Messages shows wrong name in notification

Hi,

Very carefully check the two Address Cards involved.

I have three active computers and in the past I have had different AIM names on each.

This has meant that I have three Address Cards that are essentially "me" but with computer identities in the info as well such as Ralph G4 or Ralph Johns iMac and so on.

Now some info is the same on all cards such as some emails that not linked to the Messages app and my Land Line number.

There may also be an issue with a group chat showing the "first" name rather than the postee.

9:45 pm Friday; July 7, 2017

Hi,

If the issue is not at your end then the issue is possibly a shared ID at the other end.

Family sharing of an Apple ID does not work with iMessages.

Each user needs a separate ID for themselves.

8:12 pm Wednesday; September 6, 2017

Hi,

Do the two people that are mixed up in the Notification and the actual Messages Share an ID ?

I.e not at your End but their End ?

Not removing an iPhone and passing it on to someone else can also cause this issue.

They may need to use https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage to remove their old iPhone Info from their details. (their My Card)

8:42 pm Wednesday; September 6, 2017

Hi,

In that case go to System Preferences > Notifications and turn Off all the options that are turned ON currently for Messages.

Quit Messages.

Shut down the Mac.

Restart the Mac and reset the Notifications you want for Messages before restarting Messages.

If that does not work go to ~/Library/Preferences and delete com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist

Restart the Mac and check the setting in Notifications before opening Messages again.

8:49 pm Wednesday; September 6, 2017

You're welcome.

8:18 pm Thursday; September 7, 2017

That's definitely not the case. I do not do any sharing. Only me on my account.

I get an iMessage, the notification says it's from "Person B" - then I go into iMessage and it shows the correct person. It's not a 'contacts' problem; it's a bug.

Also just starting having this problem Nov. 2017 -- OS X 10.13.1. All messages would be correct on my iphone, and in Messages.app, but the notifications on my MacBook would show a different random unrelated name (but, the icon photos were correct!) A day or so ago I was only seeing phone numbers, and no names. A restart then showed names, but the wrong ones.

The above fix also worked for me - I didn't even have to restart though. I just quit Messages, turned of all notifications prefs as per above, and quit Preferences... then reset the Messages prefs and launched Messages again. All working properly now.

(Maybe some sync problem with cached names/numbers?)

I have the same problem. It is definitely not a "contacts" problem.

Absolutely not. This started happening on the same day for 2 contacts.

The people that iMessages is confusing are people that live on other sides of the country and have nothing to do with each other.

That did the trick! Thanks!