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Friend-related issues

If the name of a friend or group appears as "Empty chat," "No members," or "Unknown," try manually syncing your data by accessing Repairing friend and group data from your smartphone and tapping Friends and groups > Repair.
Note: Do not sync your information multiple times in a row.

If the issue persists even after repairing your friend and group data, please try the troubleshooting tips.

• Change your theme to the Original theme by following the steps below:
  1. Open LINE on your smartphone.
  2. Tap the Home tab > Settings

.
3. Tap Themes > My Themes.
4. Tap Apply with only the Original theme selected.

• Make sure that there's at least 2 GB of free space on your device before repairing your friend and group data.
• Delete the chat you're having issues with and then ask a group member to send you a message.
• Leave the group and then join it again.

Be advised

Deleting a chat or leaving a group will also delete its chat history. If you want to save important chat messages, please consider asking a group member to save them in text format. Please note that chat messages saved in text format cannot be used to restore your chat history in LINE.

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If you can't add friends, refer to the section below based on your situation.

Useful info

If there are issues with the name of a friend or group, try the suggestions in The names of friends/groups appear as "Empty chat," "No members," or "Unknown".

"An unknown error occurred." appears

Your LINE account may have been suspended for a certain period of time due to violating our Terms and Conditions of Use. Please try adding a friend again after waiting one or two days.

You can check the main types of activity that constitute violations by referring to Standards regarding posts on LINE on the LINE Safety Center website.

A friend can't be added using ID/phone number search

Note: The phone number search feature is only available for LINE accounts created with LINE versions earlier than 13.11.0 if you're using LINE outside of Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, or Thailand.

Be advised

If you're unable to add a friend via ID or phone number search, please try adding them using a QR code, a link to add a friend, or through a group member.

If a friend can't be added via ID or phone number search, it's possible that those settings were turned off, or the search feature is restricted on you or your friend's account.

Unable to search for IDs/phone numbers due to each other's settings:
Note: Please follow the steps below on your main device (typically your smartphone).

Your friend can't find you using ID/phone number search

If your friend can't find you via ID or phone number search, you need to turn on the Allow others to add me by ID or Allow others to add me settings.

To allow ID searches:
1. Open LINE on the main device your account is registered to.
2. Tap the Home tab >

> Profile.
3. Turn ON Allow others to add me by ID.

To allow phone number searches:
1. Open LINE on the main device your account is registered to.
2. Tap the Home tab > Settings

> Friends.
3. Turn ON Allow others to add me.

You can't find your friend using ID/phone number search

If you can't find your friend via ID or phone number search, your friend needs to turn on the Allow others to add me by ID or Allow others to add me settings.

To use ID search, your friend needs to turn on the Allow others to add me by ID setting. Please ask them to have this setting turned on.

To use phone number search, your friend needs to turn on the Allow others to add me setting. Please ask them to have this setting turned on.
Note: The phone number search feature is only available for LINE accounts created with LINE versions earlier than 13.11.0 if you're using LINE outside of Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, or Thailand.

The search feature has been restricted:
The search feature may be temporarily restricted for the following reasons.
Note: For security reasons, we cannot provide details such as how long the restrictions will last.

• You exceeded the number of searches that can be made.
• You searched for the wrong LINE ID or phone number too many times in a row.
Note: The phone number search feature is only available for LINE accounts created with LINE versions earlier than 13.11.0 if you're using LINE outside of Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, or Thailand.

I have Auto-add friends turned on, but my contacts weren't added

If you have Auto-add friends turned on, but a contact wasn't added to your friend list on LINE, both you and your contact need to check the settings.

Your contact's LINE account settings
A contact cannot be automatically added if:
• They turned off the Allow others to add me setting on LINE from their main device.
Note: Check to see if they appear in your Friend recommendations.
• They don't have a phone number registered to their LINE account.
Note: This only applies to accounts created with LINE versions earlier than 13.11.0 if they're not using LINE in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, or Thailand.

Your LINE account settings
The contact might have been added to your hidden or blocked accounts list.

To check:

Useful info

For information about the difference between main and sub devices, see Using the same LINE account on more than one device.

On your main device (typically your smartphone)

1. Go to the Home tab and tap Settings

.
2. Tap Friends.
3. Tap Hidden accounts or Blocked accounts.

On your sub device (typically your tablet)

iPad

1. Tap Settings.
2. Tap Friends.
3. Tap Hidden accounts or Blocked accounts.

Android

1. From the Home tab, tap Settings

.
2. Tap Friends.
3. Tap Hidden accounts or Blocked accounts.

If your contact is in any of these lists, tap Edit or select the contact and tap Unhide or Unblock.
Note: You won't be able to check your contact's account if it was deleted from the Hidden or Blocked accounts list.

If your contact is still not automatically added to your friend list after checking everything above, see the Help articles under How friends work on LINE and add them manually.

I can't add friends via QR codes

Generate a new QR code if the current one cannot be scanned or if "User not found" is displayed after scanning.

To regenerate your QR code:
1. Tap scan icon

on the right side of the search bar.
Note: The search bar appears at the top of the Home and Chats tabs.
2. Tap My QR code.
3. Tap Regenerate > OK or Confirm.

If you're still unable to add friends via QR code after following the above steps, please try a different method.

A message appears saying the LINE account I'm trying to add can't accept any more friends

There are limits to the number of accounts you can add as friends and the number of accounts that you can add you.

If the above error message appears, you will not be able to add the account in question as a friend.

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If there are display issues with your friend list, refer to the section below based on your situation.

Settings are not applied/Friend and profile information differs from what others see

E.g. You receive chat messages from someone you blocked; The group name you see differs from the name your friends see.

This happens when your device cannot auto-sync with our servers for some reason. Update LINE to the latest version and restart your device.

If the issue persists after updating LINE to the latest version and restarting your device, try manually syncing your friend and group data yourself by tapping the link below from the smartphone that you use with LINE.
Note: Do not sync your information multiple times in a row.

Repairing friend and group data

Affected information: Friends, groups, group invitations, friend recommendations, favorites, hidden accounts, and blocked accounts

Issues related to your device's contacts

Friends' names don't appear as they're registered in your device's contacts

Important: The contents of this section only apply to LINE accounts created with LINE versions earlier than 13.11.0 if you're not using LINE in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, or Thailand.

Your friends' names on LINE will appear as they are registered in your device's contacts if:
• They registered their LINE accounts with the phone number registered in your device's contacts.
• You have Auto-add friends turned on (or you had it on when you added your friends).

If you added your friends with a method other than the above (e.g. via ID search, QR code), they'll appear with the name they set on LINE.

Contacts on my device don't appear in my friend list

This may be because:
• You or your friend have the Allow others to add me setting turned off.
• You were hidden or blocked by them.
• They appear in your friend recommendations.

For more details, please refer to the following Help pages.

How friends work on LINE
How friend recommendations work

Friends' names do not appear properly

If the friend whose name does not appear properly is saved in your device's contacts, it's possible their name contained an emoji when it was saved. Check your contacts list, and if your friend's name was saved with an emoji, please try deleting it.

If the issue persists after trying the suggestion above, try manually syncing your friend and group data yourself by tapping the following link from the smartphone that you use with LINE.
Note: Do not sync your information multiple times in a row.

Repairing friend and group data

Friends don't appear/have disappeared

This may be because:
• They deleted their accounts.
• You hid, blocked, or deleted their accounts.
• Your LINE account was not transferred properly.
Note: You cannot undo deleting a friend. In this case, please add them again.

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The reason will differ for each game. Please start the game and contact the LINE Games team using the inquiry form found inside the app.

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If your LINE account is verified with a Japanese phone number, the ID/phone number search feature will be restricted until you verify that you are 18 or over. This is in order to protect minors who are using the service.

LINE uses the age verification services provided by Japanese mobile service providers. You can verify your age if you have a contract with au (KDDI), NTT Docomo, SoftBank, Y!mobile, or LINE Mobile.

In any of the following cases, you will not be able to verify your age and search for friends using their phone number or ID.

• Your contract is with a mobile service provider that cannot be used for age verification.

• Your mobile service contract is under the name of someone under 18 years of age.

• Your mobile service contract is under a company's name.

• You have not registered your user information. (For mobile service providers other than LINE Mobile)

• You have not applied for sp-mode. (For NTT Docomo)

• You cannot configure your mobile service provider's setting for sharing your age. (For mobile service providers other than LINE Mobile)

In any of the situations mentioned above, try adding friends with a different method (e.g. QR code scan or auto-adding friends from your device contacts).

If you haven't finished registering your user information or configuring the setting for sharing your age, please contact your mobile service provider for assistance.

In the case that you cannot verify your age even though you are 18 or older, have registered your user information, and configured the setting to share your age, contact us via this Inquiry Form.

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Important: The contents of this article only apply to LINE accounts created with LINE versions earlier than 13.11.0 if you're not using LINE in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, or Thailand.

If the owner of a phone number registered in your device's contacts has changed or if the phone number is incorrectly registered in your contacts, it will create a situation in which the LINE account of a friend that appears in your friend list is actually being used by a different person.

Useful info

- Syncing LINE with your device's contacts is a feature that automatically adds friends registered in your contacts as friends on LINE.
- You can see the name someone has set on LINE for their account by tapping the pencil icon next to their display name. If you see an unfamiliar name, it's possible that your friend has already changed their phone number.

See the following section based on your situation.

Issues happening on your LINE account

• Someone who doesn't use LINE appears in your friend list

Make sure your friend's phone number is current and registered correctly in your device's contacts.

• An account that appears in your friend list belongs to someone you don't know

Check whether you've registered multiple phone numbers for your friend in your device's contacts.

• The name of someone in your friend list suddenly changed

Check whether you changed their registered name in your device's contacts.

• There's an account that appears in your friend list under your name

Check whether an old phone number from a previous contract is registered under your name in your device's contacts.

Issues happening on another person's device

• An account or multiple accounts under your name appear in your friend's LINE account despite not using the service

Check whether your old phone number from a previous contract is registered in the contacts of your friend's device.

• Someone you don't know sees your name on their LINE account when you register your phone number for a new contact on LINE

Your phone number for a new contract (that previously belonged to someone else) is likely registered in the contacts of the unfamiliar person's device.

Useful info

- If someone you don't know appears in your friend list, you can delete them after hiding or blocking them.
- We recommend turning on the Filter messages setting to prevent receiving messages from users you don't know.

If you're still having issues after you've confirmed everything above, your device information may not be synced with the information on LINE's servers.

If you're unable to sync your device information with LINE's servers, refer to the following Help article.

Friend and profile information differs from what others see/Changes to settings do not appear

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When someone you don't know adds you as a friend on LINE, their name will appear in your friend recommendations. For details about friend recommendations, see the following Help article.

How friend recommendations work

To prevent people you don't know from appearing in your friend recommendations, see the following Help article.

Preventing others from adding you

If someone you don't know already appears in your friend recommendations, please consider blocking or deleting them.

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Help center

Search Help articles

Friend-related issues

Friend-related issues

The names of friends/groups appear as "Empty chat," "No members," or "Unknown"

I can't add friends

Friend list display issues

Why does a blocked or removed friend still appear in my game rankings?

I verified a Japanese phone number and can't search for IDs/phone numbers because age verification is required

My friend's account appears, but a different person is using it

People I don't know are showing up in my friend recommendations