as per the above, it appears that my contacts are hidden on my phone somewhere but they don't appear to be visible in the contacts app.
however, when I create a new text message and begin to type my contacts name, the contacts are there!
Im currently using an iPhone 6 but the problem was also there on my iPhone 5
thanks
chris
iPhone 6, iOS 9.1
Because you have using iCloud and when you save new contact it go through to your phone not your iCloud account. To show your contact again you need to save you contact in your iCloud account or sign out iCloud.
The contacts that appear when you start typing in Messages are recently used recipients stored in the Messages cache. They do not have to have ever been added to contacts. Or, they could have been deleted from Contacts at some point. If you want an entry in Contacts, you have to put it there, either by creating the contact entry on the iPhone or on your computer in whatever account (e.g. iCloud, Google, Yahoo) that you sync contacts to.
My contacts don't appear on contacts list, but when sending a text message they're available when I begin to type in the contact name.
