diff --git a/app/controllers/users_controller.rb b/app/controllers/users_controller.rb
index 2ad234b93..cfa927d79 100644
--- a/app/controllers/users_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/users_controller.rb
@@ -313,7 +313,7 @@ class UsersController < ApplicationController
 
     results = UserSearch.search term, topic_id
 
-    render json: { users: results.as_json(only: [ :username, :name ],
+    render json: { users: results.as_json(only: [ :username, :name, :use_uploaded_avatar, :upload_avatar_template, :uploaded_avatar_id],
                                           methods: :avatar_template) }
   end
 
diff --git a/app/models/user.rb b/app/models/user.rb
index da795d0ab..27d9b3404 100644
--- a/app/models/user.rb
+++ b/app/models/user.rb
@@ -301,15 +301,7 @@ class User < ActiveRecord::Base
     user = User.select([:email, :use_uploaded_avatar, :uploaded_avatar_template, :uploaded_avatar_id])
                .where(email: email.downcase)
                .first
-    if user.present?
-      if SiteSetting.allow_uploaded_avatars? && user.use_uploaded_avatar
-        # the avatars might take a while to generate
-        # so return the url of the original image in the meantime
-        user.uploaded_avatar_template.present? ? user.uploaded_avatar_template : user.uploaded_avatar.url
-      else
-        User.gravatar_template(email)
-      end
-    end
+    user.avatar_template if user.present?
   end
 
   def self.gravatar_template(email)
@@ -323,11 +315,17 @@ class User < ActiveRecord::Base
   #   - emails
   def small_avatar_url
     template = User.avatar_template(email)
-    template.gsub(/\{size\}/, "60")
+    template.gsub("{size}", "60")
   end
 
   def avatar_template
-    User.avatar_template(email)
+    if SiteSetting.allow_uploaded_avatars? && use_uploaded_avatar
+      # the avatars might take a while to generate
+      # so return the url of the original image in the meantime
+      uploaded_avatar_template.present? ? uploaded_avatar_template : uploaded_avatar.url
+    else
+      User.gravatar_template(email)
+    end
   end
 
   # Updates the denormalized view counts for all users
diff --git a/app/models/user_search.rb b/app/models/user_search.rb
index 6891d964a..e6f9078ad 100644
--- a/app/models/user_search.rb
+++ b/app/models/user_search.rb
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 class UserSearch
   def self.search term, topic_id = nil
     sql = User.sql_builder(
-"select id, username, name, email from users u
+"select id, username, name, email, use_uploaded_avatar, uploaded_avatar_template, uploaded_avatar_id from users u
 /*left_join*/
 /*where*/
 /*order_by*/")
diff --git a/lib/avatar_lookup.rb b/lib/avatar_lookup.rb
index ee10e029d..c48ee5cd2 100644
--- a/lib/avatar_lookup.rb
+++ b/lib/avatar_lookup.rb
@@ -12,7 +12,9 @@ class AvatarLookup
   private
 
   def users
-    @users ||= User.where(:id => @user_ids).select([:id, :email, :username]).inject({}) do |hash, user|
+    @users ||= User.where(:id => @user_ids)
+                   .select([:id, :email, :username, :use_uploaded_avatar, :uploaded_avatar_template, :uploaded_avatar_id])
+                   .inject({}) do |hash, user|
       hash.merge({user.id => user})
     end
   end
diff --git a/lib/file_store/local_store.rb b/lib/file_store/local_store.rb
index 2b8ea166c..a3bcd2682 100644
--- a/lib/file_store/local_store.rb
+++ b/lib/file_store/local_store.rb
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ class LocalStore
   end
 
   def get_path_for_avatar(file, upload, size)
-    relative_avatar_template(upload).gsub(/\{size\}/, size.to_s)
+    relative_avatar_template(upload).gsub("{size}", size.to_s)
   end
 
   def relative_avatar_template(upload)
diff --git a/lib/topic_query.rb b/lib/topic_query.rb
index ac85e9099..58d6abef0 100644
--- a/lib/topic_query.rb
+++ b/lib/topic_query.rb
@@ -130,7 +130,6 @@ class TopicQuery
   end
 
   def list_topics_by(user)
-    Rails.logger.info ">>> #{user.id}"
     create_list(:user_topics) do |topics|
       topics.where(user_id: user.id)
     end