AquaMail Forum
English - Android => Bug reports => Topic started by: milligandw on December 09, 2025, 06:35:49 am
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After the most recent update, the gravatar icons stopped working. I cleared the cache to see if that would fix it, but then all them disappeared.
Android version 16
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exactely the same here...
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Same here >:(
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Same for me. :-\
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I have an open support ticket in to fix the issue and they are investigating the cause and will hopefully issue a new release soon.
It's not the end of the world, but I've gotten use to the sender avatars to quickly identify the sender. :)
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Hello,
We have investigated the issue and found that it is related to Gravatar and Clearbit. Contact images cannot be fetched because their servers are currently unreachable. The servers may be down for maintenance or experiencing an outage. Please note that avatar images in Aqua Mail are refreshed every 7 days.
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Martin,
Seems a bit odd that both servers, which I assume are owned by different companies, would be down for more than a week. Looks like the CloudFront 403 Error is typically related to a configuration or permissions error. See attached screenshot.
Hopefully this will be resolved soon, because no longer having the sender avatars feels like an Aquamail downgrade.
David
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Martin,
Also, it looks as though both services have not reported any outages recently - assuming we're talking about the same servers.
https://status.clearbit.com/
https://uptime.com/gravatar.com
David
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Hi,
problem still remains. :-\
See attachment.
S.
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It's been broken for almost 3 weeks now and the reason given is that it's a 3rd party issue, i.e., Gravatar & Clearbit, which, to be honest, sounds a bit specious.
So it's beginning to look like it's not ever going to be fixed. :(
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Any news on it? Issue still persists.
Additionally in notifications there are no more contact images anymore.
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Hello everyone,
We understand the frustration, and we apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.
We’re already working on a solution on our side, even though the issue originates from third-party services (Gravatar and Clearbit). We agree that the situation has gone on longer than anyone would like, and we’re actively looking for ways to improve reliability and reduce dependency issues.
As soon as we have concrete news or a fix to share, we’ll do so immediately. Thank you for your patience and for bringing this to our attention.
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I wish I'd found this earlier ::) Been twiddling about with the settings for the last few days.
Hopefully you find a solution Martin / team.
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Martin, I've no idea whether this is relevant or not, but...
There's one avatar image that's showing alongside all emails from Google Alerts - and it's not any icon I have in my phone contacts. I don't even have Google in my contacts. This must be coming from elsewhere.
The only other avatars I see, are from the images I have that are set in my contacts (as expected). Any idea where this one is managing to sneak through from?
Edited after I found one more
Discovered emails from Perplexity (also not in my contacts) show an appropriate avatar.
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I just checked my (rarely used) backup email client, FairEmail - and that icon for the same email is a different avatar.
Again - I don't have this icon in my contacts, but FairEmail is pulling in avatars (favicons) for most senders.
Just wondered whether this helps? 🤔
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Clearbit shut down their avatar service Dec.1.
https://clearbit.com/changelog/2025-06-10
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Looks like Clearbit sunset the free api but a subscription api is still available. I suspected that it may have been an api fee issue. But what about Gravatar?
https://docs.gravatar.com/pricing/
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Hello,
We’re aware of the Clearbit change, and this is indeed where the issue originally came from. As for Gravatar, it should still be working (and it does in our internal tests). That said, we know some users are still seeing problems in real-world usage.
We’re currently working on a solution to improve the reliability of avatar fetching and fallback handling, and this should be live soon.
Thank you very much for your patience, we really appreciate it.
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Hi Martin,
Thanks for the update. Hopefully the issue is resolved soon.
When you mentioned "some users" are experiencing a lack of icons showing - is there anything I / we can do on our side? Any idea why only some, and not all users are affected?.
Cheers,
Dave.
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Update: Contact images are now provided via the Apistemic service instead of Clearbit. Because of this change, images may take a few seconds to load, especially the first time they are displayed. This delay is expected and depends on network conditions and the availability of the image on the service side. Once loaded, the images are usually cached and should appear faster next time.
This is the current behavior of the feature.
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Thanks. Do we need an app update for that?
Additional question:
Any news about this issue?
Stored contact images were not shown in notifications.
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Hi Martin,
Thanks for the update.
I've opened Aqua Mail (version 1.56.0-589, originally Pro) on my Google Pixel 6 (android 16), & Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 (android 10), but no external contact images are displayed other than the ones I have personally attached to my own contacts.
I've cleared cache (after leaving A.M. open for over 5 minutes - still no avatars for "common" senders (Amazon.com; Google calendar / Play / alerts, etc; Ancestry.com; Santander bank; Chase bank....). Some of those I imagine should have an icon from Apistemic or Gravatar (if that's supposed to be working?).
I believe my settings should allow the avatars to show up - I'll attach a screenshot. Maybe they'll show up later if Apistemic service is still "loading"?
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The updates is available for all beta users.
Justin, no news, we are still investigating and trying to reproduce the issue.
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Hi, some weeks ago I sent screenshots to your email address and answered your question.
I don't know how it is not reproducable for you. It happens on all 4 devices here (Samsung).
What about other users in this thread?
Could you please check if there are contact images in notifications? Not for me.
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No contact avatars yet on my device. It may coincidental, but I'm pretty sure they stopped working just after I installed the early December update. It was mentioned earlier that some users are experiencing this issue.
Could it be that for financial reasons this feature was effectively removed in the Pro perpetual license version, but is still included in the subscription version? This would make good business (model) sense given the change that occurred with Clearbit in December, i.e. , when they discontinued the "free" API option.
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Martin mentioned the update is currently available on the Beta version of the app (which I'm not running) so it looks like we might have to wait for the release version to check things out.
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Released now.
TY
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Thanks for the heads-up, Stephanre 👍
I've now updated the app, and see many more accounts with icon badges showing 😁
Obviously not every "business" sender has their avatar registered on Apistemic, but its a great improvement thanks Martin.👍👌
A few fairly well-known senders not showing icons (other than single-letter circles) -
PayPal, Halifax, Sainsbury's, Outlook, Ancestry, National Trust.
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I'm not seeing a new release on Google Play.
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I'm on post-Pro version which is the updated one I just installed from Google Play, here...
1.57.0-603
2026-02-09 13:59
c0b2ea8576
Does that help?
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Still not seeing an update option on Google Play. Also, I'm not sure what you are referring to by the "post - Pro" version.
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I'm on post-Pro version which is the updated one I just installed from Google Play, here...
1.57.0-603
2026-02-09 13:59
c0b2ea8576
Same here.
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Stephanie & Boothy,
Are you both referring to the beta version?
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With latest regular updates it works again.
But still no contact images in notifidations, eveb when there is an existing contact image for a friend.
All images show the question mark in notifications. Annoying
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Stephanie & Boothy,
Are you both referring to the beta version?
No.
Me: Former regular pro-version (lifetime), re-activated by AquaMail-Admin via google-purchase.
And it's not Stephanie ;)
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Hello,
Thanks for the heads-up, Stephanre 👍
I've now updated the app, and see many more accounts with icon badges showing 😁
Obviously not every "business" sender has their avatar registered on Apistemic, but its a great improvement thanks Martin.👍👌
A few fairly well-known senders not showing icons (other that single-letter circles) -
PayPal, Halifax, Sainsbury's, Outlook, Ancestry, National Trust.
I’ll mention this to the team at our next meeting.
Regarding the update, it has been rolled out to 50% of Google users, and we plan to roll it out to 100% on Monday.
With latest regular updates it works again.
But still no contact images in notifidations, eveb when there is an existing contact image for a friend.
All images show the question mark in notifications. Annoying
We’re still looking into this and haven’t forgotten about it. We’ll share updates as soon as we have more information.
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Hi Martin,
Unfortunately, there appears to be an issue that wasn't present before the recent update (caching issue?) :-
Yesterday, post update - after waiting a short while for the icons to populate from Apistemic (expected behaviour) - most avatars / icons filled in with either a senders "badge" or a lettered circle 👍
Today however, I'd expected the downloaded avatars to show immediately on opening Aqua Mail, (as they were populated yesterday). However... the avatar areas were all blank (including yesterday's emails which had previously been loaded). There were no lettered circles or previously uploaded icons showing. After a minute or so, the emails in view received avatars (or lettered circles). Scrolling down - only blank areas on the left again. The icons that I have from my contacts images did display... but older emails are still not loading even with Aqua Mail open for ~5 minutes.
Also.. on fully closing Aqua Mail - all icons return to blank areas again when I re-open it, then some load after a period of time (again - some remain stubbornly blank).
This has occurred on both my Google Pixel 6 (android 16) & Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 (android 10).
Aqua Mail version 1.57.0-603 / 2026-02-09 13:59 / c0b2ea8576.
I'll be happy to send a debugging log if required.
Thanks,
Dave.
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Confirmed here.
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Confirmed here.
Thanks Stephanre 👍 Its not just me then 😉
I've attached my settings (used on both phone & tablet, as mentioned above) & a screenshot showing blank areas where some sort of icon should show. The settings are exactly how I've had them for a long time. No recent changes (other than de-selecting & re-selecting them to see if it helped).
Update
Just to add something I've just observed... when any icons have loaded - if I scroll way back to older emails... then back up again - those icons that were previously showing on recent emails, have become blank again... and only slowly regenerate.
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Just received app update to version 1.57.1-604 / 2026-02-13 14:02 / 737bf15b19
Unfortunately, no improvements in previously discussed avatar / icon behaviour.
My Google Pixel 6 on android 16 seems to be worse-off (before and after this latest update I mean) in that it's loading less icons than my older tablet on android 10 🤔🤨 Lettered circles are at least loading rather than blank spaces at the moment, but company / business avatars on the phone are not populating to the same extent as on the tablet.
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I'll make this my last comment for now until there's an update on the situation...
14-2-26
Google Pixel 6 on android 16 :
* No longer showing any previously loaded external avatars (so nothing from either Gravatar or Apistemic) - only lettered circles or icons I have from my Contacts.
* When I first updated A.M., the external avatars were showing up. All have disappeared, as above.
* I've cleared cache; force-closed / re-opened; left A.M. open for 10 minutes without scrolling - no difference.
UPDATE 15-2-26
I decided to uninstall & re-install the app on my Google Pixel 6 today. After tweaking settings again, I noticed...
* Some External avatars for those that do show up on the tablet, reappeared on the phone. Notably - trustpilot.com, perplexity.ai & google.com (googlealerts)... However...
On the tablet, aqua-mail.com, santander.go.uk, daddario.com, which.go.uk & thedebrief.com have appropriate avatars - but these refuse to load on the newly installed Aqua Mail on the phone, even after leaving the app open with these in view for ~10 minutes.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 on android 10:
* Previously loaded external avatars are showing still.
* No Avatars for common domains like PayPal, eBay, Apple etc have shown up (I assume these should be available from either Gravatar or Apistemic?) - only colored, lettered circles.
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I have been using the latest version 1.57.1.604, updated two days ago and I am still not getting contact images which are now meant to be from Apistemic.
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Hello,
We’re aware of the issue. For the time being, contact images have been temporarily removed. We’re investigating the cause and will update users as soon as we have more information.
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Ok, thanks for the update, Martin.
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Do we have an update on the situation yet?
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Martin, when you've time, could you let us know if there's an update on this, please?
Cheers.