Contact names not showing

I restored it using iTunes & set it up as "new phone". I then synchronized the contacts with Outlook. I also checked for the same issue on different iPhones (4, 4s & 3GS) [factory & software unlocked; jail broken ones even) but same problem encountered in every phone. The only fix that solved the issue is to remove country code. Oh, one thing more which I forgot to mention in my first thread that changing "region format" did not solve the issue. I literally tried every single region (I mean it). I do not know if this is a local issue (related to Maldives) or a bug in the iOS. Whatever it is, IT'S ANNOYING AND DISAPPOINTING.

Your operator is an official Apple partner? I'm residing in Oman where all iPhones are grey imports since we do not have any official Apple partner operators here, and this is a problem with all iPhones here upgraded to iOS 5 and with contacts stored with country code. I have read posts from people in other Gulf states as well having the same problem. And there are two solutions: remove country code from all local contacts, or downgrade to IOS 4 (if you know how to do it - I did this and it solved the problem but I miss the new features of IOS 5 so this isn't an acceptable solution).

I have no inkling about it, but I doubt that any of the two GSM operators in Maldives is an official Apple partner. Is this feature "operator dependent" in iPhone? As far as the gray imports, my understanding is if someone is using "Factory Unlocked" phone, it should not make any difference as to how that phone was imported. These phones are meant to work with all the GSM carriers around the world with full functionality (excluding some operator dependent features). Unless Apple has programmed this basic feature as operator dependent (which would be rubbish), my limited technical knowledge say it is a bug in the iOS. I don't want to downgrade to version 4.3 because of the same reason as you stated.

P.S: I am also encountering another very annoying problem related to "Apple Store", but it's not related to the discussion topic.

if not jailbroke then i am sorry i have no easy fix

I was experiencing a similar problem and found that I was showing only my iCloud contacts. When I went back and selected All Contacts everything showed up. You do that through the Groups button at the top of the screen.

I have no stored contacts in iCloud and I am not making a back-up of anything in iCloud. All of the back-up is in computer(PC). I am not experiencing any problem with names in the contacts. It's only when someone calls me, my phone does not show his/her name, despite the fact that he/she is saved in my contacts. It would only show the name if I removed the International code from the number. (I always save numbers with International codes). So, now if someone calls me locally (within Maldives) it wouldn't show the name and if someone calls me from outside Maldives (International call) it would show "blocked call" as a name. In both scenarios the caller is saved in my contact. It's utterly annoying and disappointing.

hopefully this helps everyone who isn't on verizon. i have an 4 on tmobile and I had the same problem heres what I did.

1) find your country code in the u.s. it's +1 example +1(234)-5678

2) then just go into your contacts and manually add your country code to the front of the number and that should fix it.

it's time consuming but it works, good luck all.

For us with this problem living outside the US, the workaround (not 'solution'!!!) is the opposite:

1) Find all contacts stored with the local country code

2) Add the same phone number without country code as an 'other' contact number.

Extremely annoying if you, like me, have several hundred contacts. If Apple can't fix this in iOS 5.1 then at least they could make a script available to make this a little easier.

It is a bit unsettling that no news about this problem being fixed has come out from the iOS 5.1 testing. I wonder whether or not Apple are aware of it at all... If not, I'd rather downgrade back to 4.3.5 than going to another 5.x release slowing down the phone even further.

that does suck i have about 100 or so contacts give or take, but lucky for me all my contacts are in the u.s. . that does suck but you can't add the + and country code the contact info already stored? i would say to call them and get everyone to call them. this isn't an isolated event because my friend with a 4s had the exact same issue. so it has to be bug and it needs to be addressed especially for how much these phones cost, lol

Interesting, I have exactly the same problem and impious-rocker has accurately described what I am suffering.

I also have a factory-unlocked iPhone 4S, with the latest version of software. My phone works fine, except as described above. I have a group of colleagues all using Android, and some, like me, using both. We have the same contacts, several thousand, and this problem does not exist with the Android phones, only on the iPhone 4S running 5.0. On the Android phones, it makes no difference whether the international country code in inserted in the contact number or not, the caller ID will work.

We have discovered that if we remove the international country code format (e.g. +1, +44, etc) the caller ID will work.

However, we are all international travellers, and if we remove the international code, Caller ID based on our Contacts is rendered useless. We have discovered through experimenting, that calls coming from overseas activate the Caller ID and work fine because the international code is entered against the Contact, but local calls show only the number even though the contact is in the contact database on the iPhone.

Text messages, local and foreign, work fine.

This is very frustrating, and really unacceptable from APPLE. The iPhone, unlocked in my country (Ghana), is quite expensive, and is not an effective tool anymore if the contact names don't show up when a call comes through.

I agree with impious-rocker, this facility is available on the cheapest, the very cheapest cell phones available.

So, if I want to kow who is calling me, I can use a cheap, basic $5.00 phone.

If I want to use a $1,600+ phone, then I have to live with not knowing who is calling me ...

APPLE, are you noting this problem across the Forums from your users?

email me if your device is no longer in prison smewhteguy@hotmail.com i have a easy fix

Hmm. I have 5,500 contacts ... Can't change all manually and remove the international country code, and add them whenever I travel out of the country (which is 2-3 times a month...)

I am using an Android HTC Sensation with another local number (I need to have 2 cell phone numbers, for work purposes), synced to the same Contacts datatbase, and I do not have this problem.

Even when I travel outside, from European countries to Middle East, to China, I just place a local SIM card and my caller ID based on my Contacts works perfectly.

My second handset (a SAMSUNG GALAXY SII) fell and broke, and my wife bought me an iPhone 4S for Christmas as a replacement with the intention that this would become my primary handset, but this problem is driving me up the wall; I would gladly give away the iPhone 4S if it wasnt such a special (and expensive) gift.

Can you imagine 5,500 contacts, and about 5,000 are local numbers and no name shows up when I get a call from one of these local numbers. I am answering calls that I would not answer if I could see who is calling.

I have 2 colleagues who have the same issue, and unfortunately we all received our iPhone 4S's around the same time, and none of us had performed a Sync (perhaps due to the Christmas festivities...) till all had their iPhones for at least 10 days, and we discovered this problem.

We are patiently 😕 waiting for Apple to resolve this problem, so we can really enjoy our iPhones.

We live in hope ...

Sorry, does your fix work on Factory-unlocked iPhones?

Just like many other users here have pointed, i'm also skeptical about Apple registering this problem as a bug in the iOS. I don't think Apple is releasing any fix for it in the upcoming update. I also agree with one of the user who mentioned the decreased battery back-up on iOS-5. My battery back-up time has reduced drastically after updating to iOS-5. My usage is still the same.

P.S: I know what "philip f" is referring to. That fix does not work without jailbreaking your phone. It has no relation to the phone being Factory Unlocked or Software Unlocked.

I wish i knew the way of informing Apple about this issue apart from writing in hue and cry in different forums.

no don't think so sorry