Why are my contacts not showing in WhatsApp? (How to fix)

Nice post I just want to add : If the above steps do not work ( and you have checked that the contact is using whatsapp and you have your contacts correct number) just switch of your phone and remove and re insert your sim and restart the device..!!

Really great tutorials. I saw a bunch of users across different forums had the same problem with this.

When I open WhatsApp and go to my Chats window (iPhone 5) one of my contacts photo refreshes (flicks on and off quickly).
This doesn't always happen and it only happens with the same contact.
Can someone tell me what that contact is doing (or has done) at the other end to make this happen?
Thanks, Martin

It's such a nice & amazing tutorial about WhatsApp contacts. Everything is perfect & well understand by this tutorial.

Perfect answer! Thanks for the IMAGE

You might have not given the permission to application to read your mobile's contact. So following are the steps to perform and mostly its common for all android device. Only a bit may differ.

security -> Permission -> Application -> Whatsapp -> Allow to read contacts

This is most annoying to be told to :

Android phone book, make sure that all contact accounts (i.e. SIM, Google, Phone) & contact groups (i.e. Friends, Family) are "visible" or "viewable".

There is NO "visible" or "viewable" setting that I can find in my android 6.0 contacts list. and I STILL cannot see my contact in WhatsApp. Can someone please help me?

Thanks
Steve
+1 650-691-3683

This just tells me what what what's app tells me to do with contacts. I still cant find all and there's no invisible/visible option. How do i find contacts in my note 5 when it won't find the name or number in my phone and ik that my friends have the app

I did it and got reinforcement my contacts effectively, much appreciated!

Really appreciable. Thanks for sharing

That was so brilliant of you mate ... Hats off to you Sir

Faced the similar issue where names of whatsapp contacts were not shown.
Problems with Permissions
Go to Apps > Whatsapp > Permissions > Grant all Permissions
After that restart your phone. Everything will be good.

Why does the new whatsupp update miss the contacts tab, and has two tabs for photo? Whyyyyyy???

I add a new contact and cannot refresh to find the new contacts. I had to exit whatsapp, go to my contacts & select the whatsapp option of that contact to use it to open a whatsapp conversation with them. Which means if my contacts had no ability to detect a registered whatsapp contact, I'd never chat new people on whatsapp.

*No, my contacts are not hidden.
*Yes I tried to search the new name from a new chat but it does not appear.

— modified on Mar 18, 2017, 6:09:22 AM

I can't see the status after the new updates in whatsapp...

Same happened with me then I manually allow whatsapp to access my contacts through permissions....
Now its fine...
Thanks dude!!!

Thanks for the nice tips, it works

Thank you SO much. I've been struggling with my device for weeks and this worked awesome

I haven't come across such problem yet, but my wife had the problem before. And we didn't know how to solve that and left it be. How great it would be if I saw this. Anyway, thanks for posting this, it may be useful in the future.

Nice post..

Under this situation, I always tried REFRESH. Every time it works.

I do have saved one of my friend phone number in Android contact book but not visible in WhatsApp contact list.I done every setting regarding contact but stop it doesn't show.Is there any trick to block others that can't allow to save phone number in WhatsApp?
Please give me a solution.

I have done what you wrote but still my phone contact are not showing by WhatsApp contact list. Gmail contact around 2000 and WhatsApp is 1123 only

Thanks for the advice, I reseted the permissions and was having trouble with whatsapp contacts. Great advice!

I have tried all the given fixes but am still not being able get all the contacts in my phonebook to get synced to whatsapp.
Is there anything else that I can do?

Is there a way to get in touch with whatsapp's customer care over the phone call.

Thanks for your help in advance

Great tips. Thanks for the help

Nothing on this thread is working, and, I can see other users struggling with this. I've completed all of the pointers, resets, updates, upgrades, power on and offs and still cannot get a new contact to show up on my whatsapp from my google/Android contacts.

Make sure that you have saved your contacts' phone numbers in your phone's address book. Make sure you have allowed WhatsApp to access your phone's contacts in your phone's Settings app. In your phone's address book, make sure that all accounts and groups are set to "visible"

— modified on Mar 22, 2018, 1:06:17 PM

In a late to reply to Timothy Ward, I had the same issue and it drove me crazy... and same observation, nowhere in any settings of neither Whatapps, nor my device, nor my Contact list, nor the applications settings of Whatsapps, there is anything that is "viewable" or "visible".

But hold on... try this: tap on WhatsApp Message Icon icon and then go to Menu > Help. There are some instructions and at the bottom there is a button: Show invisible contacts. Press the button.

Now, lo and behold, it shows me several thousands of my contacts, which, according to Whatsapp are all hidden, I do not know why. But above the list of contacts, there is checkbox saying "show all contacts, not only the visible ones". And when I checked the box, magic happened.

just experience the same problem for days.
My Whatsapp contact name is back by change the permission in your phone settings.
Settings > Installed Apps > Whatsapp > Permission manager > tick on "read your contact"

Wauh this is one the best answers, it works for me, all my contacts are back for me, thank you so much.

Appreciated.

My contacts are not appearing in WhatsApp. I have tried:

• setting my contacts as visible or viewable - no such setting appears to exist;
• showing all contacts in WhatsApp; again, no such setting appears to exist;
• switching off my phone and re-inserting the SIM; nothing changed;
• allowing WhatsApp to read contacts in security > permission settings; no such setting exists;
• granting permissions in Application manager >WhatsApp; WhatsApp is allowed to read contacts, but no setting to allow all permissions exists.

If anyone could suggest a setting I could change that actually exists, I would greatly appreciate it.

Why don't you refresh your WhatsApp contact manually. By taping on the contact list and scrolling up the screen to refresh it. Also make sure your app is up to date.

miracle ofoma

Why don't you refresh your WhatsApp contact manually. By taping on the contact list and scrolling up the screen to refresh it. Also make sure your app is up to date.

Yes., refresh your WhatsApp contact. And the latest version is V2.18.119.

I also meet such case,look forward the good solution.If any new,please feel free to let me know.

Thanks for the replies. I have the latest version. Unfortunately updating the contact list didn't work.

But now i cant see the contacts option in my setting. please help me to show the hidden contacts in my whatsapp

Perfect Answer.

Hi,

I too faced the same problem, but i did the following steps which helped me resolve the issue.

To show all of your contacts, go to Contacts > Menu > Settings. Then, uncheck and re-check the box next to Show all contacts

Next, go to Contacts > Menu > Refresh

Your friend should now appear in your WhatsApp contact list.

Hope it helps!!

Cheers

hi,

why is that when I look in my whatsapp partner phone there is a person which wrote him and he wrote ok, but it didnt appear on his contacts list, nor on his text list either.

someone help!

could it be someone trying to send him stuff... and he is not interested?

I was following this thread and would like to share my findings. I did all the checks above but the sim and phone number had been changed. If you cannot select the contact from the phone’s contact list and the contact already has WhatsApp and you get the massage to invite the user to WhatsApp then this could be the problem. Go to WhatsApp settings and change the phone number

Danish Qureshi had the correct solution for me ..but just to expand a little further - if you had your contacts on your sim card, your phone may well have recognised them but they might not all (if any) be seen by Whatsapp. If you import your contacts from sim card to your phone, they should all populate their names correctly in Whatsapp. (I can't tell you the exact method to import as this may vary per phone/OS version but that should be easy to look up)

having same problem.

If I keyed in my contacts manually, they do not appear in my whats-app's contact list. If I add contacts from a whats-app group, they appear in my whats-app's contact list. Why is this happening? What should I do? My phone is Huawei Nova 5T.
Help.....

I have tried them as well. They don't work for me either.

Hi guys...I have been searching the internet in & out for a solution to this problem. I tried all ways and even factory reset my phone, as it was quite new and didn't have much data to be deleted.

Anyway, luckily for me I found a solution, which I don't know whether it will be applicable to you or not. But its worth a try. All the contacts in my Phone list were saved without Country ISD code. Once by chance I unknowingly saved 1 contact with country code (Kuwait 00965), and VOILA! that contact name appeared in Whatsapp contacts when i got in few days later. Then I tried with few more contacts by adding ISD code and all of them started appearing in Whatsapp contacts.

So try this method and let me know if it worked. THANKS!

There is no, "Show invisible contacts" when I go to help.
I have tried all other tips found here but still no luck.

Thank you for this information,,,..

U are genius.

helpful post