Did WhatsApp mix up all your contact names after phone transfer? Try this potential fix

If you recently transferred WhatsApp to a new phone and discovered that your contact names have gone completely haywire, you’re not alone. Over the past few days, users across Reddit and social media have been reporting a bizarre bug where WhatsApp contact names appear scrambled after phone transfers or account switches.

The problem seems to affect both Android and iPhone users who have recently moved their WhatsApp data to new devices. Users are finding that while profile pictures remain correct, the names displayed don’t match the actual contacts. Someone named “Chris” might show up as “Nick,” and even your own number that typically displays as “YOU” might show someone else’s name entirely.

One Reddit user described the nightmare scenario perfectly, explaining how their work WhatsApp with around 200 conversations suddenly had all the wrong names attached to each chat.

Another user noticed that WhatsApp had somehow merged different people’s profiles together, creating duplicate identities and mixing up contact information completely.

Many users initially tried the obvious fixes like reinstalling the app, syncing contacts, or restarting their phones, but these standard troubleshooting steps didn’t resolve the scrambled names.

Fortunately, it seems there’s a workaround that’s proving to be helpful for everyone. The fix involves disabling WhatsApp’s contact sync feature and then restarting the app.

Here’s how to try the fix:

First, open WhatsApp and go to Settings. Navigate to Privacy, then tap on Contacts. Look for the option labeled “WhatsApp contacts” and turn it off. After disabling this setting, completely close WhatsApp and restart the app.

Multiple users have confirmed this solution worked for them, with one saying, “Thank you very much, it worked” after trying the steps. The fix appears to reset how WhatsApp handles contact information without affecting your chat history or backup data.

However, there’s an important warning when following these steps. When you turn off WhatsApp contacts, the app may prompt you to save contacts to your phone instead. Several users strongly recommend not selecting this option, as it can create duplicates and merge issues in your Google Contacts, potentially making the problem worse.

If you accidentally allowed WhatsApp to save contacts to your phone and now have duplicate or merged contacts in Google Contacts, there’s a way to fix that too. Visit contacts.google.com, click the gear icon in the top right corner, and select “undo changes.” You can choose to revert changes from the past hour, day, or up to 30 days depending on when the issue started.

The widespread nature of this bug suggests it’s likely a temporary server issue that WhatsApp will need to address. Until an official fix is released, the contact sync disable method seems to be the most reliable workaround for getting your contact names back to normal.