I've had this problem for years - if someone is in my contacts then their emails display as 'no sender' in iOS mail. This is the same for IMAP and POP3 accounts and is related to a corrupted Contacts app on my computer.
iPhone X, iOS 11
Fixing Corrupted Contacts
For years I had an issue where contacts in my address book would display in iOS Mail as ‘No Sender’. This happened ONLY when their email address was in ‘Contacts’ A search of their name would find them but would still display as ‘No Sender’. Countless hours with Apple tech support failed to find a solution. At one point I was even told that Apple was aware of the issue but did not have a fix so there was nothing further they could do.
This may be a unique set of circumstances and it involved corrupted contacts on my Mac that were transferred to the phone.
THINGS I TRIED FIRST
1. Syncing contacts with iCloud - this reintroduced the problem
2. Creating a Contacts archive on the computer, deleting contacts, the replacing w archive - also reintroduced the problem.
Here is what I did that finally fixed the issue:
1. ON THE COMPUTER - Copy contacts to desktop
a. Select 1st contact, hold shift, select last contact
b. DRAG & DROP onto desktop. This creates Vcards instead of an archive
2. ON THE COMPUTER - Delete Contacts
a. Select 1st contact, hold shift, select last contact
b. Right click > delete cards
3. ON THE COMPUTER - Add vcards cards back
Drag .vcf file created in 1b into empty Contacts column
4. Delete contacts from phone:
a. Switch ON synch to iCloud contacts
b. Switch OFF synch to iCloud contacts - it asks if you want to delete from phone
c. Say YES
5. Copy contacts from Mac Contacts to iPhone:
a. Select 1st contact, hold shift, select last contact
b. Right click > Share > Airdrop to phone
c. “Add all XX contacts?” > Save
d. “Create new contacts?” YES > Save
6. Now BACKUP phone - do NOT synch
7. Next time you synch it will be with the clean contacts and the PROBLEM goes away. I don’t know why this works but I’m assuming that archiving somehow transferred the issue whereas Vcards, being a transferable format, only copied the contact data and left the corrupted code behind.
After this the list of emails on the phone returned to displaying the contact in bold with the subject and first few lines of the message below. In can’t tell you how much easier it makes it to triage emails and find relevant ones for reference.
Fixing Corrupted Contacts
For years I had an issue where contacts in my address book would display in iOS Mail as ‘No Sender’. This happened ONLY when their email address was in ‘Contacts’ A search of their name would find them but would still display as ‘No Sender’. Countless hours with Apple tech support failed to find a solution. At one point I was even told that Apple was aware of the issue but did not have a fix so there was nothing further they could do.
This may be a unique set of circumstances and it involved corrupted contacts on my Mac that were transferred to the phone.
THINGS I TRIED FIRST
1. Syncing contacts with iCloud - this reintroduced the problem
2. Creating a Contacts archive on the computer, deleting contacts, the replacing w archive - also reintroduced the problem.
Here is what I did that finally fixed the issue:
1. ON THE COMPUTER - Copy contacts to desktop
a. Select 1st contact, hold shift, select last contact
b. DRAG & DROP onto desktop. This creates Vcards instead of an archive
2. ON THE COMPUTER - Delete Contacts
a. Select 1st contact, hold shift, select last contact
b. Right click > delete cards
3. ON THE COMPUTER - Add vcards cards back
Drag .vcf file created in 1b into empty Contacts column
4. Delete contacts from phone:
a. Switch ON synch to iCloud contacts
b. Switch OFF synch to iCloud contacts - it asks if you want to delete from phone
c. Say YES
5. Copy contacts from Mac Contacts to iPhone:
a. Select 1st contact, hold shift, select last contact
b. Right click > Share > Airdrop to phone
c. “Add all XX contacts?” > Save
d. “Create new contacts?” YES > Save
6. Now BACKUP phone - do NOT synch
7. Next time you synch it will be with the clean contacts and the PROBLEM goes away. I don’t know why this works but I’m assuming that archiving somehow transferred the issue whereas Vcards, being a transferable format, only copied the contact data and left the corrupted code behind.
After this the list of emails on the phone returned to displaying the contact in bold with the subject and first few lines of the message below. In can’t tell you how much easier it makes it to triage emails and find relevant ones for reference.
Contacts displaying as no sender in iPhone mail
