Missing contacts with iPhone iOS 17 update

I am having this exact same problem. iPhone SE updated from iOS 16.x to iOS 17.1.1. Using a laptop and logging into iCloud, all contacts still exist. But phone no longer has them. All texts no longer show names but only phone #s. I have no idea who’s calling because contacts are gone. Was online w/ Apple help for hours last night. No resolution. I’m considering trying to wipe the phone clean, next. Has ANYONE figured out how to resolve this? It is infuriating! I travel, and I need my phone AND the contacts to be able to be displayed.

I did a reset and it didn’t work! Some names show and some show only the phone number! I don’t know who’s calling/ texting & it’s driving me batty! I hope Apple steps up and fixes this soon!

This is a colossal blunder on Apple's part -- a system update that obliterates one of the key features of the operating system, phone contacts.

I updated to iOS 17.2.1 and it deleted my contacts and my ability to dial phone numbers. How do I fix it?

I am going through the exact same thing with my phone! After I updated the software, I'm experiencing this!! I also can't scroll down in my texts threads either. I spoke with apple and they advised me try to reinstall the update by putting it in recovery mode then selecting "update" instead of "restore" and nothing changed. I'm at my wits end!

I fixed this by going into settings>icloud>(apps using iCloud) contacts > toggle to keep contacts on phone. Then turn the phone off and on again.

That brought my contacts back to everything. Then I just toggled iCloud back on for contacts and merged them again.

Just updated yesterday, wished I hadn't, same thing all contacts on cloud but not showing on phone and have no clue who is calling. Apple recommend resetting phone is the only way to get the contacts back !

So... what is happening on my phone is that the phone app no longer has the contacts button and no longer stores the contacts within the phone app. However I have a contacts app where all my contacts are stored. This is a catastrophic event to put it in apple terms.

update: did a full reset, then restored from backup. still had the problem. did a full reset again. this time did not restore from a backup. the phone then properly sync'ed and brought in all icloud and google contacts. Summary: for me, the fix was a factory reset and NO restore from backup - painful, painful solution. beyond ridiculous. not happy - but happier than yesterday. Iphone SE @ ios 16.x, problem occured upon update to 17.1.1 on 11/22/23. Good luck, folks.

I also had this issue happen to me a few days ago when I updated my iphone15. My wife “Who is Samsung user.” helped me figure out how to fix this issue. Unfortunately the only way to fix this issue is if you have an old phone or device that still has all of your contacts stored. If you do then go to you Contacts, select list on the top left corner and you should see All iCloud list of contacts. Press and hold that list and you should see a prompt come up that says export. Once you do then click on it and Air Drop the list into your new iPhone and they should pop up. Hope this helps.

A restore with NO from backup is not DONE for me ... to many apps and other stuff related to work (MFA) that should be reinitiated etc ... I don't have the time for that!

Apple should have a fix ready. I have logged multiple cases - apple support called me to walk through everything and also said factory reset, but can not guarantee this will work.

I'm having the same problem. I've tried soft resets, deleted and recreated my Exchange account. Email and calendar syncing fine but cannot see contacts at all - those from iCloud and Exchange both missing (before I started this, I could see the summary number of each list of Contacts but couldn't access any of them - now I get 0 contacts for each list).

Can you confirm I need to do a delete / reset and restore from an iCloud backup, but select an older backup to restore from? Problem is that this happened when I upgraded to ios 17 which was several days ago (maybe a week or longer). Backups are likely to have been made since ios 17.

Help anyone? Thanks

Agreed, massive blunder from Apple. The fact that it wasn’t addressed quickly is also very disappointing.

THIS IS WHAT WORKED FOR ME:

Disable ALL Siri search and suggestions access on Messages and on Contacts through settings. Doesn’t help recover anything but now I’m not losing any more contacts and I can add back in the people I lost that my phone wasn’t allowing before.

switching back to android asap, but this will at least let me rest easy that I’m not losing more in the meantime!

Truly hoping this helps someone else!!

Hey there Msmousiemouse,

If the contacts that are missing were only stored on the iPhone and not synced to any other service, like iCloud, then they are likely not recoverable. Is it possible they were also synced to iCloud at any point, or are they not appearing in the "All iCloud" list?

If they are not included in "All iCloud", check to see if there were any changes made to how they appear on your device. Go to Settings > Contacts > Accounts, then enable Contacts for the accounts you might have synced with previously.

The next thing you can check is how they're set to appear by looking at Settings > Contacts > Default Account.

If you still cannot locate the contacts, contact Apple Support: Get Support

Take care!