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iMessage on Mac not showing contact names

Hicksmat1976 said:
Hello

I have 2 Macs all running the latest MacOS and an iPhone running the latest iOS. All three devices are using the same master iCloud contacts list and there are no other contacts accounts activated.

One one Mac I have an issue whereby some of iMessages are showing as phone numbers rather than resolving to the contact name.

logging out and in again to iCloud and rebooting has not resolved the issue. Anyone else seen this?
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Not sure if this has been solved yet but i think i may have found a solution. It worked on my macbook pro at least, hope it does the same for you.

Go to Settings > ICloud > Check CONTACTS box. This synced my contacts to imessage and contact names started appearing on imessage on my mac. Hope this helps.
 
Fisch88 said:
Not sure if this has been solved yet but i think i may have found a solution. It worked on my macbook pro at least, hope it does the same for you.

Go to Settings > ICloud > Check CONTACTS box. This synced my contacts to imessage and contact names started appearing on imessage on my mac. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

So this bug STILL occurs!

seems like suggested contacts is showing up. Odd back with Sierra when I had my Mac Mini the names would show up in the 'To' field when I typed the name (those within my icloud contacts) yet if I deleted the message history on my phone - it would note delete the message on the Mac. Moreover the number would be shown.
 
Fisch88 said:
Not sure if this has been solved yet but i think i may have found a solution. It worked on my macbook pro at least, hope it does the same for you.

Go to Settings > ICloud > Check CONTACTS box. This synced my contacts to imessage and contact names started appearing on imessage on my mac. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

AGoJy.gif
 
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Have you guys ever changed App Store region then returned to your usual one? I suspect this is an error changing the country of the Apple ID in the various locations. As if the apple protocol changes only some values.

Anyway I tried the 10.13.1 beta 5 version of High Sierra and the issue is still present.

There's a list of the things tried so far without any positive response:
- checked the country in settings>language
- checked the date and time server was set to Europe in my case in the time preferences
- checked the time zone
- logged out of iCloud in every apple device which I own and logged back in
- checked and corrected the time zone in iCloud.com
- checked and corrected the country in iCloud.com>contacts
- synced contacts again (contacts sync was already set)
- changed Apple ID country to US then to Italy (in my case) again
every meaningful suggestion I've read on this discussion

I've first noticed the issue when I've restored with internet my Mac, don't know if it was present before.

Is there any open report to apple that I can "vote"?
 
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Fisch88 said:
Not sure if this has been solved yet but i think i may have found a solution. It worked on my macbook pro at least, hope it does the same for you.

Go to Settings > ICloud > Check CONTACTS box. This synced my contacts to imessage and contact names started appearing on imessage on my mac. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

I used a variation of this on my old MacBook Pro. Here were my steps:
1. Open the Contacts app.
2. Go to Contacts (on the menu bar, top left of screen), then Accounts.
3. Select iCloud.
4. Check the box next to Contacts in the iCloud menu.
The names started magically populating after that.

FYI, if you happen to have this issue on your phone as well, what worked for me is going to Settings, Contacts, Short Name. Turn off short name, then turn it back on.
 
prefectcircle said:
I used a variation of this on my old MacBook Pro. Here were my steps:
1. Open the Contacts app.
2. Go to Contacts (on the menu bar, top left of screen), then Accounts.
3. Select iCloud.
4. Check the box next to Contacts in the iCloud menu.
The names started magically populating after that.

FYI, if you happen to have this issue on your phone as well, what worked for me is going to Settings, Contacts, Short Name. Turn off short name, then turn it back on.
Click to expand...

We have a different issue. Even if we have all our contacts synced the Mac assumes the numbers have a wrong region code in front of the numbers and doesn't recognize them when receiving a message, because the message comes from a number with the correct prefix. If we set the prefix in contacts manually the Mac recognizes the contact when receiving the message, but this has to be an automatic feature of the os not a manual workaround.

This discussion on apple forums explains the issue: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8126728?start=0&tstart=0
 
Still unfixed on final 10.13.1 released today.
What the hell they’re doing at Apple?
 
Last edited:
Same problem from Italy. It's so strange, but I find out that this problema didn't appear since I clean install High Sierra...
 
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is it totally necessary to have people reply to this thread and say they have the issue too? I think that needs to stop and in future we only want to see actual results/tests/solutions. thanks.
 
Hi !
I'm facing the same problem.
The weirdest is that all the contacts that are not using iMessage - meaning the ones with who the conversation is full of green messages - have their names that appear, whereas the iMessage users - meaning the contacts with who the conversation is full of blue messages - only have theirs numbers that appear and not their names.
 
Fisch88 said:
Not sure if this has been solved yet but i think i may have found a solution. It worked on my macbook pro at least, hope it does the same for you.

Go to Settings > ICloud > Check CONTACTS box. This synced my contacts to imessage and contact names started appearing on imessage on my mac. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

This is what worked for me in a way except it was that my Gmail contacts were not checked. Once I checked Gmail contacts to sync (which I am not sure how it unchecked) it still did not work. What I then did was start creating a new contact group under Gmail and deleted it by pressing escape before I was done. This forced the Gmail contacts to re-sync (refresh icon) and then when I opened iMessage the missing contacts were re-assigned to the numbers.
 
Knightcastle said:
Your first post literally asks “has anyone else seen this?”

People have responded saying “yes I too have seen this” and you’re shooting them down!

Discussion is the core of any forum
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I think we have established multiple people in multiple countries on multiple versions of OSX on multiple versions hardware have this issue. I think that has been done to death over several pages.

I don't see the point in more people saying they have the issue and offer no potential solutions - not only that, people cannot be bothered checking previous posts before posting.
 
Hicksmat1976 said:
is it totally necessary to have people reply to this thread and say they have the issue too? I think that needs to stop and in future we only want to see actual results/tests/solutions. thanks.
Click to expand...

Firstly it's a forum and sometimes an important part of fault finding is understanding how many people the issue effects, and none of your post here was a result/test/solution!

Anyway I have been having contact display and syncing issues ever since I did a batch of updates of contacts on my Mac 2 weeks ago...

After some playing about today I put it down to the following error I could see in log console:

fault 19:05:10.926650 +0000 AddressBookSourceSync CGImageSourceCreateWithData:2940: *** ERROR: CGImageSourceCreateWithData: data is nil


When I was updating contacts on my mac I also updated quite a few contact images, it would appear that contact sync could not find the image to sync up to iCloud so was whole sync was getting stuck. I think it maybe happened because I deleted one of the pictures I used for a contact right after assigning it, so the source image was not there when trying to sync it to iCloud.

Anyway I ran through all the contacts that I had updated the picture on the mac and selected the contact -> card -> clear custom image. Then the contact sync started working again to iCloud and opening iMessage on all devices started showing proper contact details again.

Now I understand that this might not be the fix in this case but one of my symptoms was the same so I would suggest opening the log console on the mac search for AddressBookSourceSync and see if there are any messages that point to the cause.
 
For Sierra:

Check the Contacts app on your Mac. If you have multiple internet accounts like for Gmail and iCloud make sure that you can see all of your contacts in the Contacts app. If not, then go to OS Preferences delete the internet account that's not showing up and then add it back in. Check your Contacts app again and wait a minute or two to see if your contacts sync up. If you're good, then check Messages on your Mac and see if that helped.
 
Hicksmat1976 said:
I tell you what, I am fed up with the morons posting on this forum. I'd love it if you could make users take a small test before they post "solutions" to determine if they have the advanced knowledge they need on here.

The stupid comments like "manually type the country code on all your contacts" is the kind of thing that makes me want to slap these people hard, with a blunt instrument, or, failing that, an old MacBook.
[doublepost=1507549593][/doublepost]

this is not correct. although its true iMessage used to be able to manually select the country of origin, iMessage did work on El Capitan and Sierra without the manual country selection option, I think it worked due to the regional settings on your Mac OR your the country your Apple ID was registered in, or something else.
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You know what i think are perfect examples of morrons? People who start a treath, asking other people for help, and if he doesnt get it start foul mouth the same people. American manners?
[doublepost=1512135344][/doublepost]
Hicksmat1976 said:
there are too many people posting who are posting rubbish frankly. Tech people like myself need a place to talk to other tech people, no disrespect.
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Youre mostley talking to yourself, so youre ok!
 
peppespizzapie said:
You know what i think are perfect examples of morrons? People who start a treath, asking other people for help, and if he doesnt get it start foul mouth the same people. American manners?
[doublepost=1512135344][/doublepost]


Youre mostley talking to yourself, so youre ok!
Click to expand...

I'm not American - are you talking about yourself?
 
DJTaurus said:
I went to Mac->imessage preferences->accounts and ticked/unticked multiply times the "enable this account" option and fixed the issue.
Click to expand...

Wanted to add my solve for this problem: For you guys who use gmail, your phone is hooked on there. Change it to icloud.

So in your phone go to Settings->Contacts->Default Account-> iCloud <-- as in it will be gmail, change it to iCloud.

Hope that helps. I did not find this answer anywhere and so I wanted to share with the world
 
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