Removes user pictures from server

[shreevatsa]

With a fresh Pidgin install, and using a Google account (XMPP protocol, etc.), Pidgin removes the user's picture. This is serious -- it's not just a matter of the picture not displaying, the image is actually gone for ever. I've only tried this on Google, but the problem may include other servers, or other protocols, I don't know.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Get a Google account.
2. Using GMail or something, set a user picture for that account.
3. Test it from GMail or other IM clients or old Gaim, see that the picture works, etc. :)
4. Make a fresh install of Pidgin 2.0.0
5. Add that account, use it for a while
6. The userpic disappears (after a while?)

None of your friends can see it, and if you log in to GMail, you'll see that no pic has been set.

I know at least three people this has happened to.

Some users might be quite upset (might have lost the picture, etc.), so I'd say this is at least somewhat important.

[JiveMasterT]

I've also noticed this behavior. Does pidgin even allow you to set your gtalk buddy icon?

[shreevatsa]

FWIW, it appears that the picture that is displayed in the buddy list window at the bottom (to the right of the status-choosing area -- on the button that can be clicked to set the picture) actually goes blank (to the default) when the file is deleted from the location it originally was in when it was set. I'm not sure if it directly affects whether the user pictures are removed from the server or not (the topic of this bug), but it is anyway bad design -- the user should not be expected to retain the file on disk forever Pidgin should cache a copy for itself and keep it.

(Sorry if this is already fixed; I'm still using 2.0.0)

[seanegan]

Re-assigning to Nathan.

Nathan, this is caused by 57b4e954f5830e1dddd9bffb697deb057fb35943. The discussion we had about it starts at 20070503144905.A8A9748FE5@…

[nwalp@…]

(In [c01626696f1218b430181303c6e69eeba2469947]) if we don't have an icon, lets not clear the icon on login (fixes #788)

[sam.albuquerque]

I can see this issue with Pidgin 2.6.1 compiled with Farsight2 enabled for voice and video. Since I used the most recent sourcecode of all packages available for download(not git or svn), I guess it is a regression and the issue should be reopened, until re-fixed.

[sbjesse]

hi i'm experiencing the same issue in 2.6.1, guess there's a regression here. shall i provide more info?

[deryni]

The chances of this issue (as it previously existed) resurfacing are slim-to-none. This is a two year old ticket. If XMPP buddy icons are once again disappearing please file a new ticket and attach the debug window output from when you connect to the server, when you set your icon, and when you reconnect (and the icon presumably becomes unset).

[sbjesse]

@deryni, hi i'm a newbie here, but the way i reproduced this is

1) set my user picture in gmail, then 
2) log in with pidgin (buddy icon box unchecked in jabber account settings page), then 
3) wait for one or two minutes, and then my user picture vanishes from gmail...

to be clear, the buddy icon checkbox is unchecked as that was the default. Pidgin doesn't seem to retrieve my picture from server, and I guess it told the server to nullify my buddy icon or something... i had bitter experience setting user picture from within pidgin a long time ago (when i was using Gaim), so is there a better way of debugging this issue?

[dabster]

I am still seing this with pidgin 2.6.3 windows version... Tell me what info is needed from me so that this is worked up..?

[deryni]

See #10287, this is apparently currently operating as designed though there is apparently some talk about making it optional to have pidgin clear the icon when none is set locally.