BuddyPress Avatar Upload Not Working? The Simple Fix That Took Us Two Days to Find

Slug: buddypress-avatar-upload-not-showing-fix

Focus Keyphrases: BuddyPress avatar not showing, BuddyPress change avatar missing, WordPress avatar display setting, fix BuddyPress profile picture, BuddyPress avatar upload broken

Tags: BuddyPress, WordPress, avatars, troubleshooting, user profiles, frontend bugs, theme compatibility, WP discussion settings

🚨 Problem Overview

Many site admins using BuddyPress encounter a frustrating issue: the Change/Upload Avatar page is completely blank. No upload interface, no errors, and even accessing the avatar change URL manually (e.g., /members/username/profile/change-avatar/) shows nothing. This issue can persist even when no JavaScript or console errors are present.

We recently spent two days troubleshooting this on a live BuddyPress + Avada setup — and the solution was so simple it was maddening.

This guide will walk you through what happened, how we misdiagnosed the problem, and the critical WordPress setting that fixed everything.

🔍 Symptoms

• The “Change Avatar” page loads but displays no upload UI
• Visiting the avatar upload URL directly also shows nothing
• There are no JavaScript errors in the console
• Upload UI scripts like Backbone or bp-avatar may appear broken
• You might start editing PHP templates or injecting JS — to no avail

❌ Common Red Herrings (We Fell for These)

We tried all of these (none fixed it):

• Overriding the change-avatar.php template
• Manually injecting Backbone.js templates via bp_avatar_template_part()
• Forcing bp_get_template_part('members/single/profile/change-avatar') into custom containers
• Enqueuing JS like bp-avatar, json2, and wp-backbone
• Disabling plugins and testing for conflicts
• Switching themes

These steps only created more errors — such as:

Uncaught Error: Template not found: #tmpl-bp-avatar-nav

All of this masked the root cause.

✅ The Real Fix: Enable “Avatar Display” in WordPress

The problem wasn’t in BuddyPress at all — it was in WordPress core settings:

✔ Go to:

Dashboard > Settings > Discussion

✔ Check:

✅ “Avatar Display – Show Avatars”

When this setting is disabled, WordPress silently disables avatar functionality across the site — including BuddyPress’s avatar upload UI.

It doesn’t throw a warning, it doesn’t disable the menu item — it just hides the upload screen entirely.

💡 Why This Matters

• BuddyPress uses WordPress’s core avatar system
• If avatar display is turned off, the system assumes you don’t need uploads either
• Since no error appears, it leads to wild goose chases in the theme or JavaScript

🛠 Undoing the Damage (If You Added Custom Code)

If you followed advice to inject templates or enqueue scripts, clean it up:

Remove enqueue snippet:

remove_action('bp_enqueue_scripts', 'enqueue_custom_bp_avatar_scripts');

Remove injected template logic:

remove_action('bp_after_member_body', 'inject_avatar_template_parts');

Reset theme overrides:

Delete any file like:

/wp-content/themes/YOURTHEME/buddypress/members/single/profile/change-avatar.php

Let BuddyPress use the core default template unless you need customization.

🔚 Final Thoughts

This issue is a textbook example of why every good debugging process should start with core settings first — not the code.

We learned this the hard way so you don’t have to. Before you write a single line of PHP or override a BuddyPress template, check that tiny checkbox in Settings > Discussion > Show Avatars

It may save you two days of confusion.

How to display avatars in the WordPress website  (Video)

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