Yesterday imessage on my iphone was showing the contact name when someone texted me. Now it is showing only the phone number. I have not knowingly changed any settings. What do I need to do to change it back to showing the names?
[Re-Titled by Host]iPhone 5, iOS 10.2.1
None of the above worked but I just got it fixed. (The numbers instead of names happened to me because I signed out and into icloud trying to fix something)
So I went to Settings > Contacts > Short Name and then turned the Short Name in this menu off, and looked at my messages and it was fixed, and then turned short name on again. (I also first played about with orders for the Sort Order and Display Order in Contacts before going to short name, not sure if this had an influence)
Try this next. Go to Settings>Messages>MMS Messaging. Turn it off and then turn it on again.
Hi dsewanee. Try making a trivial edit to one of your contacts. Then restart the device, power off, not just sleep.
Close Messages completely and restart your phone.
Tap the home button twice to bring up the app multitasking screen. Swipe to find the Messages app and then swipe up on the preview window to close the app.
Restart your phone and then see what happens.
My problem of missing names replaced by phone numbers got fixed when I changed the entries in my contacts to the standard formula: + countrycode (areacode) phonenumber. Problem has occurred when some new numbers were added for the overseas contacts. After the correction all US numbers look like this: +1 (555) 555-1212 and the overseas numbers look like this: +49 555 111 222 for mobiles and +49 55 555 11 22 for the stationary numbers.
That worked for me! I toggled the short name option in the settings>contacts>short name off and on and the names were back. Thanks so much. My issue began for the exact same reason yours did.
didn't work for me. anyone know other options? tried reset, and tried settings reset to default
Diana.McCall wrote:
Hi dsewanee. Try making a trivial edit to one of your contacts. Then restart the device, power off, not just sleep.
That is exactly what worked for me very recently when I had to backup and re enter my contacts from an Exchange email account that I was losing at work.
I used a third party app from the App Store to backup and restore the contacts and then made a minor edit to one contact and all of the names reappeared rather than the phone numbers.
Thanks for your help. I followed your directions and 3 of my messages have names with them but most don't. I just had my son test text me and his message shows up as a number instead of his name. Scrolling through my messages I have one from yesterday that showed the name yesterday and today it shows a number.
Had the same trouble with the other options. I resolved by changing my default contacts from Exchange to iCloud and then switching it back. Everything reloaded correctly after that.
Close Messages completely and restart your phone.
Tap the home button twice to bring up the app multitasking screen. Swipe to find the Messages app and then swipe up on the preview window to close the app.
Restart your phone and then see what happens.
Thanks for your help. I followed your directions and 3 of my messages have names with them but most don't. I just had my son test text me and his message shows up as a number instead of his name. Scrolling through my messages I have one from yesterday that showed the name yesterday and today it shows a number.
Try this next. Go to Settings>Messages>MMS Messaging. Turn it off and then turn it on again.
That worked!! Thank you so much! Have a great day.
didn't work for me. anyone know other options? tried reset, and tried settings reset to default
Hi dsewanee. Try making a trivial edit to one of your contacts. Then restart the device, power off, not just sleep.
Diana.McCall wrote:
Hi dsewanee. Try making a trivial edit to one of your contacts. Then restart the device, power off, not just sleep.
That is exactly what worked for me very recently when I had to backup and re enter my contacts from an Exchange email account that I was losing at work.
I used a third party app from the App Store to backup and restore the contacts and then made a minor edit to one contact and all of the names reappeared rather than the phone numbers.
Hi This fixed my 6S plus 10.3.3
Great tip
Stash
Didn't help
None of the above worked but I just got it fixed. (The numbers instead of names happened to me because I signed out and into icloud trying to fix something)
So I went to Settings > Contacts > Short Name and then turned the Short Name in this menu off, and looked at my messages and it was fixed, and then turned short name on again. (I also first played about with orders for the Sort Order and Display Order in Contacts before going to short name, not sure if this had an influence)
My problem of missing names replaced by phone numbers got fixed when I changed the entries in my contacts to the standard formula: + countrycode (areacode) phonenumber. Problem has occurred when some new numbers were added for the overseas contacts. After the correction all US numbers look like this: +1 (555) 555-1212 and the overseas numbers look like this: +49 555 111 222 for mobiles and +49 55 555 11 22 for the stationary numbers.
That worked for me! I toggled the short name option in the settings>contacts>short name off and on and the names were back. Thanks so much. My issue began for the exact same reason yours did.
This worked for my new iPhone8+. I had a very rough transfer from a 6 to an 8+, and this was the last bit that needed addressing. The minor edit to one contact fixed the all the messages. Thanks.
P
I had the same problem and this suggested solution (short name on and off) solved for me. Thanks so much. ios11.
Had the same trouble with the other options. I resolved by changing my default contacts from Exchange to iCloud and then switching it back. Everything reloaded correctly after that.
iPhone messages not showing contact names
