images from showing, enable the local-only mode in the plugin settings, which replaces Gravatar fallback with the default mystery person or your custom default avatar.

There is no automatic Gravatar import in Simple Local Avatars. Each user would need to download their Gravatar image and upload it manually through their profile. For sites with many users, this manual process is impractical. An alternative is to accept the Gravatar fallback for existing users and only collect local avatars from new users going forward, or to leave Gravatar enabled for users who have not uploaded locally.