iPhone Contacts not sorting alphabetically

Question

Level 1

47 points

iPhone Contacts not sorting alphabetically

I have a number of contacts that do not sort alphabetically.

Sometimes when I add a contact, it ends up at the end of that letter group. For example, if I add Jan, the name comes up last on my J contacts.. even though there is a Jon that should come After Jan.

If I add Kathy, she ends up at the end of the K list, even though the others are sorted correctly.. so that Kris comes before Kurt

sometimes when I edit a name, it ends up sorting correctly, but not always

I only use the first name field, though sometimes I put 2 words in the field, such as Kathy Hawaii..

Some of the names are all caps, from a prior phone list I imported. Newer additions are in standard first letter cap, other letters small..

suggestions on how to get correct sorting welcome

I have set my iAddress Book to sort by first name, and it displays correctly but does not sync correctly.

Also, in my iPhoto album on my phone, there is a photo I cannot delete, even though I sync to iPhoto, and the photo has been deleted and trash emptied..

hmmm..

thanks for any suggestions..

fwiw.. my Address book is V 4.0.5, and my iPhoto is v 2.01.. will newer versions solve the issues?

J

iGig 15" G4 TiBook, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Oct 21, 2007 5:48 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 21, 2007 6:31 PM in response to jon_slider

Set the iPhone sort order at Settings-Phone-Sort Order and display order. The iPhone does not use the Address Book sort order.

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Answer 2

kmosh100

Level 2

225 points

Oct 21, 2007 7:25 PM in response to jon_slider

There are a number of reports on the problem that you bring out here in this thread.

If you use the following search parameter in the Search Discussions box on the right you will get more information on the problem:

(contact list sort error)

Use the parens as part of the search.

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Answer 3

jon_slider Author

Level 1

47 points

Oct 22, 2007 10:41 AM in response to kmosh100

Set the iPhone sort order at Settings-Phone-Sort Order and display order

thank you, I had not tried that, very helpful, I set it to sort by first, and display by first..

unfortunately my contact list is still lacking correct sorting..

strangely, if I edit a contact, some of the time it becomes alphabetized correctly.. by edit, I mean, retype the name, exactly the same as before., or change capitalization..

use the following search parameter

thanks
I tried that.. did not find the answer to my question.. do you know the answer?

is it fixable by restoring the phone or something like that?

thanks
J

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Answer 4

jon_slider Author

Level 1

47 points

Oct 27, 2007 9:27 AM in response to jon_slider

Hello Support!

could you please answer my question?

the search link you gave me returns over 10 pages of irrelevant posts

thanks
Jonathan

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Answer 5

Oct 29, 2007 10:45 AM in response to jon_slider

My iPhone contacts are not sorting correctly.

I have certain contacts that are out of order.

Very strange.

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Answer 6

Nov 12, 2007 3:35 PM in response to jon_slider

I'm having this same issue. I don't know what's caused it, as the contacts show up just fine in OS X, but on my phone they seem to be divided in half by letter. An example by L:

Linder
Lokie
Long
Lopez
Lucas
Lesiak
Lynch

It starts over after Lucas, and goes alphabetically again. The only solution I've found is to edit a contact's name and save the changes, and then go back into the contact and change it back and save those changes. Then and ONLY then will the contact go up to where it should be in the list.

I've tried restoring my phone, and even since I've noticed the program, I've upgraded my OS from Tiger to Leopard (same address book file on my computer, though). I've also just upgraded the phone's software from 1.1.1 to 1.1.2 and the problem persists. Has anybody found a solution?

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Answer 7

jon_slider Author

Level 1

47 points

Nov 14, 2007 12:26 PM in response to Ben Kreeger

The only solution I've found is to edit a contact's name and save the changes, and then go back into the contact and change it back and save those changes.

yes, that sometimes works for me too, but not always

I also found that editing the names above the misalphabetized entry, sometimes sends them down where they should be

but, I have about 3 entries that no matter what, refuse to change position

for example, Ted refuses to sort properly

Taxi A
Ted
Taxi B

also Dmv refuses to sort properly:

Dr Brown
Dmv
Dr Jan

also James and Jan refuse to sort properly

Jonathan
James
Jan
John

there does seem to be some sort of pattern.. that is, once a name refuses to be in the right spots, other names restart their alphabetizing from the wrongly sorted name..

sometimes changing the capitalization of a name, will make it sort properly

for example, all caps causes problems..

J

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Answer 8

jon_slider Author

Level 1

47 points

Nov 14, 2007 1:01 PM in response to jon_slider

OK

I solved my sorting problem with a workaround

1. Try adding a couple letters to the name that is not sorting correctly.. this sometimes solves the problem, and you can delete the extra letters after it sorts right

2. Try adding a couple of letters to (each and every one ) of the entries above the misalphabetized entry. They will then sort properly, and you can delete the extra letters after that.

3. Try adding a couple of letters to the entries below the misalphabetized entry. They will then sort properly, and you can delete the extra letters after that.

concept summary
alter mislocated entries by adding a couple of letters, save, then reedit out the extra letters, save again

bear in mind the sort error may be in entries above or below the one that looks out of place.. you may have to alter every single entry in a letter group to get them all to get themselves sorted right.

Jonathan

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