The fact that you can’t see a friend’s profile picture on Messenger may be due to errors in the app, the fact that the person has deleted or deactivated their account, or simply removed or not set up an avatar.
In addition, friends’ profile pictures on Messenger may not show if you are using an outdated version of the app.
There is also a common misconception that if a friend’s photo doesn’t show on Messenger, it means the friend has blocked us. Is this true, and how do we find out the exact reason why we don’t see a friend’s avatar on Messenger? Read today’s post. 🙂
Friend’s profile picture not showing on Messenger – reasons
The fact that your friend’s profile picture isn’t showing on Messenger, can have several causes. I’ve listed the 4 most common ones below:
- Bugs and glitches in the app – Messenger faces various bugs and glitches from time to time that cause chaos in the display of profile pictures. In my groups on Messenger, I also very often don’t see some friends’ profile pictures, even though they have them set up on Facebook. What’s more, I’ve even seen a friend’s profile picture in a Messenger group on several other friends’ profiles. So this is certainly due to errors in the app.
- Deactivated or deleted profile – it can happen that when your friend deactivated or deleted his or her Facebook account, you will still see their profile on Messenger for a while, but without a profile picture. I’ve had this situation myself, so I know it’s possible.
- Lack of profile picture – a third, rather trivial reason for a friend’s profile picture not showing on Messenger is that they may have simply deleted their avatar or not set one at all. Not all Facebook and Messenger users set profile pictures – some, for the sake of greater privacy, do not.
- An out-of-date version of the app – yet another reason for a friend’s profile picture not showing on Messenger could simply be that your version of the Messenger app is out of date. If you’re using an older version of Messenger, you’ll likely notice various malfunctions.
Does a friend’s profile picture not showing on Messenger mean that they have blocked me?
Just because you can’t see a friend’s profile picture on Messenger doesn’t mean they have blocked you. I asked a friend to block me on Messenger, and yet when I searched for her profile in the Messenger search engine I could still see her profile picture. Therefore, it means that blocking friends on Messenger does not affect the visibility of their profile pictures.
How do I check why a friend’s profile picture is not showing on Messenger?
To find out why your friend’s profile picture is not showing on Messenger, follow these steps:
- Check if Messenger is currently experiencing any bugs or glitches. You can verify this using the Downdetector website. If there are a lot of notifications, you may suspect that the problem is on Messenger’s side.
- Ask your friends if they have a similar problem – the problem with friends’ profile pictures not showing on Messenger is quite common, so it’s worth asking your friends if it’s currently occurring for them too. Then you can be sure it’s a simple bug.
- Check if a friend’s account is active – go to a friend’s Facebook profile and see if they still have an active account. If not, you will see a message that the account does not exist or the content of the profile in question cannot be displayed.
- Check if your friend has added a profile picture – view your friend’s Facebook profile and see if they have a profile picture set up. If you don’t see a profile picture on Facebook, it means that he or she simply hasn’t added one.
- Check if the version of the Messenger app on your phone is up to date – go to the Google Play Store or App Store and check for available updates. If the Messenger update is available among them, it means that you have been using an outdated version up to now. This is the reason why you may have had problems with displaying your friends’ profile pictures.
Messenger doesn’t show your friend’s profile picture – what should you do?
If you can’t see your friend’s profile picture on Messenger due to app errors, all you can do is wait out the problem. It’s certainly worth preventively uninstalling and installing the app again. If, on the other hand, your friend simply hasn’t added a profile picture, you don’t have to worry about not seeing it because it’s not a bug.
You can take some action to resolve the problem of friends’ profile pictures not showing on Messenger if it is caused by the fact that you are using an outdated version of the app.
Simply go to the Google Play Store or App Store (depending on whether you are using an Android device or an iPhone) and update the app.
Summary
In summary, there are 4 most likely reasons why a friend’s profile picture might not show on Messenger – bugs and glitches in the app, the fact that your friend has deactivated or deleted their profile, they haven’t added a profile picture at all or that you are using an outdated version of the app. If the problem appears because you are using an older version of Messenger, simply update it. This will solve the problem and your friends’ profile pictures will start displaying again. 🙂
