WSOD - Avatars does not correctly specify the config entity: Unable to determine class for field type '' found in the 'field.field.' [error] configuratio

[socialnicheguru]

RuntimeException: Unable to determine class for field type '' found in the 'field.field.' [error]
configuration in
drupal-8.6/html/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Field/FieldConfigStorageBase.php:28

Avatars does not correctly specify the config entity

this is what comes up when I print $record at the error line above

[] => Array
    (
        [third_party_settings] => Array
            (
                [avatars] => Array
                    (
                        [hash] => Array
                            (
                                [contents] => [user:mail]
                            )

                    )

            )

    )