iMessage not showing Contacts

Hi,

The Messages app has issues with Multiple active account in Contacts App > Preferences > Accounts

It is immaterial if you have the Bonjour Account active (the Buddy List is populated only when other computers are on line) or the AIM or Jabber options (Google is a Jabber server that does not follow "the rules" in Server naming so has a different entry option).

There has been an issue in the past where this uncertain Contacts app (where it is constantly cycling all the Address Book and Contacts from wall the services that can run an address book and never getting to the end.

More recently there seems to be a change on how the Messages app decides on where it is and what Country code number should be using.

Previously it was manually entered in the app. At El Capitan it seemed the OS polls the networks it can see to determine where the Mac is (and Messages no longer has a Locations setting)

This seems to mean that items in your Contacts list that do not use a Country Code on the Number don't match to the names for some reason.

I understand that people that have this issue still see the correct picture for the Contact.

This pic is from an early version of Messages

The Sign Out process was different and the slide out pane was used when choosing the Country.

This would prefix numbers with the Country Code.

There now seems to be a difference to what El Capitan was doing to find out the Country and how Messages accessed it compared to at least how OS X 10.12.4 and upwards seem to do it.

I don't remember specifically adding the Country Code to all my GB Contacts but I may have done so when I went to France two years ago.

My list to change is really small as I was using AIM a lot more than I used iMessages at the start.

I don't know if there is a quick way to do it.

8:37 pm Saturday; June 10, 2017

Hi,

So the bit in the first reply:-

Open the Contacts App.

Go to the App Menu > Preferences > Accounts

If there are more than one account showing as Active then you will have issues.

Didn't come to your attention ?

Admitted I didn't say you could turn them On and Off in Internet Accounts for the Contacts app links.

The thread is also about the Mac and it's functions and not an iPhone.

Seeing that iCloud will tend to copy the settings from the App on the Mac to the App on the phone if Sharing/syncing is being done it will cover the issue though.

8:22 pm Wednesday; December 6, 2017

Wanted to add my solve for this problem: For you guys who use gmail, your phone is hooked on there. Change it to icloud.

So in your phone go to Settings->Contacts->Default Account-> iCloud <-- as in it will be gmail, change it to iCloud.

Hope that helps. I did not find this answer anywhere and so I wanted to share with the world

Hi,

Open the Contacts App.

Go to the App Menu > Preferences > Accounts

IF there are more than one account showing as Active then you will have issues.

It mostly seems to effect Messages and the iMessages account.

What seems to happen is the Contact App never seems to finish creating an overall list of Contacts when using two or more accounts.

It ties to Make all lists the same but seems to never to be convinced it has done so.

As a result Messages stalls in displaying anything but the iPhone numbers (where multiples IDs are available) of most contacts and some can be blank.

It can be further complicated if the iPhone version of the Contacts app is not set to the same option.

i.e. its about syncing and the detail is in how many accounts it is trying to accommodate.

In the Mac version restrict it to one Account.

Once it is using just one across both devices then manually add new Contacts when they occur on other services.

7:58 pm Friday; September 2, 2016

Once disabling the other accounts listed under messages > preferences > accounts how soon can I expect to see my contact names reappear?