Im having a problem with my iphone 4. My contacts are in my phone when i search for them and also show up in my recent calls and text messages. However, whenever i touch contacts to bring up the list none of them are there. Does anyone know how to fix this?
Hello everyone!
For all of you out there who have received phone calls, text messages, etc, and have tried adding a contact by means other than directly via the contacts app only to have your contact not show up ANYWHERE (except maybe in a spotlight search), this quick troubleshooting guide is for you.
Disclaimers: This can be performed on an Apple computer, I do not troubleshoot for PC's (however, anyone who knows their way around computers can easily modify the steps for a PC). This method can also be used if you sync your contacts via MobileMe like I do, and should work for the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4. I have the latest OS on my iPhone, but it should work with any recent OS. My iTunes has been updated to the most recent version.
Step 1: Open Address Book on your mac. Make sure your address book view is extended to show your groups in the left column. Under groups, everyone will have a group labeled "All Contacts". If that's the only group you have, it's time to create another one. Click the "+" at the bottom of your group column and name your new group whatever you want. For my purposes (as this was an iPhone issue), I named my new group "iPhone Contacts". Do not add any contacts from "All Contacts" to your new group, as this will be unnecessarily redundant. Close Address Book, you're done with it.
Step 2: Open iTunes and plug in your iPhone. Hopefully you have your settings to manually sync when you plug your iPhone into iTunes, otherwise wait until it's synced to continue. Click the "Info" tab in iTunes. The first option is Sync Address Book Contacts. Make sure this option is checked. Under the first subheading, make sure "All contacts" is checked. Below the groups box, there will be a line that says "Add contacts created outside of groups on this iPhone to:" and make sure this is checked as well. (Bonus info- Unless you created a contact directly via the contacts app on your iPhone, that contact ends up in another list. This is why you can't see it right now.) At this moment is where that new contact group you created in Address Book comes into play. Use the drop-down menu to the right of this option to select that group (remember mine was "iPhone Contacts"). Do not change anything else. Now click "Sync" in the bottom right corner of iTunes.
Step 3: Once your iPhone is synced, open the Contacts app on your iPhone. If it opens to a contact list, tap the "Groups" button in the upper left corner of the screen. You should see two or three sections. The top section will simply be "All Contacts". The second section will be titled "From My Mac" and will display both "All from My Mac" and the new group you created in Address Book. If you use MobileMe, you will have a third section titled "yourusername@me.com", under which your MobileMe contact group will fall. Make sure you tap the top group, "All Contacts". You will find those "missing" contacts now listed among all your other ones.
Bonus: If you find you have duplicate contact names but neither contact has a full information card, you can edit the contact, scroll to the bottom and tap the "Link contacts" button, then link your duplicates to insure you have all the info you want.
