GVennarucci

Q: iMessage not showing contact names

I just recently downloaded and installed OS X Mavericks on my 2011 iMac and trying to get up and running with the new iMessage app. But there are two major bugs I can figure out how to fix if anyone can help me fix these problems or comment if your having the same issues that would be a big help.

 

1: When receiving a message from someone in my contacts list/address book, their names do not apper next to the message, but rather only their phone numbers. I have went thought the view options and selected show contacts name and also tried adding a name to the existing number with no results. Does anyone know how to fix this bug?

 

2: The lag time between SMS/iphone messages and the time it takes to show up in iMessage on my mac is rather long. There is about a 3 minute delay before the text message conversation shows up from my phone to computer. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

 

Thanks

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 5, 2013 4:25 PM

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Q: iMessage not showing contact names

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  • by Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Nov 7, 2013 2:32 PM in response to GVennarucci
    Level 9 (72,994 points)
    Applications
    Nov 7, 2013 2:32 PM in response to GVennarucci

    Hi,

     

    Re 2).

    This is a bit of a "known Issue" with no current fix.

    The issue is related to the fact a iOS device seems to get the "first " push of the iMessage and that the Mac only gets "Sync" push which seems to be slower (and for some bizarre reason not always in order)

     

    Re 1) I have seen this reported but maybe not as clearly as your post.

    No-one seemed to make it clear the Contacts were in the Address Book (Contacts app) and that it seemed to be ignoring the Names for just the Numbers.

     

    Obviously you can use the View Menu > Messages > Show Pictures and Name (or Show Names)

    As you say this should link the ID or iPhone Number being used in the iMessages to the "Real Name" in the Address Card for that person.

     

    The options are:-

    A) You are receiving an iMessage from an iPhone Number but the link to the Address Card is not working.

    If you make sure you are sending to an Apple ID what do you see ? (Apple ID or Real Name or in fact the iPhone number again)

    This may be because you have lost the ability to "read" the saved data for the Contacts app.

     

    B) Check the Contacts app and see if it is Syncing properly with any iOS device (i.e that all items have the Name as well as an iPhone number in the Address Card.)

     

     

     

     

     

    3Sigcopy2.png
    10:32 pm      Thursday; November 7, 2013

     

      iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
     G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
     MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
     Mac OS X (10.6.8),
     Couple of iPhones and an iPad

  • by twanbiz,Helpful

    twanbiz twanbiz Nov 15, 2013 8:20 PM in response to GVennarucci
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 15, 2013 8:20 PM in response to GVennarucci

    Did you go to the Contacts app on your computer and add your icloud to the accounts that are linked with it? (Go to Contacts and click on the Contacts button in the menu bar and go to add account)

  • by Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Nov 17, 2013 11:05 AM in response to twanbiz
    Level 9 (72,994 points)
    Applications
    Nov 17, 2013 11:05 AM in response to twanbiz

    Hi twanbiz,

     

    If you are also using iCloud to Sync this Contacts app contents with an iPhone AND also have the On My Mac account active you can get a duplicate display of Contacts in places like a Buddy list as well as the Contacts app itself.

     

    There are also other ways of syncing a Contacts list with Outlook, Yahoo or Google which can also be part of a duplicate issue.

     

    3Sigcopy2.png
    7:05 pm      Sunday; November 17, 2013

     

      iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
     G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
     MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
     Mac OS X (10.6.8),
     Couple of iPhones and an iPad

  • by JRobinson0204,Helpful

    JRobinson0204 JRobinson0204 Nov 18, 2013 11:20 AM in response to GVennarucci
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 18, 2013 11:20 AM in response to GVennarucci

    fix permissions

     

    finder- applications - utilities - disk utilty -> click on mac hd on left - and click repair permissions

  • by ewxlt66,

    ewxlt66 ewxlt66 Nov 20, 2013 4:55 PM in response to twanbiz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 20, 2013 4:55 PM in response to twanbiz

    This solved my issue. Thanks!

  • by paul-sweden,Helpful

    paul-sweden paul-sweden Nov 23, 2013 3:27 AM in response to GVennarucci
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 23, 2013 3:27 AM in response to GVennarucci

    I have found the stranges solution for this

    not sure this solves everyones probem but this was the error that made my iMessage to dosplay numbers instead of names:

     

    My iCloud contacts apparently had Swedish formating for numbers, but my OSX was set to US region

     

    as soon as I changed regions and all setting to the right country it was back up and running as usual.

     

    it was almost a random find, hope this solves many of yours problems with similair issue

     

    Dont forget to check "Advanced settings" too, to make sure that everything is correct.

     

     

     

    Screen Shot 2013-11-23 at 12.24.09.png
  • by khlim ,

    khlim khlim Dec 3, 2013 7:28 PM in response to GVennarucci
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 3, 2013 7:28 PM in response to GVennarucci

    You could also do this:

    Go to View -> Buddy Names -> Show Full Names

     

    Hope this helped!

  • by samoussa.usa,

    samoussa.usa samoussa.usa Dec 19, 2013 11:10 AM in response to paul-sweden
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 19, 2013 11:10 AM in response to paul-sweden

    Paul,


    This is great! Thanks for posting - it solved my problem also. In my case my region was France and my language French, but since I'm in the US right now I kept my language set to French but set my region to United States (English) and now my contact names (for US phone numbers) are showing up again in Messages app! Something must be going where the region needs to match the country of the phone number maybe?

  • by alchurchill.com,

    alchurchill.com alchurchill.com Dec 22, 2013 11:55 AM in response to paul-sweden
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Dec 22, 2013 11:55 AM in response to paul-sweden

    Paul - great work! This fixed my no name showing issue! Thank you!

  • by ctaskin,

    ctaskin ctaskin Jan 22, 2014 1:24 PM in response to paul-sweden
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jan 22, 2014 1:24 PM in response to paul-sweden

    Thanks paul, finally I can see the names instead of numbers.. it is a weird bug though

  • by ricoan,

    ricoan ricoan Jan 25, 2014 9:05 AM in response to twanbiz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 25, 2014 9:05 AM in response to twanbiz

    Thanks twanbiz, had similar problem and for any reason my Exchange account was not linked anymore. Solved.

  • by ejb5oh,

    ejb5oh ejb5oh Jan 25, 2014 6:24 PM in response to JRobinson0204
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jan 25, 2014 6:24 PM in response to JRobinson0204

    Fixing permissions did the trick for me.  Thanks for the great advice!

  • by Jiaxu Yang,

    Jiaxu Yang Jiaxu Yang Jan 26, 2014 7:34 PM in response to paul-sweden
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 26, 2014 7:34 PM in response to paul-sweden

    Thanks paul-sweden! Changing region solved my issuse!

  • by jerzyshore,

    jerzyshore jerzyshore Jan 30, 2014 7:57 AM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 30, 2014 7:57 AM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)

    Hi Ralph!

     

    Before MAVERICKS I had 2 "accounts" in my contacts.

    1 - "On my Mac"

    2 - "iCloud"

     

    NOW "On my Mac" has disappeared, and so for some reason some of the contacts are not syncing properly to iCloud and seem to have gone missing. Any idea how I could get the "On My Mac" "account to show up again?

     

    Jerry Getz

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