What a grey avatar means
The parents app shows a grey placeholder when it has no picture on file for that child. That is the reason in the large majority of cases, and it is fixed in one place: Admissions › Manage Students → find the child → Update Student → upload the photo and save. The app picks it up the next time the parent opens their student list.
There was a real defect, and it is fixed
Separately from the above, a genuine fault broke the photo for roughly one child in nine whose parents use the app. When a child's contact number was edited, the app's copy of that child's record was rewritten with a temporary picture link that stopped working within twenty minutes. From then on that child — and only that child — showed a placeholder, even though the photo was stored safely all along.
🔴 This was invisible from the school side. The photo kept showing correctly in the web system, on printed challans and on printed student cards. Only the phone app was affected, which is why it went unreported for so long.
No school action is needed. The cause is fixed, the affected records have been repaired, and parents did not need to update or reinstall the app — the repair reaches phones that already have it installed.
What it is not
- Not the parent's phone, app version or internet. If one child's photo appears and another's does not, on the same phone, the difference is in the school's records.
- Not a privacy setting. There is no per-student switch that hides a photo from the app.
- Not connected to fees, attendance, or your subscription.
The rare case: the picture file itself is gone
Occasionally an old record — usually one brought in through a past import — points at a picture file that is no longer in storage. You can tell this apart easily: in that case the photo box is also blank in the web system, not just in the app. Re-uploading the photo in Update Student fixes it.
What to tell a parent who asks
"The photo comes from the school's records. If it is missing we can add it in a moment — please come to the office, or send us a photo and we will upload it."