WPBeginner

Beginner's Guide for WordPress

  • Blog
    • Beginners Guide
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Showcase
    • Themes
    • Tutorials
    • WordPress Plugins
  • Start Here
    • How to Start a Blog
    • Create a Website
    • Start an Online Store
    • Best Website Builder
    • Email Marketing
    • WordPress Hosting
    • Business Name Ideas
  • Deals
    • Bluehost Coupon
    • SiteGround Coupon
    • WP Engine Coupon
    • HostGator Coupon
    • Domain.com Coupon
    • Constant Contact
    • View All Deals »
  • Glossary
  • Videos
  • Products
X
☰
Beginner's Guide for WordPress / Start your WordPress Blog in minutes
Choosing the Best
WordPress Hosting
How to Easily
Install WordPress
Recommended
WordPress Plugins
View all Guides

WPBeginner» Blog» Plugins» How to Add an Author’s Photo in WordPress

How to Add an Author’s Photo in WordPress

Last updated on May 30th, 2017 by Editorial Staff
214 Shares
Share
Tweet
Share
Pin
Free WordPress Video Tutorials on YouTube by WPBeginner
How to Add an Author’s Photo in WordPress

Do you want to add an author’s photo in WordPress? By default, most WordPress themes display an author’s gravatar image as their profile photo. But what if you wanted to replace the gravatar image with an actual author photo? In this article, we will show you how to easily add an author’s photo in WordPress.

How to Add Author's Photo in WordPress

When Do You Need Custom Author Photo in WordPress?

If you run a single author WordPress site, then you can just use an image widget to add your photo and an about page with more information.

On the other hand, if you run a multi-author WordPress site, then you may need to add an author bio box at the end of your articles. Author bio box typically shows an author’s profile photo, brief bio, and links to their website or social profiles.

By default, most WordPress themes display an author’s gravatar image as their author photo. However, sometimes an author may not have a gravatar image or they may not want to use it as an author image on your website.

Having said that, let’s see how to easily add author photo in WordPress and allow authors to upload a photo to their profile.

Video Tutorial

Subscribe to WPBeginner

If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.

Adding an Author Photo in WordPress

First thing you need to do is install and activate the WP User Avatar plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item labeled Avatars in your WordPress admin bar. Clicking on it will take you to the plugin’s settings page.

WP User Avatar settings

Here you can choose how you want to display the user avatars on your WordPress website.

By default, this plugin allows users with at least an Author role to upload their own profile photo. You can change that and allow contributors and subscribers as well.

It also allows you to completely disable Gravatar on your WordPress site and only use local avatars.

Once you are comfortable with the settings, go ahead and click on save changes button to save them.

Now you can go to Users page and click on the edit button below a username.

On the edit user screen, scroll down to the bottom, and you will see the Avatar section. You can click on the ‘Choose Image’ button to upload the user photo.

upload author photo

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Update profile’ button to save your changes.

Similarly, users on your WordPress site will be able to upload their photos by editing their user profile.

User profile photo

Now you can visit your website to see the plugin in action.

It will start showing local avatar as author photo for the articles. If a user does not add an author photo, then it will show their gravatar image.

Author photo with bio in WordPress

If a user doesn’t have an author photo or gravatar image, then it will fallback to the default gravatar image. You can add a branded custom gravatar image to be used as fallback image.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add an author’s photo in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to allow users to submit posts to your WordPress site.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

214 Shares
Share
Tweet
Share
Pin
Popular on WPBeginner Right Now!
  • How to Fix the Error Establishing a Database Connection in WordPress

    How to Fix the Error Establishing a Database Connection in WordPress

  • Revealed: Why Building an Email List is so Important Today (6 Reasons)

    Revealed: Why Building an Email List is so Important Today (6 Reasons)

  • How to Properly Move Your Blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org

  • How to Start Your Own Podcast (Step by Step)

    How to Start Your Own Podcast (Step by Step)

About the Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi. Trusted by over 1.3 million readers worldwide.

The Ultimate WordPress Toolkit

55 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. Rachel says:
    Jul 6, 2020 at 1:08 pm

    I have followed these steps, but there is still no option to add a profile pic – it just shows the ‘blank’ image and no button to ‘add image’.
    Any ideas?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 7, 2020 at 1:41 pm

      You would want to reach out to the plugin’s support if the add image option is not available and they should be able to assist.

      Reply
  2. Amanda Don Williams says:
    Sep 14, 2019 at 4:42 am

    Thanks…. awesome plugin very easy to use…

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Sep 16, 2019 at 10:05 am

      Glad you like our article :)

      Reply
  3. Aditya says:
    Apr 4, 2019 at 12:46 am

    Hi, i have a user registration page on which user registers as a contributor. Then he/she can submit blogs for moderation. However, on that registration page i want users to add their photos mandatorily so we don’t have to rely on them adding it later from their profiles or do the task ourselves.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 4, 2019 at 11:27 am

      To set a requirement like that, you would want to take a look at our article here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-create-a-custom-user-registration-form-in-wordpress/

      Reply
  4. Sébastien says:
    Mar 4, 2019 at 12:38 pm

    How to show avatar on the frontpage? This method only show on the loaded pages.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Mar 4, 2019 at 1:44 pm

      If you are displaying your posts on your home page instead of a static home page then you would need to reach out to the support for your specific theme to edit the theme’s template

      Reply
  5. Helen says:
    Jan 2, 2019 at 7:55 am

    Thank you! Been trying to work this out for ages!!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jan 2, 2019 at 3:10 pm

      Glad our tutorial could help :)

      Reply
  6. Tony says:
    Dec 24, 2018 at 6:11 pm

    If anyone else is wondering why your photo isn’t showing up in author bio, it may be because there’s also separate settings for the plugin itself. You have to check the box that says, “display author avatars”. At first all I did was went to the author settings and uploaded the photo not realizing that there was extra settings for the plugin itself.

    Reply
  7. Alexander says:
    Apr 6, 2018 at 10:12 pm

    awesome resource….my picture appeared in a twinkle of an eye.thank you very much

    Reply
  8. Jason says:
    Sep 15, 2016 at 7:59 pm

    Doesn’t seem to show my picture. It uploads and shows in the Author page in Word Press but not showing on the actual site. Help!

    Reply
  9. nestor fuhr says:
    Apr 25, 2015 at 7:49 pm

    after proving a dozen plugin…. this is the only that works correctly. Thank you

    Reply
  10. Adey Jones says:
    Apr 7, 2015 at 5:53 am

    I am using this plugin on a site that also uses co-authors plus as some posts are written by 2 people, but this plugin only allows 1 author image to display, how can I amend the userphoto_the_author_photo() to display both authors images in 1 post?

    Reply
  11. Tim says:
    Apr 22, 2014 at 9:23 am

    Hey, just wanted to add that there’s a function for exactly that:


    <?php echo get_avatar( get_the_author_meta( 'ID' ), 32 ); ?>

    32 being the size of the image but that’s optional. If you only want to add a picture of the author, this function seems better than a plugin.
    Source: https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_avatar#Return_Values

    Reply
    • Constantin Colac says:
      May 25, 2015 at 6:06 pm

      Thanks mate. I was actually surprised people go for a plugin instead of a function..

      You get some good karma from me ;)

      Reply
      • Ryan says:
        Sep 9, 2016 at 2:27 pm

        Is there a way around having to deal with Gravatar.com or whatever? It seems crazy it isn’t just a built in feature of WordPress.

        Reply
  12. Simon Green says:
    Mar 27, 2014 at 12:13 pm

    Just use gravatar! Tried this plug-in and was not satisfied. I don’t want the author photo pasted everywhere that there’s a post, multiple times on the site. No good.

    Reply
  13. Keith Agnew says:
    Mar 9, 2014 at 6:48 pm

    Awesome Plugin. Worked perfect immediately. Thanks!!!

    Reply
  14. Raj Kumar says:
    Dec 31, 2013 at 10:19 am

    Thanks, but can we do it without any plugin?

    Reply
  15. Keme Kenneth says:
    Nov 18, 2013 at 12:18 pm

    Simple Local Avatars is working fine for me. Thanks all.

    Reply
  16. Yoopd says:
    Nov 10, 2013 at 1:42 am

    Thank you!!!

    Reply
  17. heny astuti says:
    Jun 17, 2013 at 10:00 pm

    it works..tx

    Reply
  18. Juan Manuel says:
    May 21, 2013 at 2:38 pm

    Hello!
    Thanks for sharing this info. However I am not sure if this is what I need. When I write a post on my website (http://juanmacarlupu.com.ar/blogdetraduccion) at the end of each post it says: “This article was written by: Juan Manuel Macarlupu Peña” and a default picture and mi bio. I have tried everything on earth (or that’s what I think) and I cant change that default picture. Can you help me with that?

    I would reaaaaaally appreciate it.
    :)

    Reply
    • Editorial Staff says:
      May 22, 2013 at 8:25 am

      It might be easier to just use Gravatar – https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/what-is-gravatar-and-why-you-should-start-using-it-right-away/

      Reply
      • Juan Manuel says:
        May 22, 2013 at 9:44 am

        I think it goes without saying that it worked!
        Thank you sooooo much!!!
        Regards,

        Reply
  19. Kat says:
    May 10, 2013 at 5:18 am

    Hi
    Can you help, I had this plugin working fine on a test site but not on the live site – the user pictures appear in the user back-end but not on the post or author pages?

    Does anyone have any ideas why this would happen?
    thanks
    Kat

    Reply
    • Editorial Staff says:
      May 12, 2013 at 8:08 am

      Extremely hard to tell without looking at the site.

      Reply
  20. Shonda Rogers says:
    Mar 16, 2013 at 1:48 pm

    So I have to download the plugin to get the image to show on google searches, am I correct? I have everything else setup and linked with google+ profile, email verification etc. I was thinking the image would show up from my google+ profile. But it sounds like I need the WP plugin as well. Can you please confirm?

    Reply
    • Editorial Staff says:
      Mar 17, 2013 at 11:44 pm

      No, this is for WordPress itself. If you want to show author picture next to google search results, then you need this article:

      https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-get-googles-verified-authorship-for-your-wordpress-blog/

      Reply
  21. Nida's Beauty Bag says:
    Jan 28, 2013 at 11:00 pm

    Is there any way that a non wordpress user can use an image while commenting on my blog??? whenever people comment on my blog , if they are non-wordpress user no display picture is shown

    Reply
    • Editorial Staff says:
      Jan 29, 2013 at 8:15 am

      Most WordPress themes come with Gravatar support. If your users are signed up with Gravatar, then their picture will show up. Like your picture did in this comment.

      https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/what-is-gravatar-and-why-you-should-start-using-it-right-away/

      Reply
  22. Joey says:
    Jun 18, 2012 at 6:45 am

    A better and more updated plugin: Simple Local Avatars (search wordpress plguin reposiroty)

    No need of editing any files.

    Reply
    • Ken says:
      Jul 20, 2012 at 3:48 pm

      Joey, that plugin you posted is useless and very broken. The User Photo plugin is the best one out there right now and works perfectly!

      Reply
    • kuyax says:
      Nov 12, 2012 at 2:39 pm

      joey is the best, it’s working perfectly…
      thanks dude…

      Reply
    • Emilio says:
      Dec 30, 2012 at 10:52 am

      Thanks Joey! Simple Local Avatars was awesome! For anyone downloading this plugin, there plugin settings are not in the “settings” or “tools” section. Just upload the plugin and go to the “Users” section. The upload form will be in the users information where you put the bio, email, and other social media contact info.

      Reply
    • Nadir says:
      Apr 23, 2013 at 4:18 am

      Thanks Joey, it works… perfect… saved me from frustration

      Reply
    • Jennifer says:
      Mar 22, 2014 at 5:15 am

      Thank you! It realy works fine!

      Reply
  23. Sham says:
    Apr 18, 2012 at 2:03 am

    The image is not displaying in all user lists. Can any one help ?

    Reply
    • wpbeginner says:
      Apr 19, 2012 at 6:19 am

       @Sham You have to make sure that you have the php code to display the image in your template.

      Reply
  24. caspian says:
    Dec 15, 2011 at 2:29 pm

    We have a theme that has a registration/profile page on the front end. any idea on how to add the upload image option to the front end? thanks.

    Reply
  25. ushackers says:
    Oct 17, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    really helpful post

    Reply
  26. ArsalanTosifi says:
    Sep 17, 2011 at 10:11 pm

    Hi

    I have successfully uploaded user photo plugin. Successfully imported image. But image does not display. What is missing?

    Reply
    • Rahoof PM says:
      Apr 7, 2012 at 5:57 am

       @ArsalanTosifi me also have the same problem. :(

      Reply
      • wpbeginner says:
        Apr 9, 2012 at 7:31 am

         @Rahoof PM  @ArsalanTosifi You do not have the code in your theme to display it. You have to add the user photo code. Click on the plugin page, they have the code there.

        Reply
  27. Ruth Martin says:
    May 17, 2011 at 9:09 am

    Hi!
    Thank you for this post and plugin! I have been searching for something and am so happy to have found my answer!
    Thanks again!
    Ruth M

    Reply
  28. Brian says:
    Mar 24, 2011 at 3:03 pm

    Any idea on how to integrate this with bbpress discussions?

    thanks

    Reply
    • Editorial Staff says:
      Mar 26, 2011 at 10:15 am

      Nope. We haven’t really looked into bbPress yet.

      Reply
  29. Aaron says:
    Jan 12, 2011 at 8:26 am

    Hi,

    I have about 200 jpeg photossaved, and I would like to put them in the userphoto folder and have them become that person’s photo, and the user can come back and change it if they wish. I tested this out by placing a photo admin.jpeg in the folder, but it did not take effect. do you know how I can do a mass upload of photos for userphoto?

    Thanks,

    Aaron

    Reply
    • Editorial Staff says:
      Jan 18, 2011 at 9:55 am

      You can’t just FTP stuff because the value is also stored in the database. It is better to ask all your editors to add the pictures by themselves.

      Reply
  30. Omaha Homes says:
    Mar 20, 2010 at 3:23 am

    Yeah this is nice good wp plugin to share author’s picture.

    Reply
  31. TeShadow says:
    Jan 23, 2010 at 8:20 am

    Thankyou for this Useful plugin

    Reply
  32. Rick says:
    Jan 15, 2010 at 1:01 pm

    Thank you for highlighting this plug-in.

    Reply
  33. Luke Jones says:
    Dec 31, 2009 at 7:49 am

    Thank you, this is one thing that has stressed me out.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Thanks for choosing to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our comment policy, and your email address will NOT be published. Please Do NOT use keywords in the name field. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation.

Over 1,320,000+ Readers

Get fresh content from WPBeginner

Featured WordPress Plugin
WP Mail SMTP logo
WP Mail SMTP
Fix WordPress email delivery issues. #1 SMTP plugin. Learn More »
How to Start a Blog How to Start a Blog
I need help with ...
Starting a
Blog
WordPress
Performance
WordPress
Security
WordPress
SEO
WordPress
Errors
Building an
Online Store
Useful WordPress Guides
    • 7 Best WordPress Backup Plugins Compared (Pros and Cons)
    • How to Fix the Error Establishing a Database Connection in WordPress
    • Why You Need a CDN for your WordPress Blog? [Infographic]
    • 30 Legit Ways to Make Money Online Blogging with WordPress
    • Self Hosted WordPress.org vs. Free WordPress.com [Infograph]
    • Free Recording: WordPress Workshop for Beginners
    • 24 Must Have WordPress Plugins for Business Websites
    • How to Properly Move Your Blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org
    • 5 Best Contact Form Plugins for WordPress Compared
    • Which is the Best WordPress Popup Plugin? (Comparison)
    • Best WooCommerce Hosting in 2020 (Comparison)
    • How to Fix the Internal Server Error in WordPress
    • How to Install WordPress - Complete WordPress Installation Tutorial
    • Why You Should Start Building an Email List Right Away
    • How to Properly Move WordPress to a New Domain Without Losing SEO
    • How to Choose the Best WordPress Hosting for Your Website
    • How to Choose the Best Blogging Platform (Comparison)
    • WordPress Tutorials - 200+ Step by Step WordPress Tutorials
    • 5 Best WordPress Ecommerce Plugins Compared
    • 5 Best WordPress Membership Plugins (Compared)
    • 7 Best Email Marketing Services for Small Business (2020)
    • How to Choose the Best Domain Registrar (Compared)
    • The Truth About Shared WordPress Web Hosting
    • When Do You Really Need Managed WordPress Hosting?
    • 5 Best Drag and Drop WordPress Page Builders Compared
    • How to Switch from Blogger to WordPress without Losing Google Rankings
    • How to Properly Switch From Wix to WordPress (Step by Step)
    • How to Properly Move from Weebly to WordPress (Step by Step)
    • Do You Really Need a VPS? Best WordPress VPS Hosting Compared
    • How to Properly Move from Squarespace to WordPress
    • How to Register a Domain Name (+ tip to get it for FREE)
    • HostGator Review - An Honest Look at Speed & Uptime (2020)
    • SiteGround Reviews from 4196 Users & Our Experts (2020)
    • Bluehost Review from Real Users + Performance Stats (2020)
    • How Much Does It Really Cost to Build a WordPress Website?
    • How to Create an Email Newsletter the RIGHT WAY (Step by Step)
    • Free Business Name Generator (A.I Powered)
    • How to Create a Free Business Email Address in 5 Minutes (Step by Step)
    • How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress for Beginners
    • How to Move WordPress to a New Host or Server With No Downtime
    • Why is WordPress Free? What are the Costs? What is the Catch?
    • How to Make a Website in 2020 – Step by Step Guide
Deals & Coupons (view all)
IPVanish Coupon
Get 20% OFF on IPVanish, one of the best VPN service providers for bloggers and WordPress users.
Theme Trust
ThemeTrust Coupon
Get 20% off on all ThemeTrust themes brought to you by Henry Jones.
Featured In
About WPBeginner®

WPBeginner is a free WordPress resource site for Beginners. WPBeginner was founded in July 2009 by Syed Balkhi. The main goal of this site is to provide quality tips, tricks, hacks, and other WordPress resources that allows WordPress beginners to improve their site(s).
Join our team: We are Hiring!

Site Links
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • FTC Disclosure
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Free Blog Setup
  • Free Business Tools
Our Sites
  • OptinMonster
  • MonsterInsights
  • WPForms
  • SeedProd
  • Nameboy
  • RafflePress
  • Smash Balloon

Copyright © 2009 - 2021 WPBeginner LLC. All Rights Reserved. WPBeginner® is a registered trademark.

Managed by Awesome Motive | WordPress hosting by SiteGround | WordPress CDN by MaxCDN | WordPress Security by Sucuri.