Erroll

Q: Messages shows phone numbers instead of contacts

Messages on my iPad displays almost all conversations by phone number instead of by contact. If I tap the phone number at the top of a conversation I'm given the option to add it to an exisiting contact, and I can navigate to the appropriate contact and see that the phone number is already there. Oddly, I have one contact whose conversation shows by contact with the photo and everything.

 

All messages are properly displayed by contact on my iPhone and in Messages on my iMac.

 

On the iPad, I went to iCloud preferences and deselected 'Contacts' choosing to have them removed from the iPad and then synced them again. I've also reset the iPad (i.e. held Home & Power buttons until it shut down and then the Apple screen reappeared before releasing the buttons). The problem persists: Messages doesn't know about (most of) my Contacts.

 

What else can I try?

 

Thanks in advance,

Steve  = : ^ )

iPad Pro, iOS 10.0.2, 4G; 128 GB

Posted on Sep 27, 2016 9:16 PM

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Q: Messages shows phone numbers instead of contacts

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  • by sberman,

    sberman sberman Sep 27, 2016 9:35 PM in response to Erroll
    Level 8 (40,493 points)
    Sep 27, 2016 9:35 PM in response to Erroll

    Might you be looking at message threads that started some time ago with that phone number, or were part of a group message?

     

    What happens if you try messages with a clean slate by either sending a message to a brand new person (starting a new message thread) or by deleting all your previous message threads (including group messages) involving a person who currently shows up as a phone number?

  • by Erroll,

    Erroll Erroll Sep 27, 2016 10:22 PM in response to sberman
    Level 1 (29 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 27, 2016 10:22 PM in response to sberman

    Thanks for the reply. I've discovered this is a symptom of a problem with Contacts. I've entered all my contacts via the Contacts apps on my Mac or my iPhone and the apps have always formatted mobile numbers like this: 0123 456 789 (and formatted landline number like this: 01 2345 6789.) This is how all contacts on my Mac and on my iPhone are formatted.

     

    I've discovered that this formatting has now been stripped from the Contacts app at iCloud, and all phone numbers appear without spaces, so all numbers now appear as 012345678. The iPad Pro is new and was setup from an iCloud backup last week, and I assume this is why its contacts have no phone no. formatting.

     

    So the problem is that the iPad receives a message from 0123 456 789 and doesn't have that no. in its Contact file. It has, instead, the unformatted 0123456789, so it sees no match. (The one conversation that does display the contact is an iMessage via their Apple ID and not a phone number.)

     

    After further research I've discovered that the format preferences had changed in the Contacts app at iCloud, and changing them back to 'Australia' and selecting 'Automatically format phone numbers' restores the correct formatting. Yay!

     

    There is, however, one significant problem remaining: I need to get the now-properly formatted contacts from iCloud, into the iPad. I've deleted Contacts from the iPad and then re-synced them from iCloud, but all phone numbers are still unformatted.

     

    I can't find any place to format phone numbers on the iPad. I must be missing something.

     

    Thanks again,

    Steve  = : ^ )

  • by sberman,

    sberman sberman Sep 27, 2016 10:32 PM in response to Erroll
    Level 8 (40,493 points)
    Sep 27, 2016 10:32 PM in response to Erroll

    Good explanation!

     

    Have you checked Settings > General > Language & Region on your iPad?

  • by Erroll,

    Erroll Erroll Sep 27, 2016 10:45 PM in response to sberman
    Level 1 (29 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 27, 2016 10:45 PM in response to sberman

    Yes I have, and it's set to Australia. I changed it to something else (Austria – people mix them up anyway ;-) ) and then back to Australia, but phone numbers remain unformatted, and adding a new number to the iPad's contacts adds it with no formatting. However, when I add a new number to the iPhone's Contacts, it gets the appropriate formatting.

     

    Perhaps I should start another thread with a title more descriptive of the problem ...

     

    Thanks again,

    Steve  = : ^ )