iMessage not displaying international dialling code instead of contact name

Hi,

This is a User to User forum.

Whilst the Hosts (moderators) are paid for by Apple they only monitor the threads for rule breaks and other items that people who have got to Level to can report posts for (mostly misplaced items and the like)

There are also Community Specialists that will pick up on any first post that is left more then 24 hours.

Basically it seems if faster areas that might be when the post has dropped off the "front" page as it were.

They only point to help Documents published by Apple.

Feedback is the only way you enter into any form of informing Apple.

Of course you are also in this Thread Re: Number is not registered with iMessage.

I have posted a link to an AppleScript there for you.

9:55 pm Monday; October 16, 2017

Has anyone managed to figure this out?

I have exactly the same issue after rebuilding one of my MacBooks (2016 MBPr). Interestingly my other MacBook (2012 MBPr) - which is also running the latest Sierra build (10.12.4) works fine still, as does my iPhone, iPad. My Apple Watch is displaying the same buggy behaviour though?

I have tried all of the usual, sign out of iCloud on all devices, hard resets etc. etc. even rebuilt my 2016 MBPr a second time to make sure.

Messed about with region settings, as yet nothing seems to fix.

It would appear to be something to do with interpreting the country code as if I update a contact card to include the +44 all works as expected. Not a viable solution as I have c.500 contacts!

I have replicated the build of my 2012 machine onto the 2016 machine and still the issue persists... very strange, and quite frustrating.

I've got this issue too, on my 2016 MacBook Pro with touch bar. I have an iMac and a couple of older MacBook Pros they are all running Sierra but it's only an issue on the new MBP. I have contacted Apple's help desk via phone with no luck. I have also done the live chat with Apple, they escalated the issue and I started speaking to one of the higher level tech person. He took screen shots, screen recordings etc. my issue was being sent to Apple technicians for further investigation. The Apple support guy was very helpful and would contact me every couple of days with updates, no solutions just wanted to tell me what was being done to assist in solving the issue, and then he stopped contacting me, no longer returns emails etc. so there has been no solution provided by Apple.

The issue with mine even prevents me sending iMessages to anybody unless I add the international code onto the number also. I am hoping High Sierra will offer a solution with Messages syncing over iCloud.

I have had the same problem also and I think question should be "iMessage not displaying international dialling code instead of contact name"

I set up a new Macbook pro a month ago, signed in to iCloud, contacts all synced correctly.

Open up messages and all messages show up with the country code and phone number except the contacts which actually have the country code stored in them. I also can't send to any contacts/numbers that don't have country code. The way only way I can see to fix this is to go through the entire address book and add country code to all phone numbers...

My old Macbook air which is up to date (i.e. Sierra) shows all contacts correctly in messages.

Yes, Macs that have been upgraded to 10.12.5 are fine, it's just new installs of it that are broken.

I did post a reply here saying it was fixed in 10.12.6 but it got deleted because I mentioned pre-release software. I guess this will get deleted too, despite it being helpful. Oh well.

I also have this issue. Brand new 2017 imac. And not just that, but my 2015 macbook pro I recently made a new user on for myself. My wifes profile is fine, but my new profile has the issue with country codes showing and if you dont add the country code in Messages it will error and say "this contact is not registered with icloud". Of course our phones are fine.

Both macs on 10.12.5. Apple, help?

Hi Ralph,

Thanks for your message.

I understand that iMessage preferences may have change, however this error has only occurred after I have done a factory-reinstallation of Sierra; iMessage contacts which began with 0 (not +44) were working. I just find it strange that users are reporting that this has occurred after an installation.

Removing the plist files was one of the first steps I took, but to no avail due to the reasons you have mentioned.

Sorry I should have said- I meant when I did a factory reinstallation of Sierra I moved from 10.12.6 -> 10.12.6, so I'm just a bit confused as to how installing exactly the same OS could have caused a change in how iMessage functions.

Thanks

So an update, we have 2 MacBook Pro models with touchbar, one late 2016 plus a new model. They are BOTH on the same 10.12.6 release, one is mine, the other is the wife’. We both have iPhone, 7 and a 7 plus, her MacBook (late 2016) does not have this issue whereas mine does! Go figure. Today as a stop gap I put +44 in front of all the mobile n7mbers in my contacts. My wife on the other hand has changed nothing. Personally I think it’s something wrong on the Apple servers?

Hi there,

Sorry I can't offer much help but I'm having this exact same issue in Sydney, Australia. I have tried all the same things you have, and well as re-installing the OS and also trying it on various computers. It appears to be a Sierra thing, and results vary from computer to computer.

@Ralph Johns seems to have offered some helpful advice but unfortunately nothing has resolved this issue. I would certainly be interested in reading anyone else's experience and finding a fix.

Thanks

I'm still in talk with engineer... I'm still waiting for them to get back to me. Last time I talked to them I pointed them to this thread so I hope it will help. We tried so many things and it didn't work.

Nothing new just a little update...

Something I forgot to add—it appears that those numbers without the country code appear as the full number (with the country code, and without the contact name) when replying to a message. So for example, if I send an iMessage to a contact from my iPhone (to their phone number, without the country code), that message (and their reply) appears on Messages on the Mac, but displays as their full number (with country code), not their contact name. But I can still use features such as Find my Friends to locate them, and their picture displays their initials! So very frustrating as it appears the data is "there" but not there.

Hi Ralph

Thanks for your constant suggestions on this thread. Is there anything we can do to ensure apple patches this frustrating hole?

It is perplexing that this only appears to happen in sole instances and not others.