New Contact Photos Disappear

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Level 1

6 points

New Contact Photos Disappear

Since approximately late-April 2022, changing a contact photo causes them to later disappear. As an example, I set a new contact photo for a friend yesterday, around 3:30 PM Eastern. Pretty promptly, at 3:30 PM Eastern TODAY, that photo disappeared. In addition, anything "custom" to that person (like their ringtone) will also disappear/reset. Seems to be an iCloud issue. To help:

I'm not logged onto iCloud anywhere else.
The phone is an iPhone 12, running iOS 15.5.
Rebooting the device makes zero difference.
I've "rebuilt" the phone as if it were a "new iPhone". Makes no difference.
If I add a new contact photo, it DOES show up at icloud.com, under Contacts. So the change is making it to iCloud.

Seems like a process somewhere is running and "undoing" my changes. Apple Tier 1 support said "reboot". Apple Tier 2 support checked all of my phone settings, which are correct. The Geniuses at the Apple Store aren't going to be able to troubleshoot this one.

Help!

iPhone 12

Posted on Jun 15, 2022 12:48 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

janericster

Level 1

69 points

Jun 23, 2022 10:05 AM in response to picktown

I have the same issue. It seemed to start happening last week after I changed my icloud password. First one contact photo kept disappearing over and over after i replaced it with any new image. it would last for an hour up to a few hours and then disappear again. Finally it stuck for a day and I thought the issue resolved itself.

Then yesterday ALL my contact photos disappeared. So I took time to replace most of them (specifically ones that I chat with in Messages) and they stayed intact until this morning and now they are all gone again!

I’ve tried all the solutions on other forums except resetting my phone to factory default and restoring from a backup.

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Answer 2

picktown Author

Level 1

6 points

Jun 23, 2022 10:25 AM in response to janericster

If helpful, I also revoked iCloud access to any apps, just in the event that an app somewhere was making the changes. I did rebuild my iPhone, but I’m not sure I did what Apple would consider to be a full “nuke” of the phone. I may try that. Or, the iOS 16 beta will come out here in the next 2-3 weeks, and I might install it to see if they did a stealth fix. To me, this is 100% an iCloud bug.

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Answer 3

Jun 21, 2022 1:11 PM in response to picktown

Same issue here. Support wants me to wipe my phone which I refuse to do. I will add a photo to a contact, bo back 45 minutes later and it is gone.

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New Contact Photos Disappear

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