Where are User Profile Photos Kept in SharePoint 2010?

In SharePoint Server 2010, User Profile Synchronization (UPS) service allows you to synchronize your user profiles between Active Directory and SharePoint. Users can add their photos to their profile in SharePoint when they are on their own Web site, called MySite. Here’s how you can see where the pictures are located.

1. To view these photos delete everything in the URL after the domain name and add /user photos/. For example, http://mysite.contoso.com/user photos/.

2. You will notice that there is a folder in the library called Profile Pictures. Click this folder and you will see three photos for each profile.

3. There is a large (144 x 144), medium (96 x 96) and small (32 x 32) thumbnail for each picture labeled as LThumb, MThumb, and SThumb.

On a separate but somewhat related topic, the images in user profiles are different than the images that can be stored in the Exchange 2010 Global Address List (GAL). Active Directory has a thumbnailPhoto attribute that works with Exchange 2010 GAL to display the photo in Outlook 2010. Even without Exchange 2010, you can add images to your own Contacts list in Outlook 2010 directly. When you receive e-mails from people in your contacts list, you will see there photos in the e-mail message.