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Contacts Do Not Show Up In iPhone

I have my contacts synced across two Macs and my phone (X). Contacts are also synced to one Gmail account. I have deleted all other links of any kind between the phone and other accounts. Lately, most times when I go to call someone they do not show up in Contacts. I have tried toggling between Default Contact Lists on the phone (iCloud/Personal) but it doesn't help. They each show a small subset of all my contacts.

I should also mention that frequently addresses I input on my Macs does not show up on the phone after syncing.

But, here's the weird part. If I input a name into Messages, as if I'm going to text them then, I can click their initials at the top of the page--then you see the options for Audio, FaceTime, or Info (pic), then I can click info and call them. But I can't find their number any other way.

I'd like to copy and delete every contact on every device and reimport but Contacts makes that difficult and there should be a better way.


Posted on Feb 13, 2020 8:41 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 13, 2020 8:55 AM

Contacts are neither stored locally on an iPhone / iPad nor in SIM. They are synced to an email account that you had Google, iCloud, AOL, Exchange, Outlook, Yahoo or any Other


  1. How many Contacts account (email client server) you have?
  2. What is your default Contacts Account?
  3. Which email account you are using to store Contacts?


  • See the GIF below for Contacts and Default Account



  • Learn how to add an email account and make it default (Watch the GIF)
  • This example is for Gmail but the process remains same for all Google, iCloud, AOL, Exchange, Outlook, Yahoo or any Other

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 13, 2020 8:55 AM in response to Thephilhood

Contacts are neither stored locally on an iPhone / iPad nor in SIM. They are synced to an email account that you had Google, iCloud, AOL, Exchange, Outlook, Yahoo or any Other


  1. How many Contacts account (email client server) you have?
  2. What is your default Contacts Account?
  3. Which email account you are using to store Contacts?


  • See the GIF below for Contacts and Default Account



  • Learn how to add an email account and make it default (Watch the GIF)
  • This example is for Gmail but the process remains same for all Google, iCloud, AOL, Exchange, Outlook, Yahoo or any Other

Contacts Do Not Show Up In iPhone

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