Allow users and site admins to manage their avatar or profile picture natively in your WordPress site.

The plugin adds an “Avatar Upload” field on the Edit User Profile screen and frontend pages for profile management. Users and site administrators can add a custom profile picture for user accounts without the Gravatar third-party service.

Download Basic User Avatars at WordPress.org
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Community and Membership sites on WordPress use this plugin as a lightweight solution for custom user avatars. The plugin is compatible with bbPress and Paid Memberships Pro, as well as many popular plugins with frontend user registration and profile management features.

Avatar Management for Site Administrators

Admins can upload a user’s avatar on the Edit User admin screen.

  • Navigate to Users > Edit User in the WordPress admin.
  • Locate the “Avatar” section.
  • Select a file to upload.
  • Click “Update Profile” at the bottom of the screen.
Avatar upload field on the Edit User screen in the WordPress admin.
Avatar upload field on the Edit User screen in the WordPress admin.

Avatar Management for Users

Users can upload their avatar from the Edit Profile screen in the WordPress admin.

Basic User Avatars also supports front-end avatar management for sites that want to keep users out of the dashboard.

  • To use this feature, add the shortcode [basic-user-avatars] to any page in your WordPress site.
  • We recommended placing this shortcode on another logged-in account type page, such as the WooCommerce My Account page, the Membership Account page in Paid Memberships Pro, or any other front-end profile edit form.
  • The Avatar Upload form is automatically added to the bbPress User Profile > Edit frontend page.

If you do not want your users to be able to update their avatar, navigate to Settings > Discussion and locate the “Local Avatar Permissions” setting. Check this box to only allow users with file upload capabilities to upload local avatars (Author role and above).

Frontend avatar upload form with a custom user profile picture and delete option.
Frontend avatar upload form with a custom user profile picture and delete option.
Frontend avatar upload form without a custom profile picture.
Frontend avatar upload form without a custom profile picture.

Migrating from the WP User Avatar Plugin

Version 1.0.5+ of Basic User Avatars includes a feature to automatically convert avatars formerly loaded through the WP User Avatar plugin.

This means that you can disable WP User Avatar, activate Basic User Avatars, and have a seamless transition for existing avatars in your site. Be sure to update any avatar upload form that used the [avatar_upload] shortcode to use the shortcode: [basic-user-avatars].

Installation

  1. Upload basic-user-avatars to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory or download through the Plugins page.
  2. Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress.
  3. If you only want users with file upload capabilities to upload avatars, check the applicable option under Settings > Discussion.
  4. Navigate to Users > Edit User to upload a custom avatar for your users.
  5. Add the [basic-user-avatars] shortcode to a page in your WordPress site to allow front-end avatar upload for your users.

bbPress support is added automatically if bbPress is activated.

This plugin is on GitHub and pull requests are welcome. If possible please report issues through Github.

Note: This plugin is a fork of Simple Local Avatars v1.3.1 by Jake Goldman and 10up. Check out Simple Local Avatars to compare their latest release to this plugin.