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Siri suddenly doesn't recognize most of my contacts

Over the last few weeks, I have been unable to get Siri to recognize even the most simple of names in my address book. It is quite infuriating. These are names like Cory or Jessica. It instead finds some similar word in the dictionary and says I have nothing in my address book that matches and would I like to search for businesses with that word.


I tried turning Siri off and then back on, thinking it might reset something on apple's end, but same result.


It seems to be fine for contacts I've taught Siri are related to me like "call my brother." But virtually every other contact name isn't working. Any ideas?

iPhone 5, iOS 7.0.4

Posted on Dec 4, 2013 11:06 AM

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22 replies

Mar 18, 2017 4:31 PM in response to Kyle Rove

Hey there. Not sure how to post to all here so will just reply and hope you can read it. Had same issue. Drove me crazy!!! Really recognizable names too that I call all the time. Turned Siri on and off. Restarted and none of that helped. But turning "Hey Siri" off and then starting and resetting "Hey Siri" up again made it all go away. How they would be related who knows but did three contacts that it struggled with and all worked perfectly. Much happier!

Dec 30, 2013 6:31 PM in response to Kyle Rove

Unfortunately I can't offer any help, but I have got the exact same issue. All names are being recognized as a series of words, not names. I had about 98% accuracy with Siri untl about 3 weeks ago.


I am experiencing this on both my iPhone 5 and 5s, as well as my wife's 5c.


Here's hoping Apple may take notice. The problem came out of nowhere which makes me think it's a server back end issue.


Come on Apple,help us out!

Feb 7, 2015 2:00 PM in response to JHirschman

Siri does this to me, too. E.g., I call Nena Smith several times a week. One day, it said "sorry, there is no Nena Smith in your contact list" which was ridiculout. After several requests (and blood pressure going through the roof of my car) I was able to turn off the phone and then turn it back on. After the reboot, Siri again recognized that Nena was in my contact book by the time I pulled up to her house.


Funnily enough, today I called Nena again. I say "Call Nena Smith" and Siri says "do you want to call Laura Smith?" and I say NO! and Siri says "whom do you wish to call?" and I say Nena Smith, and Siri says, "do you want to call Laura Smith . . . and we're off. It refuses to call Nena Smith and will only call Laura (a person I seldom call). I rebooted, but that didn't solve it.


Another one: Call Ann Roberts.

There is no Ann Roberts in your contact list. Would you like to call Robert Jones or Ann Roberts?

Even if I say Ann Robertssssssss it refuses to call her!


What is wrong with Siri? These are only two of many examples.


And more important, even with humans with a problem, the important question is


How do I fix this?


Thanks.

Feb 8, 2015 12:36 PM in response to phineasboggs

It's getting worse. Now, I ask for "Lynn Carr" ( had to change it to two entries: Lynn Home and Lynn Carr to stop Siri from being confused) and, instead of dialing Lynn Carr It asks me "do you want to call linker?" Apparently, it doesn't like my saying Lynn CAAHerr and wants me to learn Siri English. I'm not willing to do this.


Is there a way to teach Siri to speak English. I usually do a very good job as a pronunciation teacher for adult immigrant students, but Siri is getting defiant. Does anyone know where I can get help? Write to gmail.

Feb 9, 2015 9:20 PM in response to Kyle Rove

Having the same problem since upgrading my iPhone 5 to iOS 8.1.3 a few days ago. Same as phineasboggs. Commands like "Call John Smith" or "Tell John Smith" result in Siri responding with "Do you mean John Brown?" or similar. After responding "no," Siri offers a list that usually excludes the person named (although Siri has on occasion included the correct name on the list). Yet the contact is clearly in my contact list.


Siri seems to hear just fine. It just will not recognized named contacts. These features worked just fine a few days ago!


I've tried power cycling, resetting (home/power buttons), disabling and re-enabling Siri. This is thoroughly infuriating.

Feb 10, 2015 3:32 PM in response to txwest1

Just curious about these recent Siri issues ... are you all using Siri directly through the phone or with a car Bluetooth? I've determined she understands me fine when I'm speaking through the phone ... but if I am speaking via the Bluetooth connection on my car, I can say, "Play xyz," and Siri will say, "Calling So-and-so," or some such. When I first got the phone in October, Siri could understand me fine through Bluetooth. I was hoping the latest iOS update would put it back in order, but, alas, no.

Feb 15, 2015 1:54 PM in response to Diane Wordsmith

As I mentioned above, Siri seems to understand me perfectly fine. In fact, Siri will even say, "I don't see a John Smith in your contacts." However, there is clearly a John Smith in my contacts and Siri all of a sudden cannot find the contact. This has nothing to do with whether I am speaking into the phone directly or via a Bluetooth device such as a headset or the car. All of these input devices have the same results. The input devices clearly work just fine because Siri clearly recognizes my instructions (and displays my words on the screen perfectly).


Siri simply chooses to not find the contact in my contact list, whether I am placing a call or trying to send a text message. Siri cannot find the contact. Further, it does not seem to matter which contact list the contact is from. Siri finds similar names on the same or different lists and cannot find various names on various lists. It does not matter if the contact is a favorite, as I have tried removing the contacts from favorites to no avail. It does not matter whether the feature to show favorite or recent contacts in the app switcher is enabled or not.


I had changed no features or settings when the issue appeared. It has since been an issue for all but about an hour a couple days ago.

Siri suddenly doesn't recognize most of my contacts

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