Messages shows old removed phone numbers

Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library/Messages. Move the 3 chat.db files to your Desktop.

Restart the computer, open the application and test. If it works okay, delete the files from the desktop.

If the application is the same, return the files to where you got it from, overwriting the newer ones.

Hi,

Removing the 3 database items will remove your Chat history.

I have found no evidence that the Chat.db items are responsible for holding the the Recent Names/Numbers when you enter info in the "To" spot.

com.apple.ichat.plist holds a number of Recent Chats info.

This is the file opened with Xcode which is free to download.

Even so this is only the last few Chats (The amount is determined in System Preferences > General and the amount of Documents Saved not that Messages has a Recent Chats menu item any more).

As the "To" drop down will list every contact starting with which ever first letter you enter then it is obviously not the "Recent Chats" that make up this list.

The closest I have found in the helper items in:-

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.soagent/Data/Library/Preferences.

Even then I have not found a complete list of Contacts that I can see/have found listed in Messages.

9:14 pm Tuesday; February 27, 2018

Hi,

The "TO" spot and how it is populated whilst you look for a Name or other info seems to be something for the "Dark Arts".

If I stick in R on my Sierra computer I get this.

I have not spoken to Ryan since about iChat 3

However he is in my Contacts list with one email address. It is iMessages that is presuming that it is a Valid Apple ID that I could send to.

I have a Macbook Pro and a G4 as you can see and these have Contacts cards in my Contacts app.

Those cards have Jabber IDs that I used to use for testing between the 3 computers.

However the Current MacBook Pro I can using is not the one with that Card.

As you can also see in Sierra a Bonjour Connection is still listed.

The RFU is the Rugby Football Union which is the English association for the game of Rugby in this country.

They have an 0800 number and Messages think I could Text Chat (SMS) to this number.

They also have an email for their ticket sales which strangely shows and a possible for Text Messaging.

The RAC (Royal Automotive Club) is one of the largest Roadside Assistant companies over here.

Again this is an 0800 number.

If I do this in High Sierra then I get the same list minus the Bonjour option.

However if I enter +44 to look for phone Number I get this:-

I get people I have actually contacted (Son, daughter and her husband)

The others are a mixture.

Anything that is +44 7xxx xxxx is a mobile (Cell Number)

Anything that is +44 1xxx xxxx is a Land line somewhere.

The list is also longer than the pic as seen by the Scroll Bar

The No Name means they have no Card in Contacts.

Where the app pulls these from other than an historical database of some kind is unknown.

From the Path I listed before:-

I have left this picture quite big so the Path shows full details.

The one file I have listed show in Coverview.

It list a Jabber/Google account and then it's (my) Buddies.

Then it shows an AIM Account then lists the Buddies I have contacted.

The AIM Accounts lists everyone I have ever kept in my Buddy List before AIM was stopped irrespective if they were in my Contacts app.

Now that their is no Active Account for AIM those names are not brought forward to the "To" spot when looking now.

They don't even seem to get suggested and Apple ID despite many being @mac.com or @me.com ending names.

You can edit these soagent .plist with Xcode (free) which might help but you may still have items you can't get rid of in the "To" Drop Down.

10:08 pm Monday; March 5, 2018

Hi,

At the moment it does seem that what you say is true.

7:52 pm Friday; March 9, 2018

You are welcome. Hopefully, Ralph will return. He is the Messages 'expert' among posters.