iPhone 4s, 5s and 6 Not Showing Contact Names
I was using my iPhone 4s and needed to reply to a text/SMS message that I had received earlier. When I went to reply to my collegues SMS message I was confronted with all my SMS messages being shows from phone numbers rather than my contact details. After searching the web there appeared to be thousands of people with this issue running IOS 5. Below I’ve put together a number of the fixes that can resolve the issue of the iphone 4s sms not showing contact name. This also applies to the iPhone 5s, 6 and IOS 7 and IOS 8,
iPhone 4s, 5s and 6 SMS Showing As Numbers Solution
OK, when I had this issue the first thing to try is a hard reset of the iPhone ( you will not lose any information ). To do this hold down then iPhones “Home” button and the power button. Turn off the iPhone. Then do the same to power on the iPhone, keep both buttons pressed until the apple logo appears. Then check you SMS messages. If its not fixed then read on.
hard reset of iPhone 4s
The next thing we can try is reset the iPhones network settings, a lot of users report that this fixes the issue, especially iPhones on the Verizon networks.
So first Select Settings then general.At the very bottom of the general settings screen you will see reset, Select reset and you will see the screen below. We then need to select Reset Network Settings. You will be prompted to enter your ,do so, it will then reboot. Now go test your SMS settings, if they are not fixed then read on.
Various people have all found that disabling international assist will resolve this problem, to do so go to settings then Phone and slide international assist to off. Again reboot the phone, test SMS. Fixed? no then lets restore from backup.
Turn off International Assist on iPhone 4s
Apps That You Need!
Before we resort to the final option below which is restoring from backup, id advise you use one of the apps below for contact management, these apps allow you to backup your contacts (lets do so) and all sync to the cloud so we never lose our contacts again. Pick one install it and backup your contacts before we do a full restore.
Restore The iPhone 4s From A Previous Backup
This is what actually resolved my issue, each time you connect to iTunes you backup your iPhone 4`s to restore do the following.
Connect you iPhone up to your PC, Laptop or Mac.
Launch iTunes
Then on the left hand side of iTunes right click your devices then select Restore From Backup
restore iPhone 4s from backup guide
You will be prompted for you password to restore the iPhone. Enter it. You phone will now restore and reboot. You should see now that your SMS settings are working and correct.
Tags: Iphone
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awr
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NONE of the regular resets will fix a corrupted address book database, and if the backup has a bad database you are pretty screwed.
I had this problem since i restored my iPhone 4 onto my iPhone 4s. turned out to be a corrupted address book database on the phone.
deleting the database @ /Users/Library/AddressBook (all files starting with AddressBook) (while Addressbook NOT running and when iCloud sync and iTunes sync both off) and re-run address book to create empty database before re enable sync solved it!
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Grayson
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I just hard reset it and it worked! Thank you
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De Davis
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Yes on hard turn off/reboot to get contact names back on call log and messages!yeah! Thank you very much and will remember info for any other times before I ask again
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Kevin
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1. Not only the contact name in message doesn’t show but also the contact name in phone book and all apps are gone on my 4S, I’ve try the hard rest and turn off the International assist both are not work. Does rest Network setting lose any info of my phone?
2. This happened when I was using iOS 5 but I upgrade it to iOS6, do I have to down grade it to fix the problem??
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Jon razor
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Open contacts, click on Groups and make sure “all iCloud” has ✅. That fixed mine.
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Kenneth Chan
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I have an iPhone 4s on Verizon. These solutions didn’t work for me, but what did work was:
1) Call *228 on the iPhone and press 1 when prompted (to program the phone). Wait a few minutes until the process completes. Hang up.
2) Call *228 on the iPhone again and press 2 when prompted (to update your roaming status). Wait a few minutes until the process completes. Hang up.
3) Turn off the iPhone and turn it back on. Check your results!
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Marshall
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My entire contact list was gone. I connected to my primary computer, and it was all back to normal.
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kamran
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GUYS, I come up with final solution after a lot of search, hope it will resolve problems, It is perfectly working on 4.10 but dont know about firmware 5.
step wise procedure is as under
1. Install ifile cracked from ceydia.
2.GO to system/ Library /Frameworks / UKIT Frameworks / Phone Formats / /UI Mobile Country Codes plist
3.slect file and open as text viewer
4.under edit and replace text with ur countery code like that “0092”
5.Than press done and quit through ifile. and turn off ur iphone and than turn it on again.
6. Go through JV Sim installation that is dialing 112 etc.
Perfect
Now it will work as good as u dream no need to add + (Country code) before ur contacts.
enjoy, please update ur feed back
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mitch
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I have been struggling with this issue for weeks since I have returned from Mexico. RESOLVED by turning off International Assist!
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Irfan
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kamran which line to edit with ur country code 0092 first line or pk line?
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John Rabbitt
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I temporarily changed language setting to a different language (settings:International: Language) then restored back to English. This worked for me……don’t forget position on screen for language setting if you don’t speak the second language!
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Lisa
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I have tried numerous suggestions NONE of which has worked…Get this….If I put the +1 country code in prior to typing the phone number, my contact info (name) shows up in a list…..so the info is on the phone. If I select the name, only the number appears in the ‘To’ area.
I’m about to readd ALL my contacts (which are numerous) & immediately do a back up.
I am confident my problem was created following the install of Google+ /Gmail apps .
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D
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Didn’t work for me, and won’t be upgrading to the next iPhone if this keeps happening….just silly…
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Kevin
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After traveling to europe, all the names in the messages app (texts) dissapeared and were replaced with phone numbers with an added “+1” in the front. My contact numbers did not have the +1, hence the issue. This probably happened because I changed the international setting to a European country in a failed attempt to log onto a klugey wifi hot spot. Changing back to US did not fix the issue. None of the fixes above, by themselves, fixed the issue. But… When I did ALL of the changes (change international setting then back to us, change language then back, and then doing a hard reset) at the same time it worked. Hope this helps someone else as I have spent hours on this!
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Michele
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disabling international assist worked for me! Thanks
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Eddie Cerrone
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Had this issue myself and thank God for the internet and people like you to help someone out like me with 0 patience and a demanding job in which I need my contacts and numbers!
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Eddie Cerrone
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I tried all methods above and the only method that worked was changing the language from English to xyz and then back again. It is important to remember the position of the setting/screen. It was easy for me as I work with 30 ppl and almost everyone has an iphone so when I changed from English to French I just watch a peer of mine navigate his phone in English to get me back to English language setting. All is good.
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Milo
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Just happened with me and tried many solutions. The only one that worked was resetting network settings (NOT reset to factory settings).
Thanks
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Fariborz
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I had a similar problem, but only one contact was showing numbers instead of the name while texting. As luck had it, it was my wife. I tired all the above and nothing worked for me. The ONLY thing that worked was, I hit the (i) icon next to the number in the messaging. It showed the phone number with no name attached. I then hit the edit button, and erased the phone number. when I pressed done, her name appeared in the heading of all the text messages. I hope this works for people who only have one name not showing up.
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Adam
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This solved it for me: Go into Settings > Mail, Conatcts, Calendars > iCloud > Turn contacts off, select “Keep on My iPhone” It will then turn off contacts > Then turn contacts back on, select “Merge” It will then turn contacts back on and you should now have all your contact names restored. I also did a hard reset before trying this method, which may have helped my phone sort itself out, so do a hard reset first, just to be on the safe side. Hope this helps other people in the future, such a terrible bug!
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Dan
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Hi Guys, had the same issue, contact names not appearing in messages. I changed Language from “English” to English Australia” it is was instantly fixed. Go Settings, General scroll down 13 places to Language and region to make the change.
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Rachel
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I finally solved this issue by going into Settings, then into Phone, turn off “Contact Photos in Favorites”. All of my contacts instantly reappeared.
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Casey k
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Changed the language , then switched it back and all names are back on text and all contacts have been restored. Thank you!!!
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Syed Zaidi
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Very clear and helpful. The names were not showing up when the phone rang, only the number. I went through the instructions, and the second one, to Reset Network Settings, did it for me. Many thanks.
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Manu
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IPhone 6 and it worked thank you!
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Syke
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I tied all these and not worked.
I am domicile in Nigeria where mobile lines have 11 digits.
This is my observation:
1). When you key in some number, they appear in this spaced format. 0800 000 1111
2). Whe you key in others, they appear without the space in the 1st format.
3). If you enter those without the spaces, iPhone will not recognise the contact once the format is different from the one in phone book. For example, if you same the number in your contact without the country code and calls or Sms come in with the country code, iphone will not recognise it. If the number is saved with the country code and calls come in without the country code it will not be recognised.
I am still not happy that there is no solution to this yet.
Possibly if there is a token to use for the enforcement of the specs while keying phone numbers into phonebook, it would be a way out.
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Chris
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I changed the region to United States even tho i dont live in the USA and suddenly all the contact names appear in the call log!!
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Anna
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Hi, The hard reset worked for me–thanks so much!
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Jerome
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Thank you. I hard reset the phone and all contacts appeared.!
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xian
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nothing works for me. I still can’t see the names on sms. It’s also not appearing on my contact list anymore.
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Jeanette
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Tried all suggestions…not working for my iphone 6 plus…. Help please 🙁
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Chrissy
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Changing my region worked. Changed to US Virgin Islands and contacts reappeared. Changed back to US and still fixed! Thanks!!
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Jibby
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After updating to IOS 10, any international call shows country code twice instead of showing name in the contact
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mro
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Your first recommendation worked first time – many thanks
i.e.
OK, when I had this issue the first thing to try is a hard reset of the iPhone ( you will not lose any information ). To do this hold down then iPhones “Home” button and the power button. Turn off the iPhone. ….. etc
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Stephen
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Easiest way is go into contacts and select one contact and enter the letter a into the notes then save. Then delete the a and save again if you want.
That should then refresh / update all your contacts accordingly in messages.
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