How to confirm 'maybe' contacts?

After upgrading to iOS11.1.1 my contacts had all started showing up as "Maybe" or just a phone number and their pictures disapeared as well. 😟

I tried various fixes like

Adding Removing Contacts (did not work)

• Going to Settings > Accounts > Outlook > Remove Contacts (confirm delete contacts from iPhone)
• Restart Phone, Settings > Accounts > Outlook > Turn On Contacts
• This did not fix the issue

Turning iMessage/SMS/MMS OFF/ON (worked for some)

• Settings > Messages > (turn off iMessage/sms/mms)
• Restart Phone
• Settings > Messages > (turn on iMessage/sms/mms)

What fixed the issue was:

• Open Maybe: Name Name message, click on ℹ on top right corner.
• Force Touch Contact Icon > Add to existing Contact > Select contact
• On the edit screen > delete the duplicate number added to the contact
• Click Update
• All contacts now went from displaying "maybe" to their normal behaviour.

The only issue I'm still having is that over 56 contacts that have pictures didn't cross through to the iPhone.

Other then "removing contacts" and "re-adding contacts" I have no idea how to FORCE SYNC contact information from the server.

I had the same problem but have found the solution, seems my device is grabbing the contact info from my said contacts email, but it’s getting it using the area code. But was saved under my contacts with just the 0 instead of my area code (+44), I changed the zero to +44 under contacts and got rid of the maybe straight away. Hope this helps

Found the button....it's hidden by the "Force Touch" feature. if you Force Touch the contact under details in the message thread the option to add to existing or create new contact show up.

I had an optional 0 in my contact’s cellphone number e.g. +1 (099) 999999.

After removing the zero, my ‘maybe’-issue was fixed. Hope it helps someone with a similar problem.

Hi. I deleted name only left number in contacts and then went to text message that had That showed “maybe contact “

Edited it there added name in there and worked. Just shows name only now. Hope this helps

I had this problem too

To fix it I deleted all text

Then I rebooted my iPhone

Then I went into the “Maybe contact”, edit, changed last digit of their phone number to something else, saved.

Then I went into that same contact again, modified last digit of phone number back to the original number and “ALL” was good in the world again

Maybe all I had to do was edit the number, and maybe it all would have been fix, but just in case, I told you everything I did

Hope this helps

This seems to be a missing feature, Apple.

My iPhone correctly proposes the name of the person calling, but there is no button in the call log view to confirm this and have it create a new contact card. The button "create new contact" has forgotten about the proposal and the fields are blank...

Would be so nice to see a button "Create new contact for (name)".

Seems like simply editing the number kicks it through to start working again.

The force touch is where you open that message thread & select the contact icon on left side of the page. I hope that helps all it allows you to do is create a contact I personally want to delete the info & just allow it to pop up with the number instead of making suggestions for me.

Many thanks - your solution worked perfectly! Doing this for just one contact fixed the “maybe” issue for ALL of my contacts!

Have you checked your contacts at iCloud.com? Which ones appear there?

Is the number in your contacts? iOS tells you who it thinks is calling based on emails, notes, messages, etc.

You probably don't have the number saved in your contacts, so it's trying to help you identify the possibly unknown caller

Try saving the number in your contacts

Force Touch is a new feature brought around in the 6S and later phones where if you “press hard” on the screen it registers a different kind of interaction then just tapping on the screen. Older devices should have a long press and hold to simulate this.

I've tried everything on this chain, but I've had to manually update each "maybe" contact. That worked for half of them. The other half aren't in my contacts, even though iMessage is suggesting who it is. I have to create a whole new contact, and type everything in. This is incredibly frustrating. Every person in my iMessage was in my contacts yesterday.

all good except that little i icon in upper right only now goes to create a new email.... it no longer displays i info about that contact..... ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yes I have hit that little i a zillion times, rebooted a zillion +1 .... nada