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

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.