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sort contacts by last name

I have a similar question/comment although for a different reason. When I imported my contacts from Outlook into gmail, they were all Last Name, First Name. Now some that have "matched" facebook and gmail are First Name Last Name. Both setups correctly have "given name" and "family name" fields set up, but just display differently.

Is there a way to make them uniform?
 
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Bump.

Anybody have an update for this? I have Facebook, Gmail and Exchange entries for a bunch of contacts. All are linked together on my Incredible. I have gone into each one on the phone and selected to display the Last Name, First Name exchange entry. When I look again the next day a bunch (but not all) are back to displaying in First Name, Last Name order.

I was so frustrated that I switched all the entries in Outlook to First Name, Last Name order, switched the default, synced, and made sure everything was correct on phone. Next time I looked the contact list on the phone had some of them in Last Name, First Name order!!

I've now switched everything back, but every time I check some of the name are wrong.

This is very, very frustrating and frankly stupid. The correct way to alphabetize peoples names is Last Name, First Name. All data fields are filled out correctly. Why is ANY default sorting going to First, Last?!!!
 
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correct[/U] way to alphabetize peoples names is Last Name, First Name. All data fields are filled out correctly. Why is ANY default sorting going to First, Last?!!!

I fully agree that it's stupid, but it seems that the majority has no problem finding their contacts by the first name.

There may be alternative contact apps that will sort by last name, but the only way I know of to do it (with the default) is to input the names in reverse order, i.e. file the last name in the "Given Name" block, and first name in the "Family Name".

And then DON'T sync your Facebook contacts (assuming you're on FB) with your contacts list, it'll mess it up again.
 
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I could even deal with finding my contacts sorted by first name. What I can't stomach is some of them sorted by first name and some of them sorted by last name.

Frankly, the 'People' app is just buggy. I say this 'cause the sort problem doesn't appear to be related to ALL of any group. I've got facebook, exchange and gmail contacts all linked together and some of each group appear one way and others appear the other.

Suggestions for alternative?
 
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I have found a way to sort the contacts by last name on an EVO 4G. However, it is tedious at best and painful at worst. Here's how you do it.

1. Go to your "People" app.
2. Select either "All" or "Group" from the bottom ribbon (sorry, I'm a noob and don't know what that bottom ribbon is called).
3. Select the contact you wish to edit.
4. Scroll down until you see "Edit" and select it. It should be the last option.
5. At the top of the screen you will see your contact's name. Select the contact's name.
6. You will see where you can edit the first and last name. The 3rd line down says "Display name:" Under that is the way the name is displayed with a drop down arrow. Select the arrow and you will find the two ways to display the contact's name.
7. Select the display method you prefer (firstname lastname or lastname, firstname).
8. Select OK.
9. Hide the keyboard, scroll down to the bottom, then select Save.
10. Next press the back button and you should see your results.

This seems to work, but I haven't tried syncing my phone after I have made these changes. Also, I have not found a group edit for this. This will become tiresome if you have a lot of contacts.


s3r
 
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In the People app (HTC sense?)

From what I can tell,
1) Gmail imports First Last by default. (Social standard)
2) Imports First Last - (Social, Not editable)
3) Exchange imports Last, First by default (Business, editable)
4) Phone created Contacts default to First Last when creating them. (editable)

When you link contacts, the top field allows you to choose which name to use. This field defaults to the way the Contact being edited displays the name. So, if you link things to a facebook contact, it defaults to First Last. If you link contacts to an Exchange contact, it will default to Last, First.

So, you can "Fix" offending contacts by editing them, or choosing a "correct" version in the Linking field.

A global default would really be nice.
 
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I agree with the frustrations regarding the EVO and synching FNF vs LNF, but I do not or ever have used Outlook. I went from a Palm Trio backed up thank Goodness by Google, and not the archaic Palm. When I purchased my New EVO HTC, all contacts synced some with the aforementioned LNF FNL glitch. My true answer that works is to amend the offending names as described above in your People, then choose edit, and most importantly... DO NOT put in a persons first name, leave it blank, then go to the highlighted name,touch it, and eliminate the persons first name. Then if not already there, type in the last name, then a comma, space , then first name and it will also be the "display name". EXAMPLE
Last name: Smith, John First name: leave blank. Display name now reads:
Smith, John M.D. And back out any first name, just use last name,comma, space, first name capitalized. It works. iPads google has a tab for the toggle with no issue. My EVO is perfectly synced with my IPad ver1 or ver2 IOS 4 or 5, no difference. Do not forget to chose "ok" then "save". If you don't save, you lose. That also works in finance. Ted

Verify it, then say ok, and remember to save at the bottom.My 556 contacts had about 180 reversed from last to first. I used this method and it works with no new software. I synch with google on my IPad from my EVO google backed up names, and the IPad was 100% correct at LNF.
 
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