{"id":2768,"date":"2026-09-20T16:32:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T14:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/?p=2768"},"modified":"2026-09-20T16:32:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T14:32:51","slug":"why-do-i-see-the-wordpress-default-avatar-instead-of-my-author-box-default","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/why-do-i-see-the-wordpress-default-avatar-instead-of-my-author-box-default\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do I See the WordPress Default Avatar Instead of My Author Box Default?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If the avatar shown in the Author Box is different from the fallback you expected, the reason is usually that the Author Box settings and the global avatar fallback system are not always the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Molongui Authorship keeps backward compatibility with the Author Box avatar configuration while also applying the newer global avatar settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Author Box settings and global avatar settings are different<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Author Box can have its own:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Avatar Source<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fallback<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These settings determine how the avatar is resolved specifically inside the Author Box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The global avatar settings under <strong>Authors &gt; Settings &gt; General<\/strong> determine which avatar sources are available across the plugin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why can the WordPress Default Avatar appear?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If Gravatar is enabled and the active Author Box flow reaches Gravatar without a custom Molongui fallback taking over, WordPress can use the Default Avatar configured under:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Settings &gt; Discussion &gt; Default Avatar<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is part of the normal WordPress\/Gravatar avatar flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What about the Author Box default Gravatar setting?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Existing Author Box configurations may use their own historical Gravatar fallback setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Molongui Authorship preserves that behavior for backward compatibility in legacy Author Box flows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This means that an Author Box configured before the newer global avatar system may not always resolve avatars in exactly the same way as a new <code>source=\"auto\"<\/code> shortcode or another component using the global avatar logic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What happens if the Custom Default Avatar is enabled?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If <strong>Use a custom default avatar<\/strong> is enabled under <strong>Authors &gt; Settings &gt; General<\/strong>, Molongui Authorship can use that image as the fallback in the normal global avatar flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, an explicit Author Box fallback such as <strong>Acronym<\/strong> or <strong>None<\/strong> keeps its intended behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What happens if Gravatar is disabled globally?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If <strong>Use Gravatar for author avatars<\/strong> is disabled, the Author Box cannot force Gravatar back on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Global avatar settings act as master switches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, if Gravatar is disabled and the Author Box is configured to use Gravatar, Molongui Authorship must fall back to another permitted source or display nothing, depending on the configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to make the Author Box behavior more predictable<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Review both the global avatar settings and the Author Box avatar settings:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Go to <strong>Authors > Settings<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Open the <strong>General<\/strong> tab and review the global Author Avatar settings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Then open the <strong>Author Box<\/strong> settings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Review the configured <strong>Avatar Source<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Review the configured <strong>Fallback<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Save the settings.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Which settings take priority?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A useful way to think about it is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Global settings<\/strong> decide which avatar sources are allowed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Author Box settings<\/strong> decide how those allowed sources are used inside the Author Box.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Legacy Author Box settings<\/strong> are preserved where required for backward compatibility.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Still seeing an unexpected avatar?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Check the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Whether Gravatar is enabled globally.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Whether the Custom Default Avatar is enabled.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Which Default Avatar is configured under <strong>Settings > Discussion<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Which Avatar Source is selected in the Author Box settings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Which Fallback is selected in the Author Box settings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If the avatar shown in the Author Box is different from the fallback you expected, the reason is usually that the Author Box settings and the global avatar fallback system are not always the same thing. Molongui Authorship keeps backward compatibility with the Author Box avatar configuration while also applying the newer global avatar settings. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1,46],"tags":[61,39,13],"class_list":["post-2768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authorship","category-doc","category-troubleshooting","tag-avatar","tag-faqs","tag-troubleshooting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2769,"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2768\/revisions\/2769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.molongui.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}