Update Gmail Profile Picture of GSuite Users with Google Script

January 03, 2017

An organisation is running on Google Apps and, as part of a branding exercise, they need to update the profile pictures of all Gmail users. The Google Apps admin can use the Admin Directory API with Google Apps Script to update Gmail photos of all users in the domain. The files can be placed in Google Drive and the script can automatically make it the user’s photo.

The Apps Admin Directory API accepts images in JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP and TIFF formats. The user is identified by their primary email address and the photo’s upload data should be encoded in web-safe Base64 format.

function updateGmailPhotoFromDrive() {
  try {
    var userEmail = 'amit@labnol.org';
    var fileName = userEmail + '.jpg';

    var blob = DriveApp.getFilesByName(fileName).next().getBlob();
    var data = Utilities.base64EncodeWebSafe(blob.getBytes());

    AdminDirectory.Users.Photos.update({ photoData: data }, userEmail);
  } catch (err) {
    Logger.log(err.toString());
  }
}

If an image is on the web (and not on Google Drive), the URL Fetch service can be used to make it the user’s photo.

function updateGmailPhotoFromWeb() {
  try {
    var userEmail = 'amit@labnol.org';
    var webURL = 'https://ctrlq.org/assets/ctrlq.org.png';

    var blob = UrlFetchApp.fetch(webURL).getBlob();
    var data = Utilities.base64EncodeWebSafe(blob.getBytes());

    AdminDirectory.Users.Photos.update({ photoData: data }, userEmail);
  } catch (err) {
    Logger.log(err.toString());
  }
}

Gmail Google Apps Script

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Amit Agarwal

Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Champion

Amit Agarwal is a Google Developer Expert in Google Workspace and Google Apps Script. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science (I.I.T.) and is the first professional blogger in India.

Amit has developed several popular Google add-ons including Mail Merge for Gmail and Document Studio. Read more on Lifehacker and YourStory