I've created a new JIRA instance, copied over the avatars folder and re-indexed the instance several times. I have cleared my browser cache several times, restarted JIRA and also rebooted the server several times. I still don't see the avatars appear on the new instance. I've made sure all permissions are recursively the same as the original JIRA instance. No change.
I have asked this on Atlassian Answers as well, I thought I'd ask here to in case anyone happens to be able to help.