Why can't I change my profile picture on Outlook.com?

Anonymous
2013-03-30T03:14:51+00:00

I noticed that my emails have a very old profile picture from back when I still used MSN messenger. However, whenever I click to change my profile pic in Outlook, it tells me I don't have a profile picture (and gives me the option of changing it). Even when I change it, my emails still have the old profile picture. Is there a way to change or remove the current profile picture?

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Settings

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Anonymous
2013-04-01T03:30:41+00:00

Huh, that's strange... You're absolutely sure it's not attached to anything? You MIGHT be able to find something under the Outlook settings (that cog on the top right), clicking More Mail Settings..., and hunting around there for a solution. 

Just to be sure there's no accounts or anything attached (I'm clinging to this since it's the only thing I know), you should take a quick look at the Content from third-party networks section, and toy with the settings there. More specifically, the 'Showing Public Content' area. Clicking Don't Show also helped me out.

You never know, it could help you. If you've already tried it, then.. yeah, I've got nothin.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-03-31T18:33:56+00:00

    Me too!!!  SOOOOOOOO frustrated with this pathetic excuse for an upgrade from Hotmail.  Everyone I know has this problem and NO  ONE has been able to find a fix for it.  There are sooo many posts on google about this too.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-03-31T23:12:12+00:00

    Oohhk, I think I found out what was going on. 

    It turns out that the email account was attached to an old Facebook profile that I don't use. The email account used the profile picture from that Facebook account. To fix this, I logged into Facebook using the email I want to fix up, and changed my Facebook profile picture while logged in. 

    I had COMPLETELY forgotten about that... It kind of sucks that I can't change the profile picture through Outlook, but at least I found the problem.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-04-01T03:13:53+00:00

    You're lucky. Thats not my issue. When I do a new email I get a wonderful smiling mugshot of my exhusband. I have changed my profile picture but when I go to compose a new mail I still get his picture. The picture isn't on anything and my email account isn't syncd with facebook or anything else grrr.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-04-02T05:09:27+00:00

    Hi Everyone,

    Thank you for posting your concern here in Microsoft Community forum. I'd be glad to assist you on how to remove your profile picture in your account.

    AlexStoj suggestion is actually correct. If your account was linked to Facebook, Twitter or other social networking sites, your profile picture in that social networking site is also sync in your Outlook.com account. By removing the link accounts, it will surely remove the profile picture in your account.

    Please follow the steps below on how to remove the link accounts:

    1. Sign in to Outlook.com.
    2. Click the cog icon at the upper right and select More mail settings.
    3. Under "Managing your account," click Account details.
    4. At the left pane under "Microsoft Account," click Permissions.
    5. Under "Permissions", click Manage your accounts.
    6. Under "Accounts that you can access," you can now see all the linked accounts. Click the Edit button under the linked account.
    7. In the next page, click the Remove the connection completely.

    If the above steps didn't help you out, feel free to reply back and we are happy to further assist you.

    Thank you.

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