Missing contact photos on Mac

Question

Missing contact photos on Mac

Hi all. To solve a problem with Notes, I recently logged out of iCloud on my Mac and then logged back in. Since then, I think, most (but not all) of my Contact photos are missing. When I log into iCloud.com on the web I see that the photos are missing there as well. But they are present on my iPhone and on my iPad.

I'm puzzled why this is the case, and disappointed that I am not seeing the familiar faces next to emails on my Mac. Isn't there some way to get the photos connected to contacts on my IOS devices to show up (via iCloud) on my Mac? Thanks!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Feb 7, 2016 10:43 AM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Feb 7, 2016 11:54 AM in response to Community User

Try Settings/iCloud and slide off syncing. Wait a few minutes and then resync.

Have you tried signing out of iCloud on the device and then sign back in?

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Answer 2

Feb 7, 2016 11:59 AM in response to Eric Root

Thanks but I'm not sure I understand. Do you want me to do this on my Mac or an IOS device? "Slide off" implied IOS but I didn't see any such choice.

In answer to "Have you tried signing out of iCloud on the device and then sign back in?," I believe this is what caused the problem to begin with. I did that in order to try and put a stop to duplicates in Notes. I also changed my iCloud password.

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Feb 8, 2016 12:04 PM in response to Community User

You are welcome. Since the items are on the IOS devices, it means they aren't syncing with iCloud, so try turning the sync off by moving the Notes button to the left, wait a couple of minutes, then move it back to the right.

Signing out of iCloud was for the devices also.

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Answer 4

Feb 8, 2016 6:44 PM in response to Eric Root

Eric, thanks. I assume you meant move the Contacts button to the left, correct, since this the problem now is the lack of contact photos. I did that on my iPhone. Then I turned it back on and agreed to "merge" when asked. Afterwards the contact photos were still there on my phone, but still don't appear in iCloud. Was answering yes to the "merge" choice a mistake?

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Answer 5

Feb 9, 2016 6:18 AM in response to Community User

Ok, I think I have the answer.

1) On my iPhone, I turned off Contacts sync (this is under System|iCloud). When asked if I wanted to keep my contacts on my iPhone I said "yes."

2) Then I logged into iCloud.com on my Mac and deleted all contacts.

3) Then I went back to my iPhone and slid Contacts into the "on" position. When asked, I said "yes" to merge contacts.

4) All contacts reappeared on iCloud.com, complete with contact photos.

5) Contacts on my Mac got their photos back.

Voila.

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