Issues with Outlook Contacts

[nmilot]

HTC Incredible, just got the 2.2 OTA update a couple days ago. I sync my droid with my exchange 2007 contacts, gmail contacts, and facebook contacts. Right off the bat most of my contacts were listed by "Last, First" but there were a handful that weren't. So I went through all of them, linked where i could, and made sure that all contacts were listed as last name, first name. It was a little tedious, but I eventually got it done. Until 2.2 came around......

As the 2.2 update was installing, I happened to be in my outlook contacts on my computer. As the update progressed I noticed that all my contacts started to rearrange themselves. Now, everything in outlook and in my phone is sorted by "First, Last", and I can't get them back. I've found a setting or two in outlook that refer to sorting "Last, First" but they still do not appear this way.

Any idea how I change it back? Thanks in advance.

 

[UNDIrish]

Same issue here...

I have the incredible as well. I sync with Exchange 2003. Have a tech in my offiice and a customer at a lawfirm that have the same issue as well.

Our contacts were sorted by last name, first name. When you open each contact, the "file as" still has last name, first name - but they are actually sorted alphabetically by first name.

If I change it to file as: first name, last name - then save & close, open the contact again, change to last name, first name and save and close again it fixes it, and stays that way on the phone as well.

Problem is I have over 500 contacts, and my client has more than that. Is there any way to reindex contacts?

 

[nmilot]

Good to hear I'm not the only one. I also have hundreds of contacts. I've gone through them once, I'm not about to go through them again.

 

[ucrshaw]

same issue

I have the same issue. If you double click one of the changed contacts in outlook the contact's 'File As' is set to Last, First (name). To fix it manually, I found that if you change the File As setting, save the contact, then change the setting back it fixes the problem.

There is also an outlook utility that fixes this File As problem, but it does all the contacts, so if you have custom settings for specific contacts it may not be the most desirable solution.

Here is the utility:

Microsoft Outlook - Sort using "File As" field within Contacts

worked for me with outlook 2003, but the utility says it will work for other versions of outlook as well.


Hope this helps,
Cheers

 

[gmcam]

Full Name Field

Hi new to the forum(s). I own a Motorola Droid and am not having this issue. However as the IT Guy for the company my bosses boss (the owner of the company) has an HTC Incredible. I have been given the chance to excel and have done some exhaustive research on this issue. In other forums (HTC's forum) there was a post that indicated that the HTC (and only the HTC) uses/pulls the "Full Name Field" instead of the "File as Field" in outlook (confirmed by HTC support). If all your contacts in outlook are set to First Name/Last Name in the full name field, when the phone syncs it will copy what it sees in the Full Name Field. There is no work around for this issue except to reset all your contacts in outlook - which you could export to .csv and resort the way you want. Just thought I would offer this up.

 

[nmilot]

ucrshaw, thank you that worked. Now I just have to work on my facebook contacts. They seem to be the only one showing up first, last.

 

[ucrshaw]

sweet glad i could help!

unfortunately I don't have any facebook contacts. So i can't help you there

 

[JWDX]

I have the Droid X and I made the Outlook csv file and imported it to Gmail. Then the snyc automatically added the contacts to my phone, but all contacts had firstname, lastname. So I changed it to lastname, firstname in Gmail, but the phone still has the firstnames last. Shouldn't Gmail sync up and change the phone to have the lastname first? If not, how do I get the lastname first on the phone?

 

[JWDX]

OK, responding to my own post.
I talked to Verizon and they couldn't help me with my problem but they gave me a Motorola number to call. Motorola told me that there is no way to change the phone to have the last name first in the contacts list. I'm only talking about the Droid X, not sure what other models/brands are like.
I expressed my dismay and complained that the software engineers could have easily allowed that feature with the latest software upgrade. Of course the apologies were flying from the tech rep, and I thanked her for informing about the deficiency of the phone.
IMO, this is ridiculous. I have several contacts of families and I would like to scroll down and see them all at the same area of the list, but this is impossible with the current software version. I guess I can make some groups but I shouldn't have to do that for families and people with the same last name just because a software engineer didn't allow two fields to be sorted independently.
Oh, there is one other solution I offered and confirmed with the Motorola tech rep. I can go into the contacts list and revise each one to have the last name in the first name text box and vice versa. What a crock of !!!!

 

[ImDrRichard]

Thanks -

I have the Droid X and I made the Outlook csv file and imported it to Gmail. Then the snyc automatically added the contacts to my phone, but all contacts had firstname, lastname. So I changed it to lastname, firstname in Gmail, but the phone still has the firstnames last. Shouldn't Gmail sync up and change the phone to have the lastname first? If not, how do I get the lastname first on the phone?

Your method worked great for me! I'll have to remember to import new Outlook contacts to gmail contacts on a monthly basis.

Rich

 

[JWDX]

I have the Droid X and I made the Outlook csv file and imported it to Gmail. Then the snyc automatically added the contacts to my phone, but all contacts had firstname, lastname. So I changed it to lastname, firstname in Gmail, but the phone still has the firstnames last. Shouldn't Gmail sync up and change the phone to have the lastname first? If not, how do I get the lastname first on the phone?

Your method worked great for me! I'll have to remember to import new Outlook contacts to gmail contacts on a monthly basis.

Rich

There may be an app that syncs the Outlook and Gmail contacts automatically, I just did it manually because it was relatively fast, and I'm not sure that I'll be adding very many contacts to Outlook in the future.

 

[ImDrRichard]

An App? Please tell me how I might find one - thanks again!

I wish I knew of an App that does that.

I have the Droid X and I made the Outlook csv file and imported it to Gmail. Then the snyc automatically added the contacts to my phone, but all contacts had firstname, lastname. So I changed it to lastname, firstname in Gmail, but the phone still has the firstnames last. Shouldn't Gmail sync up and change the phone to have the lastname first? If not, how do I get the lastname first on the phone?

Your method worked great for me! I'll have to remember to import new Outlook contacts to gmail contacts on a monthly basis.

Rich

There may be an app that syncs the Outlook and Gmail contacts automatically, I just did it manually because it was relatively fast, and I'm not sure that I'll be adding very many contacts to Outlook in the future.