This problem is often multidimensional with numerous causes and diverse solutions. In the next section, we report many tried-and-trusted solutions that we discovered from personal experiments and research. Check them out.
1. Edit Contact
Step 1: Open the contact details and tap Edit at the top-right corner. Update the contact with new data. It doesn’t have to be valid information; you can add a pseudo email, birthday, social profile, or even a note. Step 2: Tap Done to proceed. If the issue affects multiple contacts (say 20 or more), editing them individually can be time-consuming. You can try other solutions listed below for a more efficient approach—or if editing the contact didn’t fix the issue.
2. Unhide Contacts
iOS groups your iPhone’s contacts into different groups. This categorization is done based on the accounts that your phone’s contacts are synced to. If your iPhone contacts aren’t showing up, check that your iPhone is configured to show contacts from all connected accounts. Step 1: Launch the Phone app on your iPhone and go to the Contacts tab. Step 2: Next, tap Group at the top-left corner of the screen. Step 3: Make sure all the accounts are checked. Otherwise, tap ‘Show All Contacts’ and click Done to proceed. If the missing contacts still don’t show up on your iPhone, try the next troubleshooting fix below.
3. Re-Enable Short Name
Short Name is an iOS feature that changes how contacts appear on your iPhone by displaying only a first name, last name, or a combination of both. While this helps users fit more names on the screen in some native and third-party apps, it can contact visibility issues. Say contacts aren’t showing up in Messages, re-enabling Short Name can help restore them. Step 1: Launch Settings and select Contacts. Step 2: Tap Short Name. Step 3: Toggle off Short Name, wait for a minute and turn it back on.
4. Resync Contacts
Some iPhone users who experienced this issue fixed things by resyncing the Contacts app with iCloud. Turn off iCloud access for Contacts and turn it back on. That could help refresh the app, and the missing contacts might resurface. Step 1: Launch the iPhone Settings menu and tap your name. Step 2: Select iCloud. Step 3: Toggle off Contacts. On the subsequent prompt, select ‘Keep on My iPhone’ to save previously-synced contacts to your iPhone. Step 4: Re-enable Contacts and select Merge. Wait for a couple of seconds and check if the missing contacts are now showing up on your iPhone.
5. Modify Accounts Settings
In addition to contacts that you manually save, the iOS Phone app also aggregates and displays contacts from all accounts (Outlook, Google, Yahoo!, etc.) active on your iPhone. If you cannot find some contacts on your iPhone, make sure Contacts synchronization for all connected accounts on your iPhone is enabled. Step 1: Launch the Settings menu and select Contacts. Step 2: Tap Accounts. Step 3: Tap each account under the Accounts section and make sure Contacts sync is enabled. If contacts sync is already enabled, toggle off the option and turn it back on.
6. Sign Out of Apple ID
Contacts could also go hidden on your iPhone if there’s an issue with your Apple ID. An easy way to fix this is to reconnect your Apple ID account to your iPhone—sign out and sign in again. You should note that doing this might cause you to lose some data. Therefore, before you proceed, you should read more about what happens when you sign out of Apple ID. Additionally, we recommend backing up your iPhone to a computer so you can easily recover lost/missing data. Step 1: Launch the iPhone Settings menu and tap your name. Step 2: Scroll to the bottom of the Apple ID menu and tap Sign Out. Sign back into your Apple ID account and see if the missing contacts now appear on your iPhone’s phonebook or in the affected app.
Get Your Contacts Restored
If you have a recent backup of your iPhone, you can also get back missing or deleted contacts by restoring the backup. This can be done via iCloud or by using third-party PC software. If nothing works, restart your iPhone and check that the operating system is up-to-date. Next up: Don’t have a PC handy to move contacts from iOS to Android? Read the post below to learn how to transfer contacts from iPhone to Android without a computer or iTunes. The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
