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[bug]: Email notifications show a broken avatar for users without a profile photo

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#10,009 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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@gurnoorpannu is already working on this.

Since Oct 14, 2026.

  • #10012 by @gurnoorpannu — open

Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
82/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
python
Domain
backend

Research direction

Start with the three avatar_url assignments in apps/api/plane/bgtasks/email_notification_task.py (around lines 200, 213 and 227), which prefix the base API URL even when the actor has no avatar. Then check the {% if update.actor_detail.avatar_url %} branches in templates/emails/notifications/issue-updates.html (lines 53 and 194). Done when an actor without a photo gets an empty avatar value and the template shows the initial instead of a broken image.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Current behavior

In email notifications, the avatar for anyone without a profile photo is a broken image. The initial fallback in the template never shows.

apps/api/plane/bgtasks/email_notification_task.py (lines 200, 213 and 227 on preview) builds the URL as:

"avatar_url": f"{base_api}{actor.avatar_url}",

When the user has no avatar, actor.avatar_url is None (or ""), so the value becomes https://<host>/None (or just https://<host>). That string is truthy, so {% if update.actor_detail.avatar_url %} in templates/emails/notifications/issue-updates.html (lines 53 and 194) always takes the <img> branch, and the {% else %} initial is never used. https://<host>/None returns the web app's HTML, so mail clients show a broken image.

Expected behavior

Users without a photo show the initial, as the template intends.

Suggested fix

Only prefix when there is an avatar, in all three places:

"avatar_url": f"{base_api}{actor.avatar_url}" if actor.avatar_url else "",
Steps to reproduce
  1. Self-hosted instance with email notifications on.
  2. A user with no profile photo comments on or updates a work item.
  3. Another member gets the notification email: the actor's avatar is a broken image pointing to https://<host>/None.
Environment

Self-hosted (Docker images built from the current release), seen October 2026.

Dominant language
TypeScript
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Forks
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Merged PRs (30d)
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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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