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I really like the identicon as profile pictures. When I am going to change my profile picture it is only showing the old one. I got a few new identicons in past but forgot how they were changed.

enter image description here

Now I am stuck and have no clue, how to get a new identicon? Or they just get changed periodically?

1 Answer 1

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Your identicon/Gravatar is based on the MD5 hash of your email address. As long as your email remains the same, your identicon shouldn't change (except when we get replaced with monsters and unicorns for fun). If you want a new randomly generated one, simply changing your email would be the easiest way to manage that.

  • Many email providers allow plus-addressing-aliasing [email protected]. They'll still go through to you (if your provider supports it) but it'll look like a different address to the Identicon system.

  • And some email providers have out-of-spec addressing quirks. Gmail ignores . characters in the username so you could be username or u.s.e.r.n.a.m.e and Gmail treats it as the same thing.

Or you could just set an image manually of something you do like. An image of you, your pet unicorn, or some such.

Whatever you do, test the address before setting it. We'd hate to need to contact you and have our emails bounce. And don't do it too much. I know who I'm reading by subconsciously glancing at their gravatar. If you change your gravatar every other day, people won't be able to build that association.


As Robert points out in the comments, if you don't have an email address set, the system will use your IP address. That's generally not a great idea because you could see conflicts with other users, and it'll likely change over time (reducing the amount it actually identifies you).

I'd strongly recommend setting an email :)

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  • I just wanted to know the way, as I saw some users are able to change their identicon frequently. Thanks for your quick reply.
    – sourav c.
    Mar 17, 2014 at 14:14
  • I thought it was also based on IP...
    – Seth
    Mar 17, 2014 at 14:25
  • I thought it is totally random... Mar 17, 2014 at 17:16
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    @Seth Typically, identicons are created based on a hash of your email address. But if the email address is not included in the profile, the identicon was generated based on your last known IP address. Mar 17, 2014 at 17:20
  • @RobertCartaino That explains it! I'm pretty sure I don't have an email in my profile (not a public one anyway) and my identicon likes to change once in a while.
    – Seth
    Mar 17, 2014 at 17:21

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