Messages - Facebook ID numbers instead of Names

having the issue as well... for approx. 2 weeks now... so annyoing...

going offline & logging back in brings back the names and avatars, but only until a user changes his status, comes online or goes offline, then back to numbers... sometimes it switches back on its own...

I have reported the issue on Facebook. I do not have a link to the report. I did it a while back ago and can't even remember how I did it. Seems like it popped up a window something like a priavte message. I made the report there and have no way to confirm I did it or link to it.

I've had Messages open all morning and *I haven't seen any numbers*. I've had all my FB contacts' names displayed 100% of the time. Could the issue be fixed? Is anyone else still having the problem?

Steve = : ^ )

Oh, I spoke too soon. It's working fine on my Mac Pro - all names and avatars visible - but has numbers and no avatars for online contacts on my MacBook Pro. Last time I checked this, the Mac Pro had numbers just like the MacBook Pro, so something has changed there.

Also, on the Mac Pro, where I see names, there are 22 online contacts before I get to the offline contacts. On the MacBook Pro where I see numbers, there are 27 online contacts and then another 12 offline contacts with numbers (and no avatars) before I get down to the offline contacts that have names.

Now my brain really hurts. :-\

Steve = : ^ )

And finally, I managed to break it - it's back to numbers and no avatars - on the Mac Pro by quitting and restarting messages but, until that point, I'd been seeing names and avatars all day.

Steve = : ^ )

I've been having the same issue for the past two months. iChat will display contact names for a few minutes until someone connects, then all names are replaced with their profile ID numbers. I can't confirm that they're profile numbers, but I suspect that to be the case. Any advice would be appreciated.

There is no easy fix. We'll just have to wait it out and hope one or the other party comes with an update ASAP that addresses this issue. I have sent numerous error reports to FB, as have others, and I know a ticket was opened about a week ago with Apple, which was linked to this discussion. So patience is all thats left really.

So I suppose there is no way to fix this. Rather frustrating.

In my case, sometimes I see Facebook contacts in numerical form and sometime the nicknames are displayed for the same contact. I suppose it partially depends on whether they are accessing the account on their side from a PC or mobile device, from the web or from an app.

I don't use ichat or osx, but I've been seeing this too on various other instant messaging applications (pidgin, gajim, empathy/telepathy), so definitely seems to be something on facebook's end. Pretty ridiculous that facebook is doing nothing at all about this.

Strangley enough trillian pro on my gaming desktop (windows 7) seems to be the only chat application I've seen that isn't effected by this. I have it open all the time and the contact list never shows numbers like all these other apps are doing. No idea what it could possibly be doing different :/ I think trillian has an OSX version, so mabye people could try using that as a workaround for the issue.

I'm not any less "jumping to the conclusion" than you are... Where are you getting the idea that it is jabber at fault? Where is your 'foundation'? Other services that uses jabber are working fine, its only facebook having this problem. It certainly does not seem "more likely" that it is jabber causing the issue...

Sure there could be a chance that it is not facebook at fault, but based on the evidence so far, it seems highly unlikely. And it should also be noted that random issues like this with facebook's xmpp servers are pretty par for the course, this is not the first time facebook has had issues like this on their end. Facebook's xmpp chat has always been far less reliable than google's in my experience.

I'm not sure if this is a permanent fix, but on my iPhone I updated my facebook contacts (settings>facebook>update all contacts) and within a minute or two both chat clients (Adium and Messages/iChat) displayed my contact names instead of Jabber ID's. I'll leave it to you and others to reason as to why this worked.

Earlier on, someone mentioned

Forcibly adding the contact name to your local contact list seems to prevent reversion of that particular contact to Facebook contact ID number

So I would assume this is what's happening; your contacts are being updated with Facebook IDs.

As always, Ralph, you are adding very helpful support and actual technical information to this very puzzling problem. It seems everyone is confused by this, and your help is very much appreciated. It's such a pleasure to see such a knowledgeable person being informational, and polite, instead of disparaging others trying to help.

By the way, I have a FB account, and I do not have this problem, so it is not universal.

Here is an official bug report to Facebook. They've marked it as low priority.

https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/495137163913432

This thread from Pidgin also gives some information:

https://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/15706