Level 1

17 points

Contact and Userid Images Disappearing

So I have seen some have experienced this issue already with no solution. I am seeing contact images disappear with a random string being added at the end of phone numbers or in the country field that starts with X-IMAGEHASH or X-ABADR. It also changes any numbers marked as "Mobile" to "Phone". It messes up using Siri to make calls or just trying to call someone with an impacted record because often it adds the string to the end of their number. I should add this can occur even if there is no image associated with the contact but interestingly it seems to be the same contacts every time despite there being no real commonality between them. A restore of contacts back to a time before this began happening had no impact. The next day the same thing occurred. To make things even more complicated my Userid picture on the Mac which references Photos also disappears at the same time. It seems to have something to do with anything that references Photos on the iCloud for the most part but why I could not tell you. Nothing (no third party apps) has access to my contacts or photos. It happens on all devices - iPad, iPhone, Mac M1 Max, Watch.

Posted on Jul 12, 2022 3:06 PM

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Netnemesis Author

Level 1

17 points

Posted on Jul 24, 2022 3:32 PM

I updated all devices - Mac, IOS, Watch - everything to the versions just released. I haven't had the issue in the days since. I suspect it was a Mac issue but I wanted to make sure everything was in sync with the latest versions. It seems to have rectified the issue for me.

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119 replies

Netnemesis Author

Level 1

17 points

Sep 1, 2022 12:28 AM in response to scott.w.uhl

Apple have me jumping through relentless hoops constantly creating contacts to see if they will be corrupted overnight after dumping a plethora of diagnostic data. Its becoming somewhat annoying. The current thing they want is under Privacy on my phone to disconnect anything that has access to contacts for 24 hours and AGAIN create test contacts with pictures. To date every time we do this they end up corrupted. I did manage to prove on thing though. Each X-IMAGE HAS string relates to a particular pic in Photos. If you create 4 contacts - 3 with different pics and 1 with the same the 2 that end up the same with have the same string. I still see this as an iCloud sync issue but try convincing Apple. I have told them this is the last test I do for them and then I expect some resolutions.

Sep 1, 2022 4:37 PM in response to Netnemesis

as Teams doesn’t show up in Privacy>Contacts, have deep/complete deleted Teams from 2 macs and iPhone,

added some photos to a mix of contact types and report back as times evolves

not all icons/photos disappear, many companies and/or many icons (not photos) stayed fine (yet apple contact lost icon)
other ways Contacts is now misbehaving such as saving a contact from Mail yet without email, dissassociating name from existing record, emptied contacts

fingers crossed

Sep 3, 2022 4:29 PM in response to Netnemesis

i have gone back to my contacts on icloud.com and put a contact image there for one of the ones that was initially a problem. will see how it handles it over next few days. Right now those contacts live only on icloud.com, all my devices now only on google contacts for now.

Jul 30, 2022 1:25 PM in response to ChrisMacke

ive switched to google contacts for last 2 days and no issues -_-

Aug 4, 2022 6:52 AM in response to Netnemesis

yeah my only resolution here has been..to literally not use icloud contacts and just throw them all into google. what a shame.

Aug 4, 2022 1:19 PM in response to Netnemesis

Def photo driven / correlated. 100%

nothing breaks until photos are updated. And it only breaks those that have been updated / iCloud picture

TheFJ97

Level 1

10 points

Sep 7, 2022 12:18 AM in response to pat-pegasusbay

To remove the X-tags nonsense I created this shortcut: https://routinehub.co/shortcut/12872/, you can run and adapt it.

jexpo20

Level 1

6 points

Jul 17, 2022 6:35 AM in response to Netnemesis

I am having this same issue with my contacts. I also get the "X-IMAGEHASH......" showing up in the phone number field or the address. This doesnt appear to be a local problem, but yet an iColoud/Apple issue.

Kamiezak

Level 1

8 points

Aug 4, 2022 9:15 AM in response to scott.w.uhl

I haven't updated any since the problem first started happening; one thing I did notice was if I was messaging with a contact that had their picture shared in iMessage, it would ask me to update their info even though it was up to date already (the picture in the header matched what was in the update window) and then the issue was happening immediately after I saw this.

I wasn't sure if this was the trigger causing it or if it had lost the information, but the iMessage thread hadn't lost it yet; the timing was odd on it.

Netnemesis Author

Level 1

17 points

Aug 4, 2022 1:07 PM in response to Netnemesis

There is DEFINITELY a correlation between adding photos to even 1 contact and it occurring. You will find your iCloud pic or your Mac userid pic will also disappear which makes em thing it is a photo issue. But interestingly Outlook Onedrive updated yesterday and the problem started again for me. Thats the other correlation I cant shake - every time this happens there seems to be a Onedrive update.

Netnemesis Author

Level 1

17 points

Aug 6, 2022 11:49 PM in response to Netnemesis

So this didn't work. My wife pointed out she doesn't use groups in here contacts so I was about to do away with them when I find 1 record I could not delete in contacts. I had to log in via the internet to iCloud and delete contact there but when I did I crashed the browser with the error in iCloud "REPORTED ERROR TITLE TypeError: undefined is not an object (evaluating 't.buildNumber')" I am going to cull old contacts and remove groups and see if that resolves it but having a contact I couldn't delete seems to indicate a corruption of sorts.

Netnemesis Author

Level 1

17 points

Aug 7, 2022 12:07 AM in response to Netnemesis

Interesting find - I couldn't delete a lot of contacts in the contact app on the Mac. I removed all groups. The corruption seems to be bigger than just adding tags. Its like the contact file itself has issues. If this doesn't work I am going to export my cards and wipe it out to start again.

Aug 18, 2022 10:42 PM in response to scott.w.uhl

Was so hopeful the new MacOS & iOS updates would sort this, they told me it would be sorted in an OS upgrade but at least at my end, putting up a new photo in my apple ID and some 30 other photos in contacts, unfortunately all disappeared again in 12 hours, just like before, no improvement

seems company contacts keep their logos / graphics better than individuals' photos

will be in touch again with apple - this has lasted way too long

Aug 31, 2022 4:06 PM in response to ryantcollier

So I’ve been on Google contacts since I couldn’t resolve this. Anywho, about a week or so ago my Apple ID picture reset (because I guess it’s managed outside of Google contacts ). I left it empty figuring it’s just going to break again. Reapplied my picture about 3 days ago and so far it’s stuck. /shrug.

Netnemesis Author

Level 1

17 points

Sep 2, 2022 11:26 AM in response to scott.w.uhl

On all devices? I have re-enabled the Signal connection to contacts yesterday and still no issues. It has to be on all devices as one syncing will obviously stuff everything via the iCloud. I turned off access to contacts in IOS devices. Doesn't ask for access on the Mac.

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Contact and Userid Images Disappearing