Help Google Profile Pic Won't Update In Gmail

k_sheridan · Jun 24, 2011

Phone: DroidX, Gingerbread, non-rooted

I have changed my Google profile pic online, and it shows up fine everywhere except in Gmail on my phone. It still shows my old picture in email threads. In Google Talk on my phone it has updated to my new picture though. i've synced numerous times and nothing changes. I don't see anything in settings that would change it. It's really just an annoyance to me, but does anyone have any ideas as to how to manually force it to update? I've tried removing my google account from my phone in order to re-add it, but it won't let me. the phone is stock, no crazy apps or anything that i believe would interfere with the sync.

I searched a bunch of different ways for this problem and couldn't find anything, so my bad if there's already a thread on this.

cookie_monster · Jun 26, 2011

you could always try to contact google for this and see what they say and report back with your findings

k_sheridan · Jun 26, 2011

I actually just figured it out like an hour ago. I guess Google sync's profile pictures with the contact named "Me" on the phone. I had to delete the "Icon" that was my old picture from the "Me" contact, then it updated with the new profile picture. Kind of annoying b/c you would think it would do that automatically. But I'm coming to find out there are a lot of those type things with Google/Android...

fctd · Jun 29, 2011

Thanks so much for posting this! I was having the EXACT same problem =]

767pilot · Aug 4, 2011

How do I get other people's pictures to change on my phone? Many of my icons are way different from what people are currently using

Terence Heynes · Dec 12, 2014

Similar to K_Sheridan I deleted the "Me" contact its probably at the very top of your contact list and not under M also deleted any other contact with my name in it. Then after deleting the "Me" contact it asked me to "set profile contact" so put my name in and and added email address it wont work with just phone number must have email address also. Then save contact-switched phone off - restarted and Phewwww .. it worked!! ....tried all other forums and many other ways this one worked like a dream thanks K_Sheridan

KalaKB · Mar 4, 2015

I had the same problem earlier. The solution was signing in to Hangouts & changing my profile pic there. Worked perfectly, fixed 2 accounts this way. Good luck.

joharejim · Mar 31, 2015

The fact that this thread started in 2011 and is still going in 2015 just shows how far Google still needs to go in order to do battle with the likes of Apple. Click on your Google profile pic and a button appears that says 'Change Profile Pic'. Select the pic you want to use and it changes instantly. Why then, on earth, would it change back to the old pic a few minutes later? I'd be willing to bet this doesn't happen with an Apple product.

Wyrenth · May 5, 2016

Just googled this problem because I, too, suffered from it.

What I ended up doing was loading my Google+ Profile from the Android app, changing my profile picture to the picture it was already at (effectively re-loading it because it asks for a crop and then re-applies the image), and saving the profile. This did the trick.

Seems it's just a disconnect between your Google+ profile via the web, your Google+ profile via the app, and your Gmail profile picture. It just doesn't update across all services smoothly unless you kick it a bit.

realspear · Sep 1, 2017

Well here it is 2017 and I can't fix this. I'm trying to update a profile photo for someone. I have changed it everywhere that people say to - on all devices, on google+, on gmail contact, etc. What is really crazy is that on their laptop, in the web browser for Google+, on their phone contacts list, the right photo shows in the upper right corner but if I click on it to see the profile, the old photo shows. All outgoing mail shows the old photo no matter how many times I change it, restart, clear cache, etc. Anyone found a way to actually fix this. I have added a screenshot (personal data removed.)

dimitriskiriakou · Feb 27, 2018

Iam using a professional email (gmail) and it is so frustrating to know that i cannot change effectively my profile pic. I did everything with no luck. I dont know either in which google app i chose the old picture, so i cannot guide my self to solve the problem. In some cases when iam sending an email the profile pic is correct, in other cases the profile pic is not. What a pain!!

PS One friend of mine has the same problem and in his case the old profile picture shows him with his ex's. His new girlfriend saw the picture...... Now explain the unexplained.

Help Google Profile Pic Won't Update In Gmail

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