Messages app on macbook doesn't show contact names on left side bar, only contact tel

I have the same problem here.

One thing I noticed is that on Messages the telephone numbers appear with the country code + area code + phone number, and this is not how I have the numbers stored in my contacts (I use carrier code + area code + phone number).

I figured it out! Go to your system preferences and go to internet accounts. Once you get there you add your iCloud account and it will give you an option to merge all your stuff (including contacts) and once you do that your messages have contacts and everything else. 🙂

Still doesn't work for me (on Yosemite).

I already had my iCloud account added with the "Contacts" option checked and Messages still show only the phone number.

I even tried unchecking and then rechecking the "Contacts" option but it didn't solve it. 😢

This is happening for me as well. I also have my account synced via iCloud with contacts enabled. I noticed that when I get notifications it'll show the contact name, so the system can make the connection but for whatever reason it doesn't update it on the left-side bar of messages on yosemite.

Open the messages app, press Command + q to close the application, then relaunch it. I had the Messages application open before I synced everything; It just needed to be relaunched for the new information to come in.

I THINK I HAVE A SOLUTION!

so i tried each and every recommendation above and couldn't get it to work (though i do think that doing all of them is necessary)

i couldn't get any names to show on my messages app on my computer, but i realized i also didn't have any contacts in my contacts app (on my computer) i figured this was the main issue...so I went into the contacts area on my iphone (clicked the green phone icon on the lower left of the home screen, clicked contacts on the bottom of the next screen and then clicked "groups" in the upper left. from the "Groups" screen, i grabbed the screen and pulled down so that my groups would refresh. then on my computer, i closed and reopened my contacts app and every contact began to load. now my messages app on my computer has names on the left side.

this may have only worked for me because my computer is brand new and the contacts had yet to sync, but i hope it helps!

I had the same problem as everyone above and had also made sure iCloud Keychain was configured; however, nothing worked until I opened the CONTACTS app on my Mac and it immediately told me it was not able to connect to my exchange account -- once I entered the updated password, everything was fine again!

I had to make sure that Google and iCloud (which both have contacts info for me) were enabled under Systems Preferences > Internet Accounts with the Contacts option checked. Then I opened Contacts app and went to preferences. For some reason, under the Accounts tab the checkbox to enable each of those accounts was not checked. I checked them and the information started syncing immediately. And then they appeared in my Messages app as well.

Yay! - this (from andersch) fixed my problem, thanks. I had iCloud ticked, but not google.

once both were ticked all was good

Thanks

MrT

I finally figured it out!

There are lots of reasons as to why the contact info isn't showing up in your messages app, everyone's problem being unique to their computer and situation. Hopefully, my answer reaches out to the people stuck in the same hole that I was in.

To get started, hook up your iPhone to your laptop or desktop via USB port etc.

On your computer, open System Preferences, click Internet Accounts, and select iCloud on the left-hand side. This should open up some options and boxes to be checked on the right. Hover over Contacts and make sure it's selected.

On your iPhone, now, go to Settings, scroll down to iCloud, and if you haven't done so yet, register your iCloud account. After registering, scroll down your iCloud account info to the Contacts bar. Turn it on. Once on, this will merge all your contact info on your iPhone with the contact app on your laptop or desktop via iCloud.

Hope this helped!