Old number & WhatsApp username reappear in iCloud

I create an new empty account on my icloud. It is synced to my local phone and as I tab on it in the contact app to look into the details, somehow an old phone number and a Whatsapp username are added. Trying to delete those data does not work because that data disappears as soon as I access the "modify contact" mode.


What brought me to this effect?

  • Person A is existing with a phone number 11 (also Whatsapp number) on my phone.
  • Person A sends me another mobile phone number 22 of Person B.
  • Via my contacts app I saved the new number 22 under Person B. This is also a valid Whatsapp number.
  • Person A then told me later that the new number 22 is also on of hers and sends me real number 33 of B.
  • I copied the 22 number to Person A
  • I deleted the 22 number at Person B
  • I added the 33 number to Person B (33 is not a valid Whatsapp number)
  • Result was that as soon as I search Person B in my contact list of IOS contact app, it shows now numbers 22 and 33. When I tab on modify contact, the available menus only show number 33. 22 is gone.
  • I deleted Person B.
  • I added Person B in iCloud again as described above and faced the issue I described above.


It seems that I always get the 22 number showed as soon as I create a new contact "Person B". When I change the name slightly, it works but that is not what I want.


Remediation steps I already took:

  • Exclusion of contacts and whatsapp of "search" of IOS
  • Deactivation of whats app having access to contacts
  • deleting contacts app and reinstalling it
  • restart phone
  • turn off icloud sync of contacts app and delete the contacts on iphone. Enable sync and get iCloud contacts synced.


Can someone help me resolve the issue?

iPhone 15 Plus, iOS 26

Posted on Dec 3, 2025 6:17 AM

Reply
3 replies

Dec 3, 2025 11:31 AM in response to LD150

Thank you very much for your reply.


Concerning the first sentence:

I create a new contact on my iCloud account.


I try to summarise the issue as follows:

  1. I created a new contact within my iCloud with only a first name and a last name.
  2. This contact is synced to my phone's contact app.
  3. I access the contact app and the newly created contact is shown with a phone number and a WhatsApp username.
  4. When I hit the button to modify the user, the phone number and WhatsApp username disappears.


Hope this is better to understand.

Old number & WhatsApp username reappear in iCloud

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