I don't see my contact names on my ipad, just their phone numbers

Despite what Apple will tell you this issue is due to having Google or other accounts on your Apple devices causing contacts to be saved to the wrong account.

The ONLY guaranteed way to ensure contact names sync across your Apple devices is to remove all the non-Apple accounts from iCloud. Remove Gmail, Outlook, etc.

Once complete, you will then have to go onto your iPhone or iPad and create a new contact (in iCloud) for each message showing only a number. It shouldn’t be this hard but that’s the only way to ensure contact name’s sync across Apple devices. Think of it as Apple’s way of forcing you onto their Cloud.

Adding gmail account works.

This worked for me (changing regions)

I have reset my new iPad 3x already and the same issue results, unable to slide the Contacts button on and therefore absolutely no contacts appear at all. Even tried manual setup to no avail as well as loading directly from iCloud. I checked all the settings across devices to ensure they are the same. Need help.

Although this is very likely to be true - this is not a practical solution. It would take an insane amount of time to re-save hundreds of contacts manually to your iCloud account. This 100% needs to be fixed. My iPad mini was totally fine until I updated to iPad OS 17.3.1. Now in the Messages app, my saved Google contacts will not show the contact name. Also, if I try to share anything from other apps (photos, documents, etc.) it does not show my contacts as recipient options like it did before the update.

Dear Apple - fix it.

There are no names on my messages on my iPad 10, only phone numbers. My contacts on the same iPad 10 have both names and phone numbers. I need names to identify my messages that already have phone numbers. How can that be done?

Oh here is how to fix it

step 1. Take your iphone, turn it to airplane mode

step 2. Yeet that mf as far as you can, preferably into a lake where it will never be recovered

step 3. Buy a Samsung Galaxy device

step 4. Have peace of mind you don’t own something that comes OUT of a dog.

Same issue. I have signed into my google account. Have the same apple ids but my contacts show up as phone #s. Have tried everything.

Thank you thank you thank you! It worked.

This didn't work and disappointed that I spent the time trying this option

This was the only suggestion of the many that worked for me. It was set to “global” and when I switched to US it worked. Thanks for the note

I have tried everything in this thread and on the internet in general. I still can't get my contacts to sync from my iPhone to my iPad. WTF! Apple is starting to feel a lot like Windows. Its sad!

I don’t see names on my text messages. Only phone numbers on my new ipad

My friend have not transferred in facebook from my old iPod to my new ipad