WhatsApp on iOS 26.6.1 cannot access new contacts, privacy setting missing

If WhatsApp does not have access to your Contacts, the easiest way to restore the permission is to uninstall WhatsApp and reinstall it.

Before uninstalling, make sure your WhatsApp chats are backed up to iCloud. Go to WhatsApp → Settings → Chats → Chat Backup and verify that a recent backup is available. This is important because uninstalling the app can remove locally stored WhatsApp data, and you will need the iCloud backup to restore your chats and media.

After reinstalling WhatsApp, during the setup process, it may prompt you to grant access to different features such as Contacts, Photos, Camera, Microphone, and Location. Grant these permissions according to your requirements.

For example, enable Contacts if you want WhatsApp to access your saved contacts and display them in the app. Allow Photos if you want to send or access photos from your library, and enable Location only if you use WhatsApp's location-sharing features.

If WhatsApp does not prompt for a particular permission after reinstalling, you can check and enable it manually under Settings → Privacy & Security or Settings → Apps → WhatsApp, depending on your iOS version.

The important point is: back up your WhatsApp chats to iCloud first, then uninstall and reinstall the app.

See the pic below

Pierre Albarede wrote:

I used Whatsapp help center to come to my comclusion. It is a new bug in iOS.

Assuming this is a bug in iOS, the app vendor is in the best position to either work around the issue, or to report the details of the iOS bug to Apple.

That written, Meta apps do have a reputation for frequent updates and for churn, and apps that have had issues and crashes and instability, and it is entirely possible that something Meta did within their app is unstable; that Meta has a bug.

TL;DR: contact the app vendor.

Pierre Albarede wrote:

I found out what was going on. Whatsapp has a main device (the first and only one allowed to receive security notifications) and optionally linked devices (that you link with a QR code). On the main device, if you want Whatsapp to see your contacts, in Settings > Apps > Whatsapp > Contacts you must obviously select Full Access or Limited Access. On a linked device, it is the contrary, you must select None ! I guess it is to avoid conflict with main device data (as contact data may not be the same on different devices). My bug was on a linked device and when I reinstalled Whatsapp it became a main device, the bug disappeared from this device but jumped to the other linked device, which drove me creazy. Operations are much complicated by security delays and delays or blocks in code transmissions by Whatsapp or SMS. The bug on web Whatsapp linked device dissappeared spontaneously as it disappeared on linked iPhone.

Or shorter: Meta (design) bug.

if it was me then I would try

WhatsApp Help Center

and or

Contact WhatsApp

It is a new bug in iOS.

Your conclusion is wrong. Apple is not responsible for the misbehavior of third party apps. It is up to Meta, the makers of WhatsApp, to make sure their programs run properly on the newest operating system, not the other way around.