Blank iMessage and contacts app - no message or call notifications

Question

Blank iMessage and contacts app - no message or call notifications

My iMessage app is blank all the time as well is my contacts. I do not receive any notifications of texts or calls to my phone. Some texts are sent to my apple watch but not all. If I click on a message in the messages app then it comes up blank and then the whole conversation disappears leaving me with a blank messages app again.

I have tried resetting all settings which has not worked. Turned off iMessage and back on multiple times as well as the iCloud messages. I tried to back up my phone to iCloud and to my computer so I could factory reset and restore from backup but I keep getting the message: "this iPhone could not be backed up because an error has occurred".

This only started happening after I updated my iPhone 8 from iOS 13 to iOS 14.

Here is a picture of what happens when I open my contacts app.

iPhone 8

Posted on Sep 20, 2021 2:04 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Sharon_419

Community Specialist

Sep 21, 2021 8:40 AM in response to apple-cider-donuts

Hey apple-cider-donuts,

Thank you for using the Apple Support Communities! We understand your Messages and Contacts app appear blank, and you're also not receiving your notifications for texts or calls. This is quite impacting and we want to get you the best help to get this resolved as soon as possible.

You've taken great steps so far to troubleshoot these unexpected behaviors! You mentioned trying to back up your device but received an error on the computer. Can you back up via iCloud? How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Can you also try updating to the latest iOS 15 instead, to see if that gets things working again? Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and What’s new in iOS 15

Let us know if you can successfully back up to iCloud, and if you can update to iOS 15, or if you prefer not to.

Best regards.

Reply

Answer 2

Sep 21, 2021 7:33 PM in response to Sharon_419

Hi Sharon_419,

Thank you for the reply. I also get errors when trying to backup to iCloud. I am open to updating to iOS 15 but I would like to backup important data like photos and contacts first as I’ve had trouble with corrupt updates before. Photos should be easily done however I don’t know how to get my contacts. They are not updated in iCloud. Is there any solution to try and get the contacts off with Apple software? Otherwise I may look into a third party software as a last option.

Reply

Answer 3

Sharon_419

Community Specialist

Sep 22, 2021 5:13 AM in response to apple-cider-donuts

apple-cider-donuts,

We agree. It will be important to get your iPhone backing up as to prevent any data loss. The issues you're experiencing may lead to more invasive steps in order to resolve, too, so it's good to make sure your data is backed up first.

Try these steps next:

If you can't back up your iOS or iPadOS device to a computer or restore it from a backup

If you can't back up to iCloud

As for your contacts, they either save to iCloud or a personal account that is set up on your device. They do not save on the device itself. To check which account your contacts are saving to, please navigate to Settings > Contacts > Default Account. You can also confirm which accounts have Contacts turned on under Settings > Contacts > Accounts. Then, you can check those accounts to confirm your contacts are showing up there.

Let us know if this helps. If the backing up issue remains, let us know the exact error received in iCloud as well. Also, do you have another computer you could try connecting to, to back up?

Regards.

Reply

Blank iMessage and contacts app - no message or call notifications

Similar questions