Contacts corrupting in iOS 16

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Gareth_1994 Author

Level 1

5 points

Contacts corrupting in iOS 16

The best way to describe it is my contacts seem to have a mind of their own in iOS 16. Let me explain. I live in the United Kingdom and have never had an issue until recently. I haven’t edited any numbers but the contacts on my iPhone 14 Pro Max (which is running iOS 16.1) seem to disappear and I just see numbers instead of names. I’ve noticed that in the contacts app rather than a number appear as 07123 456789 it appears like this 07 123 456 789. This means when I go to call it, my iPhone recognises it as a completely different number in a different country. The issue only occurs on my iPhone, my iPad and on iCloud.com both appear normal and work as they should. I have done a full restore of my iPhone and the same thing happens. I think this is a major bug that needs addressing!

iPhone 14 Pro Max, iOS 16

Posted on Oct 31, 2022 3:33 PM

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Answer 1

Gareth_1994 Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 2, 2022 9:31 PM in response to bryanr14

Hi there,

I have done that and the same thing happens. I noticed that changing the language of my iPhone and back again to English United Kingdom seems to have for now fixed the issue. Weird, since updating to iOS 16 I have encountered problems, never before seen any issues with contacts before.

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Answer 2

bryanr14

Community Specialist

Nov 2, 2022 3:40 PM in response to Gareth_1994

Hi Gareth_1994,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. To help troubleshoot your contacts in iCloud, we recommend to turn off Contacts in Settings > Contacts > Accounts > iCloud > iCloud > Show All > toggle off Contacts. Then restart your iPhone and turn Contacts back on for iCloud. From here, let's test and see if the phone number appears correctly in the Contacts app. This is a step that may help.

Kind regards.

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Answer 3

karina184

Community Specialist

Nov 4, 2022 7:06 AM in response to Gareth_1994

Hey Gareth_1994,

At this point, we would recommend reaching out to Apple Support. They will have the necessary tools to investigate into this matter more with you: Get Support.

Take care.

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Answer 4

Gareth_1994 Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 2, 2022 9:34 PM in response to bryanr14

Funny I should mention in my last comment that the issue is fixed with changing the language, it appears that has only fixed it for a temporary amount of time as the problem is now back again. This is a fresh install of iOS 16.1 as before I had done an iCloud restore.

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Answer 5

Jeff_W.

Community Specialist

Nov 3, 2022 10:04 AM in response to Gareth_1994

Hey there Gareth_1994,

You mentioned changing the language on your iPhone temporarily resolved the issue. Did you change the language again, or do you normally change between multiple languages on your iPhone? Additionally, are you using iCloud or a different account to manage your contacts? If you use iCloud and visit icloud.com, do your contacts appear correctly there? If you use a different account to manage your contacts, do they appear correctly when visiting the account's web portal?

Have a good one!

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Answer 6

Gareth_1994 Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 3, 2022 11:10 PM in response to Jeff_W.

Hi there,

No I do not use multiple languages, I read online from another user that this would fix the issue as they experienced the same thing, for me it only fixed it temporarily. I only use iCloud for my contacts and only one account. Viewing the contacts on both iCloud.com and on my iPad, which uses the same iCloud account as my iPhone, they view properly.

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Answer 7

Gareth_1994 Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 3, 2022 11:09 PM in response to Gareth_1994

Hi there,

No I do not use multiple languages, I read online from another user that this would fix the issue as they experienced the same thing, for me it only fixed it temporarily. I only use iCloud for my contacts and only one account. Viewing the contacts on both iCloud.com and on my iPad, which uses the same iCloud account as my iPhone, they view properly.

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Contacts corrupting in iOS 16

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