No contact names with watchOS 4.3 update

[eyecrispy]

I updated my Apple Watch to 4.3 last night and noticed this morning that none of my contact names are showing up when I receive text notifications. Same in my favorites list. I’ve unpaired and repaired my watch and tried to resync the data. No luck. Anyone know what else I need to do? Annoying to get a text notification and only see the phone number and have no clue who is texting me.

 

[doogald]

I updated my Apple Watch to 4.3 last night and noticed this morning that none of my contact names are showing up when I receive text notifications. Same in my favorites list. I’ve unpaired and repaired my watch and tried to resync the data. No luck. Anyone know what else I need to do? Annoying to get a text notification and only see the phone number and have no clue who is texting me.

When you say you tried to resync the data, does that mean that you went into the Watch app / General / Reset / Reset sync data?

 

[eyecrispy]

When you say you tried to resync the data, does that mean that you went into the Watch app / General / Reset / Reset sync data?

Yep! Nothing appeared to happen .... but I believe it does that in the background.

 

[edswife1970]

I updated my Apple Watch to 4.3 last night and noticed this morning that none of my contact names are showing up when I receive text notifications. Same in my favorites list. I’ve unpaired and repaired my watch and tried to resync the data. No luck. Anyone know what else I need to do? Annoying to get a text notification and only see the phone number and have no clue who is texting me.

Gosh, now I’m afraid to update to OS 4.3. Without the contact name, I wouldn’t have a clue who it was! I don’t know anybody’s phone number any more. Keep us posted if you figure it out.

 

[doogald]

Gosh, now I’m afraid to update to OS 4.3. Without the contact name, I wouldn’t have a clue who it was! I don’t know anybody’s phone number any more. Keep us posted if you figure it out.

I’m on 4.3 and have no issue with contact names in messages.

 

[eyecrispy]

Gosh, now I’m afraid to update to OS 4.3. Without the contact name, I wouldn’t have a clue who it was! I don’t know anybody’s phone number any more. Keep us posted if you figure it out.

I will restore it and set up as new tonight. I restored backup earlier after unpairing and repairing but it didn’t work. And yes, it’s so annoying.

 

[eyecrispy]

Wiped the dang thing. Set it up as new. No cigar.

 

[doogald]

Wiped the dang thing. Set it up as new. No cigar.

And, just to ask the obvious question, do you have contact names in the Messages app on the iPhone?

I'd almost wonder if it's worth going into (on the iPhone) settings / accounts and passwords and tapping each account that has contact sync, turn it off, wait a few minutes, turn it back on again, make sure that contact are populated on the phone again, and then restart the watch to see if that changes anything. That's the only thing I can think of other than making a Genius Bar appointment.

 

[Lee_Bo]

My wife and I had this same issue with our original AW's, and resyncing contacts (which happens in the background) resolved it. So far we're ok on 4.3 on watches and 11.3 on phones.

 

[eyecrispy]

And, just to ask the obvious question, do you have contact names in the Messages app on the iPhone?

I'd almost wonder if it's worth going into (on the iPhone) settings / accounts and passwords and tapping each account that has contact sync, turn it off, wait a few minutes, turn it back on again, make sure that contact are populated on the phone again, and then restart the watch to see if that changes anything. That's the only thing I can think of other than making a Genius Bar appointment.

Yes contact names are fine on the phone. I’ll give your suggestion a shot. My contacts have always sync’d from exchange through work. Have never had a prob with it with my AW until now.

 

[eyecrispy]

And, just to ask the obvious question, do you have contact names in the Messages app on the iPhone?

I'd almost wonder if it's worth going into (on the iPhone) settings / accounts and passwords and tapping each account that has contact sync, turn it off, wait a few minutes, turn it back on again, make sure that contact are populated on the phone again, and then restart the watch to see if that changes anything. That's the only thing I can think of other than making a Genius Bar appointment.

Ok I did it and now the contact names are not showing in messages on my phone either. Grrrrrrr. Infuriating.

 

[msm0511]

You could try making a dummy contact in your iPhone to start the resync process automatically to see if that works.

 

[doogald]

Ok I did it and now the contact names are not showing in messages on my phone either. Grrrrrrr. Infuriating.

Workaround? Maybe export your contacts from your Exchange account and import them into an iCloud or Google account that you sync with for now and then check it every once in a while to see if the Exchange sync issue gets fixed.

 

[eyecrispy]

You could try making a dummy contact in your iPhone to start the resync process automatically to see if that works.

I did that and it fixed the phone part .... but the watch is still unchanged. I’m signing out of iCloud and back in. Doubtful it’ll work but can’t think of anything else.

 

[edswife1970]

I updated my Apple Watch to 4.3 last night and noticed this morning that none of my contact names are showing up when I receive text notifications. Same in my favorites list. I’ve unpaired and repaired my watch and tried to resync the data. No luck. Anyone know what else I need to do? Annoying to get a text notification and only see the phone number and have no clue who is texting me.

Just bit the bullet and updated my watch. My contact names still show up! Hope you find a solution soon.

 

[eyecrispy]

Just bit the bullet and updated my watch. My contact names still show up! Hope you find a solution soon.

I am certain mine is because my contacts are sync’d with exchange. I turned on my google contacts and they’re showing up now. I hope they patch it soon.

 

[doogald]

I did some Googling and I found some old discussions that seemed to suggest (particularly with Exchange sync ) that if you have any contacts with non-ASCII symbols or obvious errors in their names, then sync to the watch of the contacts fails, even though they are on the iPhone. Ad not just those contacts - it would stop all contacts from syncing. (Some of these threads are obviously from the original watchOS or watchOS 2, so who knows if this is still an issue?)

Still, if you go through the list of contacts and see any obvious non-characters in the name field, and edit the contacts so those characters are removed, I'd at least give this a try?

 

[eyecrispy]

I did some Googling and I found some old discussions that seemed to suggest (particularly with Exchange sync ) that if you have any contacts with non-ASCII symbols or obvious errors in their names, then sync to the watch of the contacts fails, even though they are on the iPhone. Ad not just those contacts - it would stop all contacts from syncing. (Some of these threads are obviously from the original watchOS or watchOS 2, so who knows if this is still an issue?)

Still, if you go through the list of contacts and see any obvious non-characters in the name field, and edit the contacts so those characters are removed, I'd at least give this a try?

Thanks. I’ll try to take a look tomorrow .... but the thing is I haven’t added or updated any of my contacts in awhile so not sure that’s the issue. If it is then that would be easy fix assuming I can find the offending contact(s).

 

[cLoS BeN]

I finally found the fix if anyone is still having this issue. I tried everything from resetting sync data to unpairing and setting watch up as new. Nothing worked until I signed out of iCloud on my phone. Sign out of iCloud just sign back in. Choose to delete everything from contacts to calendars and safari data. It will all come back when you sign back in from the iCloud. it finally solved it. Contacts are back up instantly on my Apple Watch. Hope this helped. It made my day cause it was really annoying me.

 

[Tartarus]

I finally found the fix if anyone is still having this issue. I tried everything from resetting sync data to unpairing and setting watch up as new. Nothing worked until I signed out of iCloud on my phone. Sign out of iCloud just sign back in. Choose to delete everything from contacts to calendars and safari data. It will all come back when you sign back in from the iCloud. it finally solved it. Contacts are back up instantly on my Apple Watch. Hope this helped. It made my day cause it was really annoying me.

If this works, then disabling contacts in iCloud and re-enable it should work as well. It’s less hassle that way as well.