Disable User Gravatar

Description

This is a very simple and lightweight plugin that anonymizes default avatars and prevents the user’s gravatar being automatically obtained from gravatar.com based on their registered email. This would be useful for sites where users require an extra layer of privacy, or if you just want to prevent potentially silly or embarrasing avatar accidents.

If you’re using Identicons or any other generated default avatar, the user should keep a consistent avatar unless they change their registered email.

You can also disable Gravatar completely and choose a default image to display.

This plugin is also compatible with other avatar customization plugins such as Avatar Manager, BuddyPress or Add New Default Avatar, since this plugin specifically prevents the gravatar of a specific user email being used and reverts to the default or user-defined avatar.

Important 3.0 Update – BuddyPress users should visit the Settings > Discussion page on your dashboard and choose one of the Disable Gravatar options to restore previous behavior.

If you have any issues or suggestions, please visit our support forums.

If you find this plugin useful and would like to say thanks, please leave us a 5 star review!

Screenshots

Installation

1. Upload this plugin to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory and unzip it, or simply upload the zip file within your wordpress installation.

2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

3. Gravatars should now automatically be automatically anonymized.

4. Visit Settings > Discussion in the dashboard to disable Gravatar avatars completely and choose your own default image.

Alternatively, download the plugin and copy disable-user-gravatar.php to your Must Use Plugins folder, it’ll activate automatically.

Reviews

Excellent

fawp December 3, 2022

I can’t believe this plugin has only 4k installations. This should be a standard option for WP core. It’s great not to have to worry about privacy issues caused by Gravatar, as well as the fact that it eliminates the gravatar.com loading time, which sometimes can be a real drag. All thanks to this plugin. Thank you very much!

Essential!

Scott Tyrus Washburn January 2, 2022 1 reply

This is an essential plugin for privacy of sites containing forums or other login for users. This should be a basic, default feature of WordPress. Thanks for the awesome plugin!

Must-have

No3x June 15, 2018

The plugin is a must-have for each WordPress installation. One can’t process the email of the user (personal information) to create a hash and sent it to a remote server without consent of the user.

simple, effective, working

mazana May 15, 2018 1 reply

BIG Thank You! I agree with BubbaLovesTV and okonno. Hope it really doesn’t send e-mail addresses to gravatar or anywhere else. (Why I can’t just give 5*? Why I must leave a review?)

Looks good.

narinder912 May 1, 2018

This plugin is really needed. Hope the author keeps updating it to keep it compatible with new versions of WordPress.

plugin should be famous

okonno March 21, 2018

it just kind of ‘clicked’ for me how insidious Gravatar is and how no one should have it installed. Any site allowing user signup is sending data to Wordpress (Auttomatic) for them to sell. Gravatar is very confusing for users (creates 2 profiles for every site basically) and seems to exist only for Auttomatic to make $$$ …

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

3.1

• fixed BuddyPress compatability issue

3.0

• added options to disable gravatar connection completely and use default image instead
• fixed avatar display issues when BuddyPress is enabled
• added further BuddyPress support to use default image or use BP’s gravatar disabling option
• Notice : BuddyPress users should visit the Settings > Discussion page on your dashboard and choose one of the Disable Gravatar options to restore previous behavior.

2.2

• added filter for BuddyPress fallback on Gravatar (kudos to @baptx)

2.1

• changed object structure to static and updated to be PHP 7 compatible
• fixed bp_core_fetch_avatar showing original avatar when only requesting the URL
• fixed avatars for post author not taken into account in certain situations
• changed member.%USER%@mydomain.com to member.%USER%@somerandomdomain.com for added randomness
• added filter to remove ‘You can change your profile picture on Gravatar’ on profile page