Phone Link "Messages" shows phone numbers, not names and photos

Anonymous
2022-10-06T15:35:52+00:00

I use Phone Link on my Windows 11 PC to text message through my Samsung S22+ phone. I use the desktop Outlook client on my PC and have my Outlook contacts synchronize with the Samsung Contacts app on my phone. A couple of months ago, I began to notice that the names and photos of some of the people with whom I text were no longer showing up in the Phone Link "Messages" list; just their phone numbers. Also, when I clicked "+ New message" in Phone Link, and typed their name, they never showed up in the list of matching contacts from which to choose. This was very frustrating, especially since those contacts were the ones with whom I text most often.

I tried just about everything I could think of - uninstall/reinstalling Phone Link on the S22+ and my PC, multiple syncing options, etc., all to no avail. Then I noticed that the format of the number that showed up in Phone Link was different than what I had in my Outlook contacts. The numbers in Phone Link all showed up with a leading "+1" and had a dash after the area code without parentheses, like this: "+1 123-555-1212" but the numbers in Outlook Contacts showed up like this "(123) 555-1212". I thought the issue might be a database lookup problem, so I tried to enter the same number format in Outlook that appears in Phone Link: "+1 123-555-1212". But Outlook would NOT let me enter this format! It automatically put parentheses around the area code and removed the first hyphen, like this: "+1 (123) 555-1212".

When the new contacts manager for Outlook.com (Outlook on the web) was launched a short while ago, I used the Contacts editor on those contacts and WAS SUCCESSFUL in entering the phone number in the exact format that appears in Phone Link: "+1 123-555-1212". When I sync'd my contacts to my phone, PRESTO! The names and photos of those contacts reappeared in Phone Link "Messages"! So, if you are having problems seeing a phone number instead of names and photos in the Phone Link "Messages" app, try this!

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Connect Phone and PC

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-01-31T01:23:25+00:00

    That part only partially makes sense. Because for me it has gone back and forth in doing this and why disappear the names?

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-01-31T01:16:11+00:00

    This is a formatting issue I figured out yesterday.

    Phone Link is demanding full phone numbers with international codes.

    My (555) 555-5555 number for someone is now empty.

    If I change my Google Contacts to +1 555 555 5555 and save, exit Phone Link, let it re-connect and sync, it now works again.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-01-30T21:59:24+00:00

    Well, it failed on me again a few days ago. So far the only solution has been to go into my Link to Windows on my phone, disable SYNC CONTACTS AND RENABLE IT and then I reboot my computer and phone. So annoying. Never had this problem before. I had other strange quirks but not this one.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-01-30T07:12:15+00:00

    I have uninstalled and reinstalled it phone link in the last 3 days, at least 5 times for various flaws or un-syncing behaviour. And then tonight it was working great and then abruptly the same thing occurred where all contacts became mere numbers. Surely it ought to installed correctly by now.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-01-29T20:21:16+00:00

    This started happening to me when I reset my email account through the Outlook mobile app on my Android. This was what I did that caused the problem - from Outlook Mobile app go to Settings, choose the mail account you use for your contacts (for me it was my Hotmail account), scroll down to the bottom and choose RESET ACCOUNT. Once I did all of my contacts started showing up as numbers.

    To fix the sync issue from most of my contacts I had to go back in Outlook mobile, Settings, choose the mail account you use for your contacts and be sure to enable Sync contacts. For some reason, when you RESET ACCOUNT from Outlook mobile the Sync contacts option is not reenabled by default.

    After I fixed the Sync contacts I noticed several of my contacts were showing up as phone numbers I also noticed that all of the contacts that were showing up as numbers had once been set as favorites in Contacts on my phone. So I went back to the Contacts app on my phone and added these contacts as favorites once again. Within 5 to 10 seconds their name was showing again instead of the phone number.

    Problem Solved. :)

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