diff --git a/app/models/site_setting.rb b/app/models/site_setting.rb
index 2b4be4cb151..33e36cea1c9 100644
--- a/app/models/site_setting.rb
+++ b/app/models/site_setting.rb
@@ -259,7 +259,7 @@ class SiteSetting < ActiveRecord::Base
   client_setting(:allow_uploaded_avatars, true)
   client_setting(:allow_animated_avatars, false)
 
-  setting(:detect_custom_avatars, false)
+  setting(:detect_custom_avatars, true)
   setting(:max_daily_gravatar_crawls, 500)
 
   setting(:sequential_replies_threshold, 2)