If you are unable to see someone’s profile picture and status updates on WhatsApp, there are a few potential reasons why this may be happening.
They have hidden their profile photo and status updates
The most common reason you can’t see someone’s profile photo and status on WhatsApp is because they have deliberately hidden these from you. WhatsApp gives users the option to control who can see their profile photo, about info, and status updates.
To hide your profile photo from specific contacts, go to Settings > Account > Privacy > Profile photo. Here you can choose to show your photo to Everyone, My contacts, or Nobody. If you select Nobody, no one will be able to see your profile picture.
To hide your status updates, go to Settings > Account > Privacy > Status. Again, you can select who can view your status updates – Everyone, My contacts, or Nobody. If you choose Nobody, no one will be able to view your status.
So if someone has hidden their profile photo and/or status from you specifically, or set them to be visible to Nobody, you will not be able to see their profile photo or status updates.
They have blocked you
Another possibility is that the person has outright blocked you on WhatsApp. When someone blocks you, you will no longer be able to see any information about their account, including their profile photo, status, or when they were last online.
There is no way to confirm for sure if you’ve been blocked by someone, as WhatsApp does not notify users. But if you are suddenly unable to see someone’s profile photo, status, or online status, there’s a good chance they have blocked you.
Your account is banned or restricted
In some cases, if your own account has been banned or restricted by WhatsApp, you may find yourself unable to see other users’ profile pictures and status updates. WhatsApp has the right to ban accounts that violate its terms of service.
If your account has been banned, you will typically receive a notification from WhatsApp informing you. Temporary bans may prevent you accessing certain features, while permanent bans disable the account entirely.
They are not your contact
On WhatsApp, you can only see the full profile information of users who are saved as contacts in your phone’s address book. If someone is not your contact, you will only be able to see limited details – usually just their name and profile photo.
So if you are trying to view the profile or status of someone who is not already saved as a contact, you will not be able to see their status updates or when they were last online. Add them as a contact first to view their full profile.
Your phone’s storage is full
If your phone is low on storage space, this can sometimes cause issues with displaying profile photos and statuses in WhatsApp. Media content takes up storage space, so if your phone memory is completely full, WhatsApp may struggle to load and display images and videos from other users’ statuses.
Try freeing up storage space on your phone and see if that fixes the problem with viewing statuses. You can also try reinstalling WhatsApp to refresh the app’s storage.
Their account is new/recently created
For brand new WhatsApp accounts, profile photos and status updates may take a little while to load. This is because it takes some time for WhatsApp servers to fully register a new account.
If someone has just created their WhatsApp account, wait a few hours and try again. Their profile and status updates should show up once the account is fully activated across WhatsApp’s servers worldwide.
Network connection issues
With any internet-based messaging app like WhatsApp, a poor network connection can hamper performance. Slow or unstable connections may prevent profile photos and statuses from loading properly in the app.
Check that you have a strong WiFi or mobile data connection. Turning airplane mode on and off can also help reset the connection. Ensure you are running the latest version of WhatsApp as well.
Their account was deleted
If someone has deleted or deactivated their WhatsApp account entirely, obviously you will no longer be able to see any profile details or status updates from their account.
You will see a notice in the chat saying “This user has deleted their account” if they have removed their account. If you still see the chat but all details are missing, the account has likely been deactivated which temporarily hides all profile info.
Their phone is offline
A user’s profile photo, status, and other details are delivered to you directly from their phone. So if their phone is switched off or offline for whatever reason, you may find your end unable to fetch their up-to-date profile information.
If their phone comes back online and reconnects to WhatsApp servers, their profile details should sync across and become visible to you again. Try checking again later.
How to troubleshoot and fix issues viewing someone’s profile and status
If you are unable to see details like a user’s profile picture and status updates, here are some steps to try and resolve the issue:
- Confirm the person’s privacy settings – check with them that they haven’t hidden their photo or status from you specifically.
- Check your account – make sure your account is not banned and you have a stable connection.
- Update WhatsApp – install the latest version of the app in case of bugs.
- Reinstall WhatsApp – this can fix conflicts and refresh your local data.
- Clear app cache – go to phone settings and wipe the WhatsApp cache.
- Restart your phone – turn it off completely and restart to refresh all connections.
- Ask them to refresh status – have them re-upload their status which forces a refresh.
Following these tips should help identify and fix any issues seeing someone’s profile and status on both ends. If none of the above work, get in touch with WhatsApp support for further help.
What to do if someone has blocked you
If you have determined the likely cause is that the user has blocked you on WhatsApp, there is unfortunately very little you can do.
Since you cannot directly tell if you are blocked, try messaging the user and see if your messages get delivered and show one checkmark. If not, that indicates you are probably blocked.
There is no way to get around someone blocking you on WhatsApp. Your messages will not go through to a user who has blocked you. You will simply have to accept that you can no longer interact with or view any details about this person through WhatsApp.
Preventing your profile and status being seen
While this guide focused on why you can’t see someone else’s profile and status, you may also want to limit who can view your own WhatsApp profile details.
As mentioned earlier, you can control precisely who gets to see your profile picture, about section, and status updates from within your WhatsApp privacy settings.
Go to Settings > Account > Privacy to manage your profile photo, about info, status, and read receipts visibility. Here you can choose from Everyone, My Contacts, or Nobody for each element.
Setting any of these options to Nobody will prevent anyone – even your contacts – from seeing them. This gives you granular control over your public profile information.
You can also block specific contacts which will remove their ability to view your profile details or message you entirely. Go to Settings > Account > Privacy > Blocked to manage your blocked contacts.
In summary
There are many potential reasons why you may unexpectedly not be able to see someone’s profile picture, status updates or other details on WhatsApp.
The most common causes are that the user has intentionally hidden these from you specifically, blocked you entirely, or deleted their account. Network and device issues may also be preventing their profile from loading.
Try the troubleshooting steps outlined above to identify and resolve the underlying issue. If the user has blocked you, unfortunately you cannot override this and will have to accept being unable to view their profile or contact them on WhatsApp.