Contact photos not showing

[ygoe]

Guidelines

• [X] I have searched searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• [X] I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
• [X] This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

Bug description

Some of my contacts do not show the photos. The photos are visible in Android's contacts app, but not in the Signal app. Some photos are still there but others not.

I had some trouble with DAVx to not properly sync contacts from my CardDAV server to Android. I have deleted that sync profile and recreated it. Now all contacts show up properly again. The contacts are visible everywhere but not in the Signal app.

I went to the "new chat" view and selected the "Update" command from the top menu. The circle was spinning for a moment and nothing has changed. I tried that several times and rebooted the phone in between.

Needless to say that the contact photos are also missing on the Windows desktop app then. There might be different issues preventing a proper upgrade there, but I'll get to that as soon as the Android app has proper data to sync.

Screenshots

No response

Device

Samsung S10e

Android version

12

Signal version

7.26.1

Link to debug log

No response

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[ygoe]

Nothing has changed.

I'm wondering if it may help to somehow backup my data on the phone (never done that before), then uninstall the app and delete its data, and reinstall with a restored backup. Would that work to fix all broken data structures in the app?

[greyson-signal]

Just to be sure, have you enabled Settings > Chats > "Use address book photos"

[ygoe]

No, it was disabled. I can't remember touching that setting, didn't even know it exists.

I've enabled it now, also used the refresh command on the new chat contacts selection page, but so far nothing has changed about the photos.

[har-123]

Can you please share the recording of the issue. I will start looking into it.

[ygoe]

I have no recording.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[ygoe]

Still valid. Is anybody trying to care about issues faster than the configured bot expiration timeout? Should the bot be reconfigured to give the team more time to look at reports?

[johan-cb]

I can confirm this issue on Signal 7.41.4 on Android 15. Some of my contacts don't show pictures even though the contact has a picture set in contact cards.

[zecuse]

Adding my 2 cents. This occurred on my old phone which had Android 15 sometime late last year. I never bothered to look into fixing it as I knew I'd be getting a new phone this year. Well, a month has gone by since getting the new phone and the problem persists.

I've cleared the app's cache, changed the contact's photo, updated the contact's name to match what's displayed in Signal and it still refuses to use the address book photo again.

Android version: 15 Signal version: 7.42.2

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[ygoe]

Still valid. Is anybody trying to care about issues faster than the configured bot expiration timeout? Should the bot be reconfigured to give the team more time to look at reports?

[zecuse]

Adding my 2 cents. This occurred on my old phone which had Android 15 sometime late last year. I never bothered to look into fixing it as I knew I'd be getting a new phone this year. Well, a month has gone by since getting the new phone and the problem persists.

I've cleared the app's cache, changed the contact's photo, updated the contact's name to match what's displayed in Signal and it still refuses to use the address book photo again.

Android version: 15 Signal version: 7.42.2

Coming back to this, the problem still exists with the following observations:

• Android version 15
• Signal version 7.53.4
• This is only happening with my girlfriend's icon who is the only contact that I've used Signal with. She's on an iPhone if that detail matters.
• I do happen to see 2 other contact's when I try to test updating contact photos. These 2 contact's DO IN FACT change appropriately to a photo of my choosing and go back to their initials when I remove the assigned photo.
• This is NOT the case for my girlfriend. Her photo is stuck as the default, incognito looking icon Signal uses.
• It doesn't matter if I remove or reassign a photo to her. Only her icon is stuck.

[Joyescat]

My girlfriend had the same issue. It happened because i had the option to hide my phone number for security reason. My girlfriend added me on signal with my username. So my signal profile on her phone had no phone number.

To fix it :

• i desactivated the setting to hide my phone number
• she looked for my phone number in the search menu
• she activated the setting to show contact photo instead of signal photo
• at first it didn't appear to be fixed but after few minute it worked 🎉🎉🎉

[ygoe]

I don't see these options. But looking around, I found another quirks.

I went to the details page of a contact that's lacking the photo. There's the menu entry "phone contact details". When I tap on that, I can select a contact app to open. I cancel by going back. Then after 2 seconds, the contact's photo appears at the top. But 2 seconds later, it disappears again and the initials come back.

Something's terribly broken in the app. It can show the photo, but apparently actively decides not to do. Is anybody actually fixing bugs here?

[psklb]

Hello, my experience on android signal app and desktop app with this problem (photo does't appear for some contacts) : On th android apps : I notice that when I show contact details on contacts without photos, it was not all the details I see on my android contact plus : the contact view shows 'signal contact' So I think there is a "only singal" contact that overwrite my android contact. I show the contact details from signal app and delete it. Immediately, the contact become the android contact (without lose of conversation (btu you can archive before to be sure))

On the destop app : params / conversations (chats in english ?) / import contacts

Now everything is OK for me

[prettyGrace]

Registered and honest

[ygoe]

@psklb Not sure what you did or saw there but I cannot confirm it. First, all contacts, with or without photos, show "Signal contact" for me. Second, I can't delete a contact in the Signal Android app, there's no option for that. I could only delete a chat, or block or report a contact.

[psklb]

Second, I can't delete a contact in the Signal Android app

sorry, that's what I remembered. I've just re-try (but my contacts are now fine) and probably the delete action went after I choose 'contact information from the telephone' in the signal app (or something like this, my phone speak french) . But I confirm the contact I saw there was not so detailed that the contact I built in my adressbook ; that's why I had made the assumption that there was 2 contacts, the less complete overwrtiing the "real" one. I regret not being able to try again. Hope this help though Best regards

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[ygoe]

Still relevant.

[ygoe]

Dear @stale bot, please also remember to remove your added "wontfix" label again. It looks so depressing. Thank you.