diff --git a/app/assets/images/avatars/missing.png b/app/assets/images/avatars/missing.png
deleted file mode 100644
index 3cbc714bf..000000000
Binary files a/app/assets/images/avatars/missing.png and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/app/assets/images/background-pattern.png b/app/assets/images/background-pattern.png
deleted file mode 100644
index 9afda79fe..000000000
Binary files a/app/assets/images/background-pattern.png and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/app/models/account.rb b/app/models/account.rb
index 8e0283ca1..264345472 100644
--- a/app/models/account.rb
+++ b/app/models/account.rb
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ class Account < ApplicationRecord
   validates :username, presence: true, uniqueness: { scope: :domain, case_sensitive: true },  unless: 'local?'
 
   # Avatar upload
-  has_attached_file :avatar, styles: { large: '300x300#', medium: '96x96#', small: '48x48#' }, default_url: 'avatars/missing.png'
+  has_attached_file :avatar, styles: { large: '300x300#', medium: '96x96#', small: '48x48#' }
   validates_attachment_content_type :avatar, content_type: /\Aimage\/.*\Z/
 
   # Header upload
diff --git a/spec/helpers/atom_builder_helper_spec.rb b/spec/helpers/atom_builder_helper_spec.rb
index aa3589df0..7366b5b79 100644
--- a/spec/helpers/atom_builder_helper_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/helpers/atom_builder_helper_spec.rb
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ RSpec.describe AtomBuilderHelper, type: :helper do
     let(:account) { Fabricate(:account, username: 'alice') }
 
     it 'creates a link' do
-      expect(used_with_namespaces { |xml| helper.link_avatar(xml, account) }).to match '<link rel="avatar" type="" media:width="300" media:height="300" href="http://test.host/assets/avatars/missing.png"/>'
+      expect(used_with_namespaces { |xml| helper.link_avatar(xml, account) }).to match '<link rel="avatar" type="" media:width="300" media:height="300" href="http://test.host/avatars/large/missing.png"/>'
     end
   end