Ok so, I did a full restore and jailbroke/unlocked with ZiPhone.

Before I did that I backed up my contacts, which (I thought) is in /private/var/root/Library/AddressBook. I copied both files: AddressBook.sqlitedb and AddressBookImages.sqlitedb.

Now since my contact pictures aren't in my camera roll I presumed that Images file is what contains them.

So after the store I copied both files back to my iPhone and restarted it. My contacts list appeared intact, but as soon as I tap on a contact with a picture, the phone crashed back to Springboard. Going back into the contacts list I could successfully go to a contact, but there are NO pictures associated with any. I presume after that first crash all contact pictures were erased, because when I SSH'd into the phone that Images file was back to its original size of 4kb (the one I uploaded to the phone is 1.44MB.)

I tried re-uploading the Images file, and once again Springboard crashed and restore the Image file to the default.

Is there ANY way to get my picture contacts back?
For future reference, how can I manually back up the pictures, since they aren't in my camera roll?

i'm having the same problem, except i used the backup from itunes to get it to work but i'm still having problems with my wifi so i wanted to restore my contacts without itunes after formatting the whole phone

(On the Mac) Just sync your phone & you should have them back. Providing it was synced before. Mac address book retains all the pictures.

(On the Mac) Just sync your phone & you should have them back. Providing it was synced before. Mac address book retains all the pictures.

Ok well I'm on a PC, and Windows Address Book doesn't save contact pictures, just all of the other info.

Anyone else have any ideas?