Pictures inserted in CONTACTS disappear and/or don't migrate via the Cloud

Using my iMAC (Hi Sierra 10.13.3) when I enter a new contact (CONTACTS 11.0) and try to insert a picture (As I have been doing for several years), the photo disappears if I close or even lower (yellow button) Contacts.

The contact containing the picture takes a long time (hours) to migrate via iCloud to my iPad 2 ( iOS 10.3.3), iTouch (iOS 9.3.5) and iPhone X (iOS 11.2.6).

Question 1: WHY DON'T PHOTOS "STICK" TO CONTACTS AS THEY USED TO?

Question 2: HOW DOES ONE FORCE MIGRATION (TO ANY CONNECTED DEVICE) FROM THE iMAC?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Steve