Android Messaging app not showing Contacts.

[incutonez]

I just got a Samsung Galaxy Light (T399), synced my contacts with my Gmail account, and they do show up in my Contacts. However, when I go to the Messaging application, and click the Contacts within the application, I get "No contacts."

What I've tried to remedy this:

• Restarted phone
• Removed and reinserted SIM card
• Removed cache from Messaging app, Contacts, and Contacts Storage
• Force stopped the above mentioned processes
• Contacts Sync Fix app

I also have Google Voice installed, but uninstalling that did nothing. I had read somewhere that the contacts used in the Messaging app are different from the contacts in the Contacts app, but that doesn't make sense to me. Either way, I'm completely out of ideas. The Messaging app is at version 4.2.2 (same as my Android version). Any thoughts?

 

[Petrah]

Hi there.. welcome to Android Forums!

I wish I could remember how 4.2.2 has the messaging app set up. With mine (4.3) I just tap on the + sign when I open Message and begin typing the name of the contact I want to message and their name pops up.

Google updated Google Talk to Google Hangouts, which integrates SMS and MMS messages from the Message app into Google Hangouts (you can see all of your contacts in there, too). I'm not sure if it's available for 4.2 but you could check Google Play and see if you might like something like that.

If that's not an option for you, hopefully someone will else will chime in and be able to help you.

 

[incutonez]

Thanks for the welcome! So I think the Messaging app is set up similarly in 4.2.2. When you click the app, it opens up, and you can Enter the recipient (I'm assuming typing a name here would bring up their number), or you can click the little Contact icon next to it, which brings you to your contacts (mine's obviously empty).

I tried looking at Hangouts, but the interface is quite confusing. When I click the + in the upper right hand corner, it brings me to what looks like a contacts search. When I search for one of my contacts, it brings up Google+ suggestions, like David Spade. I'm definitely not trying to contact him... so where are my contacts!? I don't understand why this is so difficult! Very frustrating.

 

[incutonez]

Nevermind, really stupid on my part. Apparently when I exported my contacts, I didn't export them to the proper CSV, so my contacts had their numbers in the Notes section... which means they don't even show in the Messaging contacts because they had no number associated with them. Unfortunately, it was a manual process to fix this... went contact by contact and copypasta'd the values.