Messages Not Showing Contact Names

[tardman91]

I just setup my new M1 MacBook Air and my messages app isn't showing my contact's names in the notifications (in the top right) when I get a message. It just shows the phone number. When I open the app to read/reply it shows the contact's names. Does anyone know how I can fix it so that I also see the names in the notifications instead of just the phone numbers? I'm all up to date on everything.

 

[chabig]

It might take a while for your Contacts to finish syncing with iCloud. I bet this problem will resolve itself.

 

[mikzn]

I am not sure but indexing might also affect this ? - if so - another good reason to wait and try a day later ?

 

[tardman91]

It’s been doing this since yesterday. All of my contacts are synced. I see their names when I open up messages, just not in the pop up notifications that I get. I don’t know if I missed a setting or something?

 

[rillrill]

Bump. Anyone still have this problem? When texts come in, it's the phone number instead of the name....annoying as hell.

 

[tardman91]

It’s still happening for me. I’ve just been too lazy to call Apple support to see if there’s a fix.

 

[Sing1gniS]

It’s happening to me too. Gotta say it’s a bug at this point.

 

[Peadogie]

I installed 10.0.1 on 11/16 and it displayed names as expected until yesterday when it started showing numbers.
Strangely, sometimes the notification also has the phone number and "Maybe: Senders Name". It is often a wrong guess.
As @tardman91 noted it shows names and pictures correctly in the messages.

 

[countryside]

I have had this issue since Catalina. I HATE IT! Really 'bugs' me.

 

[marzfreerider]

It's been showing phone numbers since the beta stages, not looking good for a fix anytime soon. I reported it a few times as well.

 

[Howard Ellacott]

Are you switching users? I find names work fine until I log in as another user. As soon as I switch back it only shows numbers. Happens 100% of the time. Feedback assistant shows that other people have also logged this as an issue!

 

[MacGizmo]

Are you switching users? I find names work fine until I log in as another user. As soon as I switch back it only shows numbers. Happens 100% of the time. Feedback assistant shows that other people have also logged this as an issue!

Having the same issue – but I only have one user account on the Mac, so that's probably not the/my problem. Count me as one of those people who've sent it in via Feedback Assistant.

 

[mikzn]

Wow - seems like quite a few PPL with this issue - strangely (and luckily ?) it works properly for me version 11.1 Beta (20C5061b) and has worked fine all the way thru Catalina and all of the Big Sur betas - FWIW

Knocking on wood here - I use messages (for staying in touch with clients) a lot and this would be very inconvenient to say the least if it suddenly happened on my Big Sur / MBP

 

[michaelafcadio]

Is anyone aware of a good comprehensive guide/resource on steps to go through to get this working again?

I've had this problem for years and it continues. I've never been able to pin it down to doing anything specific. Typically going through all the magic incarnations of signing in and out of iCloud, enabling and disabling iMessage, device restarts, updates, and resets eventually gets this working again. Until it stops working again in a few months. I've seen this on both iPhones and Macs over the years. Sometimes my MacBook shows names and my iMac does not. Sometimes both show names, sometimes neither. Like much of Apple's ecosystem, it's easy and works great... until it doesn't.

 

[stevenaaus]

Maybe related to iCloud repsonse times.... ?
Gotta say, how could they scr*w up something simple like this.
Answer - contacting busy/borked remote servers when they shouldn't be.
which is dfinitely the cause of their sloth-like app launches. Their whole OS design has gone to the dogs. Your computer should be as self reliant as possible.

 

[tardman91]

It always worked fine for me on my 2018 MacBook Air, which I always kept up to date, even with Big Sur. I didn’t have this issue until I bought a new M1 MacBook Air.

 

[Peadogie]

Well, I rebooted and now the notifications are showing names again, but now auto capitalization and "Touch Bar typing suggestions" are gone. Geez.
Feedback reported to Apple.

 

[vetdocjim]

I have the same issue with names and numbers in messages. If you restart it will resolve. If you switch users or logout and login without restart the bug will return. 100% of time. Only affects the Macbook pro messages, not iOS14 on phone or ipad. Senior engineers have been updated and they have code dumps since I have been working with them. Rather annoying. All the usual tricks on the local devices fail to resolve (except restart, or zapping PRAM also works). If you keep the machine sleeping and allow it to go into password mode, when you wake it up and enter pass the problem does not appear. I think we all suspect it is an issue on Apple's servers/icloud end. This problem appeared for me with Bigsur11.1 and iOS14.x. updates are up to date and there has been no resolution. I have not heard from Apply in a few weeks regarding anything definitive. Only updated that they "have thousands of lines of code" to review to track this down. Anybody here have additional information?

 

[IAmTheCrack]

FOLLOWING. I'm having this issue on my M1 MacBook Pro as well. Thought it was just me. Incredibly frustrating.

 

[vetdocjim]

FOLLOWING. I'm having this issue on my M1 MacBook Pro as well. Thought it was just me. Incredibly frustrating.

I feel your pain!

 

[Coldplayer]

Add me to the list. Having the issue on my MBP and iMac! So annoying …

 

[rezafactor]

Created an account just to say I am also having this issue on a 2019 MBP 16. Tried literally everything, and managed to fix it for a bit, but it came back. I have two user accounts but have not been able to narrow anything down.

 

[vetdocjim]

Apple contacted me again. Engineers so far cannot isolate the problem. Sometimes backing up Contacts manually to iCloud worked. But that was inconsistent. A restart always resolves it until you literally logout and in. Restart or shutdown and start always fixes!

 

[martinorob]

same problem here!

 

[idonna]

I fixed this by rebuilding Spotlight. So far, so good. (Big Sur, M1 MBP)