Why is sync with Google removing Address Book contacts' pictures?

I have exactly the same issue and I am not sure if it something I have done wrong. ANy help will be appreciated.

Thanks

i just started to have this problem today 4/20/12 - a friend of mine had been complaining about it all week, but sync to his iphone and ipad were fine, so we thought the problem was with his machine. a format of his machine did not fix this problem, then it happened to me today, so we're assuming that Google has changed something... i'd love an idea of what it could be, maybe a change to the format of the pictures?

I was able to resolve this by doing the following:

1) backing up my Apple Address book to an Address Book Archive (via Export function in AB)

2) backing up my Google Contacts (More...Export) just for good measure

3) Allowing the sync to occur which removes images

4) Selecting and deleting all my Apple Address Book entries

5) Restoring Apple Address Book from Address Book Archive backup from Step 1

6) Forcing a sync, which no longer warns there is a large change that will occur

PROCEED WITH CAUTION, and make sure always have multiple manual backups of your Apple Address Book contacts and your Google Contacts just in case.

Is there another solution besides backing up everything, sync'ing and then restoring from backup?

Thanks.

Yep, I've got the same notification bugging me too and I also don't want to do the back-up/delete/restore option except as last resort. I had a lot of trouble syncing my MacBook Pro with may Android phone and getting my phone, my Mac and Google all singing off the same hymn sheet. Having spent a lot of time on it and having had smooth sailing since, I'm very frustrated it all seems to be kicking off again.

Anyway, my question is this:

When I was having this issue previously, the error message was different. The alert message would ask you to select which of the two versions of the address card you wished to apply to all accounts (my previous problem was it would sync as per my instructions by each individual card and then a few days later forget it all...). So I was inwardly groaning when this message popped up again this week and, thinking it was the same thing, began selecting all the 'before' cards. I was about to sync when I stopped and looked at things more carefully and I;m glad I did.

THIS error message is slightly different as it seems to be providing the 'before' and 'after' just as information rather than a question for me to choose which version of the card is correct. In fact, as I write this, I'm remembering there was a third choice to 'merge' the two versions of the card if neither is 100% accurate.

This would be a useful option to have in this case. I wonder where it's gone...? Has anyone made the same choice I was about to, selected all the 'before' versions and then synced. If so, what happened?

Also, which program is actually creating the Sync Alert message? Is it Apple Address Book, Apple iSync or Google Contacts?

Same issue here. After sync over 130 contacts are without images. Looks like a Bug. A merge option would be great.

This just happened to me today. I typically export my Google contacts from work into my personal Gmail account contacts, and I know that import/export strips the photos which are not contained in the CSV file. It's almost like that's what is happening with the Mac Address Book. The data is all there, but the pictures are all gone. Very annoying and frustrating.

I'm having this issue (as well as the yahoo keychain password popup) all starting with the 10.7.3 update. I have tried changing hte keychain settings for both - no luck.

I may try the backup, restore method but I am concerned there is an underlying issue that would still be there.

I am wondering what happened to the other options: merge, don't revert, etc. Something is incompatible here and maybe the latest OS update might address it (havent installed it yet) anybody have some insight?

I Like So Many Have This Problem To. I Have Just Bought A iMac 8th Gen And When I Sync The Contacts " On This Mac " With Google Mail It Does Sync But Removes The Pictures For All The Contacts. However The Contact Pictures Are Still Viewable On Google Mail It Self.

Please Apple Or Google Sort It Out !

Having the same issue here, hopeful for a resolve soon. Anyone come up with anything other than the backup / export restore?

I created a folder in my system where I store the photos I have associated with people in my contact list. If I go into the Mac Address Book, and add the photo back in there, it will stay. Some photos weren't lost, but one by one, I keep correcting the ones that disappeared.

Problem for me too.

Its somewhat frustrating that although the Address Book has the ability to allow users to select their preference when importing duplicates (eg from a set of vCards), with iSync you can have the option to see the problems that will take place, but no ability to say "No, I'd like to choose the version the image".

Anyone know of a good alternative ? eg http://spanningsync.com/ ?

Same issue. On my MacBook pro this notification appeared about 2 weeks ago. I ignored it and then deleted contacts from Mac and resynced. The resync did not include the profile pics that are on google, I was able to see them on the website. So every few days sync would decide to update a few profiles and add some profile pics. So I currently have synced maybe three four times and have maybe half of the pics synced.

In the meantime, my iMac had no issues......until today. The dreaded Sync in my iMac of 100+ contacts removing the profile pic. Hard to explain when for last two weeks no issues. Hopefully this will be resolved soon.

Has anyone found any solution besides deleting and importing a backup. Doing that option makes me afraid of duplicate contacts once it syncs with google.

UPDATE: this has got stranger and stranger...my Mac was clearly warning me (several times a day) that I hadn't synced for a while and if I did I would lose all my photos. So I decided not to sync. Of course I quickly realised that failing to sync Contact data is not a very good thing and more fundamentally problematic than losing some window dressing in the form of the photos. Also I REALLY wanted to lose the persistent nagging desktop reminders and so, weighing up the pros and cons, I decided to sync (expecting to lose the photos for my Contacts but retain all the more important key raw data). Despite warnings from my Mac that the photos would go, they have not. I still have all my Contact photos on both my Mac, my Android phone and my Google Contacts. A month later the same pop-ups began again to nag me to sync (whilst helpfully pointing out I would lose all my Contact photos if I did). I ignored again and synced (wondering if this time I would lose the photos) but, again, everything's present and correct as far as I can tell.