Top 6 Fixes for Android Not Showing Contact Names for Incoming Calls

After you save a contact on your phone, your phone shows the contact name whenever the personal calls. Sometimes, we save numbers with contact names just to make it easy to answer the calls or not. But what if your Android stops showing contact names during incoming calls and shows only phone numbers?

This can happen due to several reasons, ranging from misconfigured settings to corrupt cache data. Below, we’ve listed a few useful tips that should get your Android phone to show contact names during incoming calls as before.

1. Configure the Phone App to Show Caller Information

One of the most common reasons your Android may not show contact names during incoming calls is if you have prevented the Phone app from showing caller information. Hence, it’s the first thing you should check.

Step 1: Open the Phone app, tap the three vertical dots menu icon at the top-right corner, and select Settings.

Step 2: Turn on the toggle next to Show caller information.

2. Allow the Phone App to Access Your Contacts

Like most apps, the Phone app on your Android also requires permission to access your contact list. If you have previously disallowed this permission to the Phone app, your Android will display numbers instead of contact names during incoming calls.

To allow the Phone app to access your contacts:

Step 1: Long-press on the Phone app icon and tap the info icon from the resulting menu.

Step 2: On the App info page, select Permissions.

Step 3: Tap on Contacts and select Allow from the following menu.

3. Enable Contact Sync

Enabling contacts permission for the Phone app may not help much if your Android is not syncing any contacts. In that case, you may also have trouble searching for contacts on your Android phone. To avoid these issues, you should enable contact sync on your Android using these steps:

Step 1: Open the Settings app and scroll down to tap on Accounts and backup.

Step 2: Tap on Manage accounts and select your Google account from the following menu.

Step 3: Tap on Sync account and enable the toggle next to Contacts.

Wait for your Android to sync contacts.

4. Remove the Problematic Contact and Add It Again

Is your Android phone not showing the contact name for a specific person only? If so, delete the contact from your phone and adding it back. Here’s how you can go about it.

Step 1: Open the Contacts app. Locate the problematic contact on the list and tap on it.

Step 2: Tap the three vertical dots menu icon at the top-right corner and select Delete from the resulting menu.

Step 3: Tap Move to Trash to confirm.

Step 4: Return to the Contacts app, tap the plus icon in the bottom-right corner, and add your contact again. If you are saving a number with a different country code than yours, specify the relevant country code as well.

After saving the contact, check if the issue is still there.

5. Clear Phone App Cache

This is a rudimentary fix that can help fix issues with most apps on your Android, including the Phone app. If the issue occurs due to a bad or outdated cache, clearing it should help fix the problem. This won’t affect your call logs or app settings.

To clear the Phone app cache on your Android, use these steps:

Step 1: Long-press on the Phone app icon and tap the ‘i’ icon from the resulting menu.

Step 2: Go to Storage and tap the Clear cache option in the bottom-right corner.

6. Update the Phone App

Bugs within the default Phone app on your Android can also cause such anomalies. So, if nothing works, you can try updating the Phone app on your Android as a last resort.

Head over to the Play Store and search for the Phone app. If a newer version is available, tap the Update button to install it. After that, your Android should display contact names for incoming calls.

Clarity in Every Ring

Encountering issues during incoming calls on your Android can be inconvenient. The above tips will help fix the annoying issue of Android not showing contact names during incoming calls. If you face a similar problem with the Google Messages app, it’s possible to fix that too.