[godDLL]

I had this "wiping local data when syncing" issue on and off since back when sync was only available for iPhone users, but got frustrated with it three months ago, so what I did was:

- Back up both local Address Book, and the Google Contacts

- Turn off syncing with Google Contacts

- Wipe Google Contacts completely

- Turn syncing back on, and verify that it worked proper by syncing several times.

Has been working fine since then. And by "fine" I mean no nickname sync, no sorting options in Google Contacts, and all the other things OP describes are still there. But I no longer loose my data on sync.

[intlect]

I've tried the wipe method repeatedly, even went so far as to wipe, wait 24 hours, delete any stray contacts created automatically, then delete every one of those contacts and then sync 8 hours later (no emails in my sleep).

Still goes bad. Side note: it works better with OS 10.5, because there it doesn't try to sync everything and it really does work. It works as bad as I said only on 10.6 (all minor versions tested - I kept hoping the darn Nickname sync issue would go away at some point release).

I do admit that the Spanning Sync trial I used once may have done something to my Google Contacts at one point when I checked that it shouldn't sync Suggested Contacts, but I don't see why Google would let such a thing made via the API stick forever. (And Spanning Sync wasn't for me because of the whole "give us your password" thing.)