# Avatar not showing up, no option to manually change..?
**URL:** https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [April 24, 2020, 6:04pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320 "2020-04-24T18:04:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@kevincharlespels](https://community.citystrides.com/u/kevincharlespels)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2020, 6:04pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/1 "2020-04-24T18:04:00Z")
When I first signed up with CityStrides and linked Strava, it imported my Strava avatar. But then I connected my MMR account, which didn’t have an av, and now I don’t have an av on CityStrides ☹ I put an avatar on MMR, but it doesn’t appear. I also don’t see a way to manually change the avatar on either Settings or Profile.
And I want my smiling face up here since I 100%-ed Brookline this morning!
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### Author:  [@jpbari](https://community.citystrides.com/u/jpbari)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2020, 6:13pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/2 "2020-04-24T18:13:09Z")
There isn’t a way to manually set name or avatar in your CS profile (yet?)
My solution was to keep Strava connected and just pause it, and then it keeps that data
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### Author:  [@davemorin](https://community.citystrides.com/u/davemorin)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2020, 6:41pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/3 "2020-04-24T18:41:22Z")
(Also, nice work on finishing Brookline, that’s epic! 100% feels goooood)
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### Author:  [@JamesChevalier](https://community.citystrides.com/u/JamesChevalier)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2020, 6:44pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/4 "2020-04-24T18:44:06Z")
Oh yeah that whole area of the code is Weird ™
I think there’s a job that updates avatars from whatever the first connected service is, once a month. I also think I disabled this for Strava because it’s another API call.
I don’t like the avatar setup, it was just the least effort when I first started the site … also since some of the avatars are sourced from Facebook, they can be perceived by some plugins as spy pixels (probably rightly so).
It’s a thing I want to improve but there’s all this
_waves hands_
other stuff to do as well
🤷♂️
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### Author:  [@kevincharlespels](https://community.citystrides.com/u/kevincharlespels)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/5 "2020-04-24T18:50:54Z")
Whenever you get around to it will be appreciated, it’s certainly lower priority than all the other great improvements you’re doing. Maybe my avatar will be updated randomly since I now have an avatar on each of my linked trackers.
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### Author:  [@kevincharlespels](https://community.citystrides.com/u/kevincharlespels)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2020, 6:52pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/6 "2020-04-24T18:52:11Z")
Thanks! My ego feels good but my legs/calves don’t- Brookline is super hilly, who knew…
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### Author:  [@kevincharlespels](https://community.citystrides.com/u/kevincharlespels)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2020, 2:32pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/7 "2020-07-07T14:32:00Z")
Hey James, it’s still not a big priority but I was wondering if you might have a chance to revisit this issue - I’m still a faceless gray placeholder ☹
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### Author:  [@JamesChevalier](https://community.citystrides.com/u/JamesChevalier)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2020, 2:47pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/8 "2020-07-07T14:47:57Z")
The job to update photos is enabled, but it takes a full month to get through everyone.
I looked into your account, and it’s using the image set in MapMyFitness because it just looks to your first connected service & grabs the photo from there. It’s possible that CityStrides has lost its connection to MapMyFitness (their tokens expire & there was a bug a little while ago where CityStrides didn’t refresh them - so some people have to log out of CityStrides & log back in via MapMyFitness to reset that … no data loss, just a pain).
Overall, the current system of handling profile pictures is not that great because:
1. Garmin doesn’t provide any images, so no Garmin-connected account can have a profile picture
2. Some profile pictures are stored in Facebook, so that image loading provides them an amount of tracking access that I don’t want
I think I need to overhaul this, to allow image uploading. It’s just not _that_ high in my list right now.
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### Author:  [@kevincharlespels](https://community.citystrides.com/u/kevincharlespels)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/9 "2020-07-07T14:57:35Z")
I know I connected Strava first, but back in March/April before Garmin syncing I did some ill-advised disconnect/reconnects and when I linked MMR/MMF it blank’d my avatar and it has never come back despite having Strava reconnected. I don’t think I had an avatar on MMR/MMF when I connected, but I since added one.
Just adding this context in case it reveals what’s wrong since it’s been about 9 weeks since I first posted this, totally understand it’s low priority and not that big a deal to be a gray placeholder as long as my LifeMap is vibrant and sprawling.
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### Author:  [@JamesChevalier](https://community.citystrides.com/u/JamesChevalier)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2020, 3:54pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/10 "2020-07-07T15:54:47Z")
Your disconnect/reconnect changed things around which pushed the MMR account to ‘first’ so now that’s the service CityStrides checks for the image. If you log out of CityStrides & log in via MMR, that’ll reset the connection. After you do that, you can log out of CityStrides and log back in with whichever service you prefer. Let me know after you do that, and I can force your account to update.
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### Author:  [@kevincharlespels](https://community.citystrides.com/u/kevincharlespels)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2020, 4:06pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/11 "2020-07-07T16:06:47Z")
done: logged out, back in with MMR, out, and back in with Garmin
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### Author:  [@JamesChevalier](https://community.citystrides.com/u/JamesChevalier)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2020, 4:11pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/12 "2020-07-07T16:11:28Z")
I was able to update your image 🎉
but _this time_ when I looked at your ‘first’ connected service, it displayed it as Strava 🤦♂️
all my picture code is 💩
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### Author:  [@kevincharlespels](https://community.citystrides.com/u/kevincharlespels)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2020, 4:14pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/13 "2020-07-07T16:14:36Z")
I have an avatar now (it is the MMR/MMF one)! Thanks James!
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### Author:  [@ericjrw](https://community.citystrides.com/u/ericjrw)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2020, 2:06pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/14 "2020-07-27T14:06:08Z")
Mine is gone too on the CityStrides pages, but oddly is still here for the forum. I recall a post about saving the (Strava) API call for activities, not pictures, but can’t find that post, so picked this thread instead. Can’t one section of CS pull from the other?
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### Author:  [@jpbari](https://community.citystrides.com/u/jpbari)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2020, 2:32pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/15 "2020-07-27T14:32:44Z")
@JamesChevalier -
I just logged into CS with Strava, is that enough for you to force an update to the avatar to grab it from there?
Strava is paused on my account, but everything is still authorized.
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### Author:  [@jpbari](https://community.citystrides.com/u/jpbari)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/16 "2020-10-07T14:46:35Z")
@JamesChevalier
Any changes to the avatar situation? I have an avatar in all three of my connected services, but I am currently only syncing with Garmin (I know you can’t get my avatar from there)
Thanks.
JP
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### Author:  [@JamesChevalier](https://community.citystrides.com/u/JamesChevalier)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2020, 2:51pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/17 "2020-10-07T14:51:13Z")
Not yet. This is _very low_ on my own list - I’ll keep an eye on the vote count in [Local (to CS) avatar upload](https://community.citystrides.com/t/local-to-cs-avatar-upload/21723) though.
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### Author:  [@jpbari](https://community.citystrides.com/u/jpbari)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2020, 2:52pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/18 "2020-10-07T14:52:50Z")
Thanks. That is why I added it as an idea.
I am still perplexed as to why it isn’t pulling from Strava any more, though - did you re-enable that once the API limit increased or is it still disabled? Or is Garmin my primary now and therefore I won’t get an avatar under the current system?
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### Author:  [@JamesChevalier](https://community.citystrides.com/u/JamesChevalier)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2020, 3:05pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/19 "2020-10-07T15:05:32Z")
> [@jpbari](#):
>
> I am still perplexed as to why it isn’t pulling from Strava any more, though - did you re-enable that once the API limit increased or is it still disabled? Or is Garmin my primary now and therefore I won’t get an avatar under the current system?
Right now, it pulls from your first connected service. It seems like the only blocker for your account would’ve been the Strava API limits. It only updates photos monthly, so if it happened to get blocked while checking it wouldn’t come around again for another month. I just manually walked through the code to see if it would work & it got caught by the 15min API limit, but worked when I ignored that.
🤷♂️
It’s trash, for sure, and I’ll either fix it after the global update is sorted or the global update stresses me out so much that I need to do _anything other than that_ for a bit … and the latter is looking more likely.
😅
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### Author:  [@mattghall](https://community.citystrides.com/u/mattghall)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2021, 9:32pm UTC](https://community.citystrides.com/t/avatar-not-showing-up-no-option-to-manually-change/20320/20 "2021-03-02T21:32:42Z")
Hey James, my profile photo has also gone dark over the last couple weeks. I’ve read through a few threads but haven’t found a solution. Any thoughts?
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