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Contacts missing after transfer to new iPhone. But names appear only when searching to compose new messages?

Hi, I have transferred my data to my new iPhone but I have a lot of contacts that didn’t transfer over.

I’ve tried:

  • Logging in and out of icloud on both devices
  • turning contacts in iCloud settings on and off on both devices, with a wait in between to allow to sync
  • Adding all groups/accounts that were present on my old phone (this re-added some, but not all contacts)


Interestingly, when I compose a new message and search for a name in the “to” field I can see the contact name and numbers. But the names and contacts are missing from my address book. Any ideas? I’m finding this very frustrating.



iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 15

Posted on May 5, 2022 1:02 AM

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Posted on May 5, 2022 2:06 AM

Thanks for trying to help.


yes, both phones are signed into the same iCloud account (I can see them both in the iCloud settings).


I can confirm both phones have sync of contacts on in the settings too. I’ve tried toggling these off and on to prompt the sync but no luck in getting the remaining contacts to my new phone.


I’ve enabled all the same groups/accounts on my new phone that I have on my old one - still no contacts appearing in the contacts app.


i find it odd that I can search for a contact name when composing a new iMessage, but then the name disappears when I navigate to the message itself.

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May 5, 2022 2:06 AM in response to Iafeef

Thanks for trying to help.


yes, both phones are signed into the same iCloud account (I can see them both in the iCloud settings).


I can confirm both phones have sync of contacts on in the settings too. I’ve tried toggling these off and on to prompt the sync but no luck in getting the remaining contacts to my new phone.


I’ve enabled all the same groups/accounts on my new phone that I have on my old one - still no contacts appearing in the contacts app.


i find it odd that I can search for a contact name when composing a new iMessage, but then the name disappears when I navigate to the message itself.

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May 6, 2022 11:33 PM in response to Iafeef

thanks. Given I’ve been using my new phone for several days I don’t want to go back to a a backup from my old phone.


In the end I just airdropped the missing contacts phone to phone, one by one. Was tedious but less hassle than dealing with iTunes.


It’s strange how it was so easy to transfer my old phone to new, settings and all, but the contacts proved impossible. I feel like apple needs a bulk export/airdrop function for contacts or at least contact groups.


Thanks for the help anyway

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May 5, 2022 1:23 AM in response to SuperMatt87

Hey there,


There are a lot of things to check about this problem let’s start:


If your contacts were synced from iCloud, then your new iPhone needs to have the same iCloud account as your old phone. If that is not the case, your contacts will not transfer to your new iPhone.


The first thing you will want to do is verify if you are using the same iCloud account as your old iPhone on your new iPhone. It’s pretty easy to do that and the following is how to do it.

On your iPhone, open the Settings app and tap on your name. It will open the iCloud settings screen. On the following screen, you will see your iCloud account. Make sure this ID and the one being used on your old iPhone is the same. If it is not, log-out and log-in using the ID that you had on your old iPhone and that should resolve the issue for you.


It could be that the contacts syncing option has been turned off on your new iPhone. If that’s the case, your iPhone won’t be able to get contacts from iCloud and thus you won’t have your old iPhone’s contacts on your new iPhone.


Ensure Contacts Option is Enabled in iCloud

iCloud allows you to select what content you wish to sync when the feature is enabled on your iPhone. If the contacts option is unchecked, your contacts will not sync to your new devices and so your old iPhone contacts will never get transferred over to your new iPhone.


It’s pretty easy to fix this issue. All you need to do is enable the contacts option in iCloud on your new iPhone and you will be good to go. To do that, open the Settings app and tap on your name. Tap on iCloud and turn the toggle for Contacts to the ON position.


Your new iPhone could be fetching contacts and their details from other sources such as Gmail and Yahoo if you have enabled those. To fix the issue, you may want to disable contacts from other service providers except for iCloud on your iPhone.

To do that, launch the Contacts app on your new iPhone > Tap on Groups at the top-left corner > Uncheck everything except for All iCloud option. It will make sure to only fetch contacts from your iCloud account and not any other service providers.


We will suffice to this point for the time being sure of the steps I sent you above. If you still need help, there will be other steps you can try, I will be waiting for your response.

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May 5, 2022 2:33 AM in response to SuperMatt87

Thank you for your reply!


If the above methods didn’t work for you, You can transfer your contacts by create a full iTunes backup of your old iPhone and restore it on your new one. This will bring all of your content including contacts over to your new iPhone, however, keep in mind it will bring with it all the unnecessary stuff that you don’t want. Follow the steps in this article to learn how to do that :


If you have a Windows PC see this article ☞How to back up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iTunes on your PC - Apple Support

If you have a Mac see this article ☞ How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch with your Mac - Apple Support

after you backup your old iPhone to your computer , Check out this article to learn how to restore the backup on your new iPhone ☞

Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support


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Contacts missing after transfer to new iPhone. But names appear only when searching to compose new messages?

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