1. Restart Your Phone
Restart your Android phone or iPhone to fix any temporary issue or bug that could be causing the profile picture to disappear. To restart your phone, simply turn it off and then turn it on again. If all goes well, the profile photo should be restored after the restart. Tip: learn how to hard reset your iPhone.
2. Check Profile Picture Privacy Settings
WhatsApp offers a privacy setting that lets you decide who can see your profile picture. You might have accidentally changed the setting to “Nobody” so that others can’t see your profile photo. To change the WhatsApp profile picture privacy settings, follow these steps: On iPhone, tap on the “Settings” tab at the bottom.
Everyone: anyone who has saved your phone number will see your profile photo on WhatsApp. Contacts: only the people whose name is saved in your contacts will see your profile photo. My contacts except: all your contacts except the people added to the exception list will see the photo. Nobody: no one can see your profile photo.
Tip: learn how to view a WhatsApp status secretly.
3. Add Profile Picture Again
Many times, the picture fails to upload properly and isn’t visible to others. If others can’t see your profile picture even after you restart your phone and fix the privacy settings, add the picture again using the steps below. On iPhone, tap on the profile picture on the Settings page, then the profile picture icon on the “Edit Profile” screen. Tip: want to use the existing picture as your profile picture again? Tap on the profile picture on the Profile screen and take its screenshot, then choose it while re-adding the profile picture.
4. Grant Permissions to WhatsApp
You must grant storage and contacts permissions to WhatsApp to show your profile photo to your contacts. To grant the necessary permissions to WhatsApp on iPhone, go to “Settings -> WhatsApp,” then enable the toggle next to “Contacts.” For Android, follow these steps:
5. Clear Cache (Android)
On Android, also try the well-known trick of clearing the cache of the WhatsApp app. Clearing the cache will not delete your WhatsApp chats or files. Instead, it will remove temporary files that might be causing problems with your profile picture, thus fixing the issue of the missing WhatsApp profile picture.
6. Unblock Contact
Is there any specific contact who can’t see your profile picture on WhatsApp? You might have accidentally blocked them, and blocked users can’t see your profile picture or last seen and online statuses. To check the blocked list and unblock a user on WhatsApp, follow these steps: On iPhone, swipe left on the blocked contact and tap on “Unblock.”
7. Remove Contact
If your profile picture still doesn’t show up for a specific contact, re-add the contact to your phone by deleting then saving their number under a new contact. Once you have re-added it, relaunch the WhatsApp app by removing it from the list of recent apps then opening it again. Tip: learn how to delete multiple contacts from your phone.
8. Update WhatsApp
If your WhatsApp profile picture keeps getting removed automatically, it could be due to a bug in WhatsApp. You must update WhatsApp to the latest version to fix the issue and restore your profile picture. Open Play Store (Android) or App Store (iPhone) and search for WhatsApp, then tap the “Update” button next to it.
9. Reinstall WhatsApp
If nothing helps you restore the profile picture on WhatsApp, you must uninstall then reinstall WhatsApp on your phone. Note: create a WhatsApp backup before uninstalling WhatsApp to not lose your WhatsApp chats.
Reinstall WhatsApp on Android
Reinstall WhatsApp on iPhone
Note: to uninstall the app from the home screen, long-press on WhatsApp and select “Remove App” followed by “Delete App.” All images and screenshots by Mehvish Mushtaq.
Your friend may have removed the profile picture. Your friend may have changed the privacy setting of their profile picture to “Nobody” or “My contacts except” and added you to the exception list. Your friend may have blocked you.
