iMessage on Mac not showing contact names

[alisonthursby]

Ok that looks correct. So these rogue contacts are just on the Mac and not the phone?

You could try logging out of icloud on the Mac and then do a restart of the Mac and then re-sign into icloud to see if everything resyncs including contacts.

Or try some of the suggestions here if that doesn't work
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7683562?start=0&tstart=0

Ok that looks correct. So these rogue contacts are just on the Mac and not the phone?

You could try logging out of icloud on the Mac and then do a restart of the Mac and then re-sign into icloud to see if everything resyncs including contacts.

Or try some of the suggestions here if that doesn't work
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7683562?start=0&tstart=0

Hi again,

None of the above worked. I have even tried signing in with someone else's iMessage account (iCloud!) and the old contacts appear so I'm guessing they must be held somewhere in my MacBook? I'm still confused as I don't know where - they aren't in my address book or anywhere obvious to me...!

 

[Hicksmat1976]

Hi again,

None of the above worked. I have even tried signing in with someone else's iMessage account (iCloud!) and the old contacts appear so I'm guessing they must be held somewhere in my MacBook? I'm still confused as I don't know where - they aren't in my address book or anywhere obvious to me...!

Ok. you could try totally deleting your address books on your Mac and let the Mac rebuild them. One one of those links I sent is instructions for doing that, but in case you can't find it here is how to do that:

1. close the contacts app
2. go to ~/Library/Application Support/
3. rename the AddressBook folder to something like AddressBook(old) just to be safe
4. open the contacts app
5. it will create a new AdressBook folder that syncs to icloud properly
6. if it's all dandy delete the renamed AddressBook folder

Before you do this I would sign out of iCloud on your Mac, then follow the instructions for deleting your Mac address book, then reboot your Mac and then sign into iCloud and then open contacts and let it sync.

 

[Risco]

Just started happening to me. Tried signing out, recreated address book and nothing works?

 

[geoff.c]

Just started happening to me. Tried signing out, recreated address book and nothing works?

Yes - me too. So far none of the fixes have worked.
Pretty annoying really

G

 

[ansing321]

Hello

I have 2 Macs all running the latest MacOS and an iPhone running the latest iOS. All three devices are using the same master iCloud contacts list and there are no other contacts accounts activated.

One one Mac I have an issue whereby some of iMessages are showing as phone numbers rather than resolving to the contact name.

logging out and in again to iCloud and rebooting has not resolved the issue. Anyone else seen this?

Hello, Go to the contacts app on your mac. You should see two options on the left - "All iCloud" and "All on my Mac". go to all icloud contacts, select all contacts (command + A) and drag to "All on my mac" section. You should then have all contacts on both mac and icloud.

 

[Neo4]

same here after updating to high Sierra, in Sierra was ok... don't know how to fix it

 

[robvnet]

I'm having the same issue on my MBP running Sierra - I'm assuming everyone else here reporting the issue is also running Sierra?

I've tried all the obvious tricks without a fix. One way to resolve the issue is to change the numbers in Contacts to match how they appear in Messages. In my case this is replacing the 0 at the start of the number with the country code +61. But really, should I need to do this, as this hasn't been an issue till recently.

I've logged a support request with Apple, which has been escalated to an engineer. I'll post an update if I get any joy from this.

 

[Chrissy1608]

I've also had this issue for the past couple of weeks. It seems to be a location issue. The Mac doesn't seem to be replacing area codes with a 0 then matching the number against the contacts list. No idea how to fix it though..

 

[BrianBaughn]

I'm running Sierra and my Messages app is showing all of my contacts properly.

I suggest that each Sierra user having this issue should list a few specifics on their setup...account types with Contacts syncing "ON" for a start. It could be a combination of certain settings, account types etc.

 

[Neo4]

On Sierra I was also ok, on High Sierra not

 

[Risco]

same here after updating to high Sierra, in Sierra was ok... don't know how to fix it

I fixed it by rolling back to to a Time Machine before I installed High Sierra.

 

[robvnet]

Apple called back tonight and advised engineers are aware of this issue and working on a fix to include in a future update. No timeframe was given but I'm guessing it'll be within the next 4-6 weeks. If we're lucky maybe it'll be in 10.12.6 but perhaps 10.12.7 is more likely.

 

[LopezDeLaGomez]

I had the same issue on my MacBook pro and I finally went to System preferences then to iCloud and checked the box next to contacts and they instantly reappeared. Not sure why it was unchecked but it worked.

 

[richtea123]

You've not found a fix for this bug?

 

[Boyd01]

Apple called back tonight and advised engineers are aware of this issue and working on a fix to include in a future update.

Finally upgraded my MacBook Air to Sierra yesterday and now have the same problem. The Messages app just shows phone numbers and not contact names. Have checked all the obvious things, so I guess I'll just have to wait for the update.

 

[cheffner]

It seems my similiar issue was easier than most. New Macbook and no contact information showing up. Tried to logout/login each account on both my new mac and my iOS phone but no good. Finally figured out that in addition to logging into iCloud on my mac and iPhone for iMessages, I also had to login to the Mac version of Contacts with my iCloud account to download all my missing contact information that old Mac use to have before. Do not remembering have to do this before with my older Mac and Mac OS X versions.

Cheers.

Finally upgraded my MacBook Air to Sierra yesterday and now have the same problem. The Messages app just shows phone numbers and not contact names. Have checked all the obvious things, so I guess I'll just have to wait for the update.

 

[Boyd01]

Haven't used Messages for awhile, but just restarted my Mac and the problem is gone. The Messages app is correctly showing contact names now. Don't know why it wasn't working properly before but at least it's OK now.

 

[Piti81]

I had same problem as most of you: Mac OS Sierra and in my iMessage app I had numbers instead of Contact Names.
In my case the issue was an active Gmail / GTalk account in iMessages preferences.

I have just fixed it in the following way:

1. Open iMessages.
2. Go to Messages -> Preferences.
3. Go to Accouns tab.
4. If you have multiple accounts ( like me ) uncheck the checbox "Enable this account":

5. Optionally you can also un-check and re-check again the same checbox on the iMessage account.
6. Afterwards I have closed the iMessages app and re-open it.
7. Contact names are back

 

[Phil in ocala]

Its a poorly designed application at best...

Yes it is...clearly.
[doublepost=1500381187][/doublepost]

the point is you shouldn't have to change all your contacts. There is a region setting in MacOS which if working correctly recognises your "locale" e.g. UK and therefore formats your numbers appropriately when you send a message. All you have done is reformat all your numbers, which I do not want to do, so while this is a workaround it isn't a solution mate.

_________________________________
my imessage says I am "inactive" and there is no seeming way to change that...I put in a different email address and after i put it in...it disappears.....

 

[Discopants]

anyone found a solution yet for this

 

[Boyd01]

A reboot (apparently) fixed it for me. Has been working fine since then.

 

[jimmycarnall]

I've only just come across this issue recently and have been on the phone to Apple to figure it out for hours, which seemed to go no where. I have figured out why this happens. Im from the UK and the UK code is +44. When I looked up the contacts that wouldn't display the name, all of them began with 07, instead of +44. As soon as I changed all of the numbers to +44, the issue has been resolved. This also solved issues that said certain contacts were not registered to iMessage, etc. Hope this helps.

This worked for me adding the +44 and removing the 0 cheers

 

[tarsins]

I have this problem on my iMac but not my MacBook Pro. My wife has the problem on her MacBook. All are running 10.12.6 and all have the same settings. We have separate Apple IDs. It's obviously finding the contact information because the contact photos are correct. Weird.

 

[robvnet]

Apple called back tonight and advised engineers are aware of this issue and working on a fix to include in a future update. No timeframe was given but I'm guessing it'll be within the next 4-6 weeks. If we're lucky maybe it'll be in 10.12.6 but perhaps 10.12.7 is more likely.

Well 10.12.6 doesn't appear to have fixed the issue, hopefully it happens in 10.12.7

 

[Relievo]

I thought the format of the phone number might have a relevance. I'm in the UK so we use +44

If I alter one of my contacts to have +44 as a prefix and then try iMessaging that contact it works. weird.

this is just started happening today.

There is no 'fix' for this issue, to my knowledge. Apple are aware of it and trying to fix it.

I also had a remote screen-share with Apple, and they didn't have a clue.

^ Like the O.P. said: change the affected numbers from '0' to your country code ('44' in the UK) to make it work again.

Note: this will interfere with services like WhatsApp.