How to Unblur Photos on eHarmony

Log in and choose a Premium subscription. That is the one step eHarmony gives. Every member starts on a free Basic membership, and Basic hides the photos of the women the site suggests. Premium shows the photos of every woman the site suggests, along with unlimited messaging, distance search and the list of everyone who visited your profile.

eHarmony's own pages describe no workaround, no trick and no setting that shows the photos on the free plan.

eHarmony says this is a decision, not a fault. Its stated reason is that it wants every member to be equally engaged and invested before anyone views pictures or writes to anyone else. It describes Basic as the way for new users to get to know the service and decide whether they are ready for a real relationship.

So there is nothing on your phone to fix. Reinstalling the app, switching browsers or clearing your cookies will not change what Basic shows. If you want the reasoning behind the rule and what it means for how you write about yourself, the article on why you cannot see photos on eHarmony without paying covers it.

Skip it. Pages that claim to remove the blur, and apps that offer to reveal hidden pictures, are not part of eHarmony, and eHarmony does not mention any of them. At best they do nothing. At worst they ask for your login details or your card number, and handing either to a stranger costs far more than a month of Premium.

The same goes for asking a friend to screenshot a woman's page. Her photos are shown to paying members under eHarmony's rules, and passing them around is not what she agreed to.

For most men, yes, if you are serious about the site. Attraction is part of why a first date goes well, and spending an evening writing to a woman whose face you have never seen is a poor use of an evening. Premium takes the guessing out of that.

If you are still unsure about eHarmony itself, stay on Basic a little longer and use the time on your own page. Then pay once you know you will use it. Prices and plan lengths change, so check the site before you choose.

A common mix-up: the blur applies to the photos of other members. Your own photos show normally on your own page.

To add a photo, open the dropdown by your picture, choose Edit Profile, then click the plus sign or the Edit Photos icon. Select a photo or drag a file in. Every photo is reviewed before it appears on the site, and eHarmony says approval usually takes under 24 hours. While a photo is pending, you can still view and message other members.

Choose photos that will pass. eHarmony says it may reject a photo that is blurred or one in which you are not visible. A clear, recent photo of your face is the safest first picture, and it is also the one a woman wants to see.

eHarmony's visibility settings let you hide your whole page from other members through Data & Settings and then Profile Visibility. Members you have already talked to keep their access. You can also hide that you visited other pages, which stops you seeing who visited yours, and hide your online status.

The pages checked describe no setting that hides or blurs only your photos. If you want fewer people to see you, the visibility setting is the tool, and it hides everything, not just the pictures.

The rule runs both ways. A woman on the free plan cannot see your photos either. Whatever she knows about you comes from your words until she pays or you do. Write the page so it reads well with no face beside it: specific things you do, what a good Saturday looks like for you, one opinion you would defend at dinner.

Then, when the photos appear, they have a head start. She already likes the man who wrote the words, and a clear, relaxed photo confirms it.