Mac Messages app showing phone numbers not names

@jpdemers, this is what I've found as well. Something just needs to sort of "wake it up" and have it refresh the contacts. Of course Apple should be doing this in the background automatically, but apparently something is off.

I've had *some* success in adding a country code. But sometimes the code is already there. If I remove the code, it never seems to help. But going into Message settings and accounts, and checking and unchecking various accounts seems to have been the ONE way I can consistently get everything back in order after it goes wonky.

I couldn't solve this on my own by just looking at these things, but what worked for me (and may work or at least give lots of clarity on your SPECIFIC situation) was calling Apple Customer Service -- wow they are frickin professional! They solved my problem today, while answering another question with an unrelated issue that's been bothering me too! Just do it!

This worked! Thank you!!!

Same for me.

@RJR86 - Your suggestion worked for me. Thank you!

If contacts are not synced through iCloud, in internet accounts, is contacts on for the account your contacts are connected through? If yes, toggle contacts on/off to see if that brings the names back. Also make sure it’s not asking you for a password for third party accounts. Sometimes a third party account needs you to verify by adding the password when you update.

Hi All. I had similar problem. This forum was helpful. But, I found that the cause of my problem was different. I use Microsoft 365 (Outlook) as primary place to manage Contacts. I had set up my iPhone to sync with Microsoft (thus contact names appeared in Messages on my iPhone). Some contact names were not, however, appearing in Messages on my Mac. I then found that I had to go into the Contacts app on the Mac itself and add my Microsoft account to Contacts app on the Mac. Once I did this, all my Contacts showed up in Mac Contacts and then they also showed up in Mac Messages.

The more we learn, the more it seems like the system just needs to be kicked every so often. It would sure be great if Apple would make this happen automatically of course. But in the meantime yeah.... we just need to find a way that wakes it up to do a refresh.

One of my Macs is on Monterey, the only one I use for email through Google=gmail. I get Messages on all of my Apple devices.

Like someone else, I found the solution for names not appearing in Messages on this Monterey Mac has something to do with syncing Contacts through BOTH iCloud and Google. In Contacts->Accounts (which takes me to System Preferences->Internet Accounts) I clicked on Google, and UN-checked Contacts, Calendars, and Notes, leaving Mail checked. When I did that, Messages (which was open) immediately showed names instead of phone numbers. I closed Messages, reopened, and names were still showing. I quit all the programs System Settings, Mail, Contacts, and Messages, then reopened Messages -- Success!

I also looked at iCloud settings in Internet Accounts. Conspicuously UN-checked is Mail. Contacts is CHECKED in iCloud.

In my experience that works short term but then Mac Messages reverts to showing only phone number without the contacts' names. Also, if you have hundreds of contacts the solution of editing a contact's phone number to make the contact's name appear in messages is not practical.

Thank you for this!! I know it has been a year and a half since your answer, but I also know people are so often running into similar problems and hopefully they see that 1.5 years later, someone else is still trying to figure it out and they can see that the answer may still help them.

I did what you said and thought "well, let's see if maybe my contacts are somehow connected to Google?" and it worked, I added my Google account following your steps and within a minute or so, the contacts on my Mac started populating the same as it is on my iPhone/iPad.

So, even though I think that I am adding new contacts onto my iPhone, I guess my entries must actually be syncing or adding to Google, and then Google is what is populating my iPhone contacts. So my next question/topic of study is, to figure out how to stop that Google sync and just get it to go to my iCloud account.

I also had the same issue. I solved this by opening my contacts app on my Mac, click on All Contacts to be sure that you are not missing any. If you are, you can AirDrop your contacts from your iPhone to the Mac. Once all of your contacts are listed, I copied (Command + C) and pasted (Command + V) them from All Contacts to the section that says All On My Mac. This solved the problem.

Hi,

I dont' seem to have the option to "Add Account" when I open my Contact App on my MacBook Air?! what am I doing wrong?

Many thanks in advance