My deleted contacts still show up when I want to send a text message

It worked for me to create a “fake” contact assigning the old phone number that kept coming up to that fake contact. I then deleted the fake contact and that number is no longer associated as “other” when I iMessage the original contact.

That workaround only works if you send a message to the "new" contact.

What about if you don't ever want to contact that person again - ever. You can't delete the contact that shows up as Other no matter what, save for a restore as new phone.

Hey when it comes to the spot light meaning you type in an old message you have deleted and it appears you can stop this from showing up and is very simple in fact.

1. Go to settings

2. Click general settings

3. Click spotlight search about half way down

4. Unclick messages at the bottom

Doing those four steps will stop the spotlight search from showing deleted texts.

Unfortunately I tried clicking on contacts and was praying that would solve the deleted contact from showing up but that did not work. I would still go ahead and give it a try seeing as it is very easy to do and switch back and can't hurt you. Hope this helps you a little with this very annoying problem we are all having.

Restore as new is not a solution. It is not even really a workaround. It being the only way to fix this problem means Apple actually has no solution at all. A full nuke-and-pave of any computing device isn't a fix, it means you don't know how to fix it and instead choose to start over.

I know that nobody in the forum can fix it. This is clearly a bug that went unnoticed in testing. No surprise, though, because until today I had not seen or heard of it and have been using an iPhone for 3.5 years or so. If we're lucky, they will fix it with iOS 7, or maybe Apple will continue to punt with the "restore as new" non-solution.

We know they are aware of it, since several people have indicated speaking with Apple regarding it.

Tekneek wrote:

This is clearly a bug that went unnoticed in testing.

This seems unlikely as it has been the behavior of iOS since at least iOS 4 and probably before and has been noted, frequently, in the forums and has also probably been the subject of much feedback. Apple is not so monumentally oblivious as to have missed this. The same behavior existed in Mail until iOS 6 when Apple added the ability to delete addresses that were suggested. This further suggests that they a) are aware and b) have some sense of how to change it. They have chosen not to up unti now.

Submit your feedback and maybe you'll get your wish for iOS 7.

Well Meg St._Clair you say you fail to see how sending feedback helps. Then why did you suggest sending feedback in your message above of May 26, 2013 4:55 PM. Don't make sense. You need to reread my message. Apple make changes to their product based on CUSTOMERS feedback. And, as far as "EVERYONE on this discussion board" submitting feedback, there was A LOT of people compaining about this same issue and many other users also suggested the SAME idea of contacting Apple Feedback. Therefore, speak for YOURSELF (if you don't care that's fine) the message is for those who care. As far as for losing the CAPS, No I'll keep it. I think you should LEARN to try using CAPS more, it will make your message more SUCCINCT!

eskridged wrote:

Well Meg St._Clair you say you fail to see how sending feedback helps. T

No, I said sending feedback is not a solution to the original problem as you stated in your previous post ("Here's the solution to your problem"). I think you should send feedback if this is important to you.

You might want to look up the definition of "succinct".

Sending a feedback is part of the solution to the problem if it gets Apple to fix it in an upgrade. EVERYONE and ANYONE who is concern can send Apple a feedback regarding this problem. However, if you don't personally care to send a feedback than speak for YOURSELF and not others.

WOW! What a coincidence, I was thinking that you too need to look up the definition of "succinct".

Goodday...

i have tried it and

does not work ! just BS

and waste of time.

if u try to type a SmS

start to key in the number

beginning with 1 area code

and the number /contact deleted

as u suggested shows up

"other" ! nice try but does not

work !!

Hi everyone,

I just want to say that restoring your phone as new is really not as bad as it seems. Your contacts and notes will still be saved when you restore your phone as new (since you are signing in with your Apple ID.

Anyway, from now on just don't save someone in your phone book if you're gonna end up deleting them...

The reason I wasn't restoring as new until now is because I thought all my contacts would be deleted.

Cheers!

I think I figured it out. Like all databases, usually items can't be deleted if there are trails of the thing you want to delete in the system somewhere.

Long story short, here's what I did and it fixed the problem.

1) Create a new contact called "DeletedContact", and put the number that keeps showing up as someone elses name. This renames the contact so you can identify it later.

2) Go through all your messages, and wherever you see "DeletedContact", delete (swipe the conversation to the right and click delete) the conversation saved in the Messages app. Note, this could take a long time because you'll have to go through every text conversation. You can always quick search how many you have to delete.

3) After you've deleted every conversation with the "DeletedContact" in it, go to the "Contacts" app, and delete the "DeletedContact".

This did it for me! Hope it works for everyone else!

Were you able to delete every instance of the "DeletedContact"? Every convo, and every group convo as well! Also, make sure there isnt email linked to the "DeletedContact", because you may have to erase that as well.

Anay

This doesn't work for me either. I have deleted every message/email/conversation with this person and they still show up. I even took it to an apple "genius" and they could not figure out the issue. Regardless of everyone's helpful suggestions, Apple really does need to do something about this. It is way too much of a process for a simple "delete."

That is a helpful suggestion, however for the types of people I think this community is concerned with deleting this will not work. Generally, I do not know ahead of time the people I will eventually not want to be able to contact in the future. Not entering in every new person's number I meet will lead over a number of months or years to a lot of unnamed contacts.

Also, as to restoring the phone, I was on the phone with apple for four hours while they 1) tried to figure out this problem (and during this time I was taken through just about every solution suggested on this page), and 2) was taken through the process of restoring a phone, which wound up deleting my photos and some other data. I am not the most technologically savy, and restoring my phone ever time I wish to delete a contact is not the most efficient solution to this problem.

Contacts are deleted everywhere else, why can't this just be fixed?