Interesting! I will try. Apple reached out to me again and stated they understand the bug and verified it’s their problem. A fix is expected in an upcoming Big Sur update although they did not specify if it will be the next one or the one following that
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Messages Not Showing Contact Names
- Thread starter tardman91
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I tried rebuilding my Spotlight index twice and this will NOT fix the problem. If you restart the machine after reindexing, the problem will resolve. It will reappear if you logout of your account then login without a restart or physical shut down. Interestingly when I first started working on this bug, the Apple advisor instructed me to force a backup of my Contacts on my iPhone (not from my MacBook Pro). This resolved the problem until I logged off and on again the next day.
Ugh, you're right. I was able to reproduce the problem yesterday after a reboot. And again tonight after 11.2 update and a logout. Typically I never log out as I'm home with this machine 24/7/365 lately and not in the office. But the workaround works so I'm going with that until Apple fixes it or someone figures out a more permanent solution. 🙂
Apple_Robert
Contributor
The contact names problem is an iCloud sync problem, in my opinion.
Reindexing Spotlight has nothing to do with iCloud, in my opinion.
Reindexing Spotlight has nothing to do with iCloud, in my opinion.
How do you force a contacts backup on your phone? Sliding the iCloud toggle for "contacts" off then back on? That didn't fix the issue. I had to reboot.
Apple_Robert
Contributor
There is no way to force a contacts only backup. Make sure your phone has at least 50% battery, is on Wifi, and then do a phone backup.
I am referring to the person who said "the Apple advisor instructed me to force a backup of my Contacts on my iPhone (not from my MacBook Pro)." What you describe sounds a lot more cumbersome than just rebooting the computer to (temporarily) fix the contacts not showing on iMessage notifications issue.
Heya! Yes more accurately I was instructed to un synch contacts. Then I believe you opt for the merge when you go through the process. Yes it only solved once until I log off and on. Restart is definitely easier
I just set up a meeting Mac desktop for a friend. New machine. Used a local backup to restore to the née machine. Updated to Big Sur. Bug again documented. Ergo it’s s problem with iCloud synch messages and contacts. Totally different machines.
I had this the other day after a restore from Time Machine backup.
Sign out of iCloud messaging, sign back in and sync and reboot fixed it for me.
Sign out of iCloud messaging, sign back in and sync and reboot fixed it for me.
FWIW, I did a clean install of iOS 14.4 on my iPhone using my Mac so that the firmware was updated, etc. The reason I wanted to reinstall was that I was having wi-fi issues, but it ended up fixing this issue, too.
Not permanently though. The problem will return for you.
(And only rebooting would have fixed it just as temporarily, those other steps didn't accomplish anything.)
This is a bug Apple needs to fix. It's also happening with brand new M1 Macs running Big Sur.
You might need to add your Google account to your Mac Internet Accounts setting. I was having the same issue and that's what I had to do. My iCloud contact list didn't have my contacts from when I was on Android, so those showed up as numbers. Once I added my Google account, the names showed up. Now if I can only get iMessage to send and sync on my M1 Mac mini, I'd be a happy camper.
If you open the Contacts app, do you see the cards? It could be that macOS didn't download the contact cards from iCloud yet.
i had the same problem. try this. system preferences > apple id > icloud > uncheck contacts, wait 5 seconds, recheck contacts > restart laptop. this worked for me!
GoGrable
macrumors newbie
i had this problem for *Specific* contacts on my Apple Watch. It resolved on its own with a restart. weird...
If you have the phone number showing instead of the contact name, try rebuilding your Spotlight index. Even though someone stated above it is an iCloud issue and has nothing to do with Spotlight, it's the only thing that worked for me. I use Google as my Contacts account, so iCloud is not on for Contacts on any of my devices.
I also had an issue where a few of my contacts who are listed only as the first name in my Contacts app (let's say "Dave" as an example) began showing up in the notifications as "Maybe: Dave Lastname". So it was adding the Maybe: and the last name to a contact that doesn't have the last name listed in the card. Weird. For this, what worked for me was turning Handoff off and then back on for both iPhone/iPad and the Macs with the issue. I rebooted both the iOS devices and the Macs. The "Maybe" problem was resolved. Not sure if the reboot is necessary, but that's what I did.
Both of these behaviors began for me after upgrading to Big Sur. In my case I believe it was after the last 11.2.2 update. Affected both of my Macbooks.
Hope this helps someone.
I also had an issue where a few of my contacts who are listed only as the first name in my Contacts app (let's say "Dave" as an example) began showing up in the notifications as "Maybe: Dave Lastname". So it was adding the Maybe: and the last name to a contact that doesn't have the last name listed in the card. Weird. For this, what worked for me was turning Handoff off and then back on for both iPhone/iPad and the Macs with the issue. I rebooted both the iOS devices and the Macs. The "Maybe" problem was resolved. Not sure if the reboot is necessary, but that's what I did.
Both of these behaviors began for me after upgrading to Big Sur. In my case I believe it was after the last 11.2.2 update. Affected both of my Macbooks.
Hope this helps someone.
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