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:<p>- Back up both local Address Book, and the Google Contacts<p>- Turn off syncing with Google Contacts<p>- Wipe Google Contacts completely<p>- Turn syncing back on, and verify that it worked proper by syncing several times.<p>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.