# Weird case: inactive user with never-logged-in status somehow has an uploaded avatar

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/weird-case-inactive-user-with-never-logged-in-status-somehow-has-an-uploaded-avatar/387349
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [1 בנובמבר,‏ 2025,‏ 2:05pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/weird-case-inactive-user-with-never-logged-in-status-somehow-has-an-uploaded-avatar/387349 "2025-11-01T14:05:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![copymonopoly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@copymonopoly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/copymonopoly)
#### Post date: [1 בנובמבר,‏ 2025,‏ 2:05pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/weird-case-inactive-user-with-never-logged-in-status-somehow-has-an-uploaded-avatar/387349/1 "2025-11-01T14:05:33Z")

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Hi everyone,

I’m encountering a strange behavior on my Discourse forum and would like your advice.

**Situation:**

- There is a user who has **never activated their email**.
- Their `last_seen_at` shows they have **never logged in**.
- Despite this, the user somehow **has an uploaded avatar**.

**What I’ve ruled out:**

1. I did **not manually upload or set the avatar** for this user.
2. I do **not have any SSO / third-party login providers** enabled.
3. Gravatar is not the cause, as it requires login or active email.
4. No unusual plugins related to avatars are currently installed.
5. This forum has no bulk import of users with avatars.

**Questions:**

1. How could a user who has never logged in and is inactive end up with an uploaded avatar?
2. Are there any known bugs or edge cases in Discourse that could cause this?
3. What is the safest way to remove this avatar and prevent this from happening again?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

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### Author: ![awesomerobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/awesomerobot/32/142900_2.png) [@awesomerobot](https://meta.discourse.org/u/awesomerobot)
#### Post date: [6 בנובמבר,‏ 2025,‏ 11:36pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/weird-case-inactive-user-with-never-logged-in-status-somehow-has-an-uploaded-avatar/387349/2 "2025-11-06T23:36:46Z")

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> [@copymonopoly](#):
>
> Gravatar is not the cause, as it requires login or active email.

Are you sure? I think we only check for the email, not login or verification. If you open the user’s preferences and try to edit their avatar… what does it show? I can see a gravatar for an account that has never logged in or verified email on my test site, for example:

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/3/c/3/3c36819ddc4a11951cf1fc1e933e809ffff895c9.png)

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### Author: ![copymonopoly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@copymonopoly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/copymonopoly)
#### Post date: [8 בנובמבר,‏ 2025,‏ 1:39am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/weird-case-inactive-user-with-never-logged-in-status-somehow-has-an-uploaded-avatar/387349/3 "2025-11-08T01:39:27Z")

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Ah, my bad — I hadn’t used Gravatar before and assumed it needed a verified or logged-in email.  
Didn’t know it just checks if the address is registered on Gravatar.  
I didn’t expect that one of my users’ randomly entered emails happened to have a Gravatar avatar!  
Thanks for pointing that out!

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### Author: ![system](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/system/32/443519_2.png) [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [8 בדצמבר,‏ 2025,‏ 1:39am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/weird-case-inactive-user-with-never-logged-in-status-somehow-has-an-uploaded-avatar/387349/4 "2025-12-08T01:39:35Z")

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