Messages shows phone numbers instead of contacts

Thanks for the reply. I've discovered this is a symptom of a problem with Contacts. I've entered all my contacts via the Contacts apps on my Mac or my iPhone and the apps have always formatted mobile numbers like this: 0123 456 789 (and formatted landline number like this: 01 2345 6789.) This is how all contacts on my Mac and on my iPhone are formatted.

I've discovered that this formatting has now been stripped from the Contacts app at iCloud, and all phone numbers appear without spaces, so all numbers now appear as 012345678. The iPad Pro is new and was setup from an iCloud backup last week, and I assume this is why its contacts have no phone no. formatting.

So the problem is that the iPad receives a message from 0123 456 789 and doesn't have that no. in its Contact file. It has, instead, the unformatted 0123456789, so it sees no match. (The one conversation that does display the contact is an iMessage via their Apple ID and not a phone number.)

After further research I've discovered that the format preferences had changed in the Contacts app at iCloud, and changing them back to 'Australia' and selecting 'Automatically format phone numbers' restores the correct formatting. Yay!

There is, however, one significant problem remaining: I need to get the now-properly formatted contacts from iCloud, into the iPad. I've deleted Contacts from the iPad and then re-synced them from iCloud, but all phone numbers are still unformatted.

I can't find any place to format phone numbers on the iPad. I must be missing something.

Thanks again,

Steve = : ^ )

Yes I have, and it's set to Australia. I changed it to something else (Austria – people mix them up anyway ;-) ) and then back to Australia, but phone numbers remain unformatted, and adding a new number to the iPad's contacts adds it with no formatting. However, when I add a new number to the iPhone's Contacts, it gets the appropriate formatting.

Perhaps I should start another thread with a title more descriptive of the problem ...

Thanks again,

Steve = : ^ )

For anyone who finds this thread after a search, I can now report that this is a problem caused by the Apple SIM that's embedded in the 9.7" iPad Pro (and as yet, no other device). The SIM defaults to either US or UK and formats phone numbers accordingly.

The solution is it fit a local SIM. This overrides the embedded SIM, and phone numbers are correctly formatted for the locale. This works even with Mobile Data set to 'Off'. I think this is bad design, and there should be an option to defeat the embedded SIM without having to buy and fit a local one.

Thanks for the replies,

Steve = : ^ )