Senders' Names Now Reversed in Mail Inbox (iOS 14.2)

Since upgrading to iOS 14.2 the names of senders in my Inbox of Apple's Mail app are reversed. For example, emails that used to show as coming from "The New York Times" now show as coming from "York Times The New York." Or instead of "Shell Card" it now shows as "Card Shell." It seems iOS used to recognize business names and show them as such. It looks like it now treats business names the same way it always displayed individual names (Last Name, First Name). I know this doesn't affect functionality, but it sure is aggravating.


Anyone else experiencing this and is there a solution?

iPhone 11 Pro

Posted on Nov 11, 2020 11:02 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 16, 2020 9:01 AM

The change of contacts display does impact how my email senders are named. I had the goofy issue with 14.2. Many other threads on this issue, several noting the problem only in inbox and not other folders so clearly a bug not intended. I don’t know why contact display order impacts mail senders, including many not in my contacts (likely the case fir the vast majority of iPhone users), but it clearly does. However, if I change sort order in contacts, as with others, I also have the first, last display in contact as well as mail. So mail senders read normally like they used to but contacts is harder to read because first name is displayed first which, to me, is visually confusing and makes it harder to find what I’m looking for.


I will note that after changing the display order to first, last and seeing the mailbox senders fixed, I tried changing sort order in contacts back to last, first and found that, while contacts reverted to my long-standing and preferred display of last, first, the mail sender display did NOT change back to the weird last, first order that took over with 14.2. This is good. I quit the mail app and relaunched and found it has retained the corrected sort order. I have changed it back and forth several times in preferences and, since changing it back the very first time, changing contact display preference has ceased to effect how mail senders are displayed. No matter what I set display order to, only contacts change (as one would expect), but not mail sender display, which stays “normal”, for lack of a better term.


Don’t know how long it will last (hopefully permanent), but for the moment I have the display order I want in mail and the one I want in contacts and the preference to change sort order is now only changing the display in contacts with mail unchanged since the first change to correct it. Clearly and unequivocally a bug.

199 replies

Nov 23, 2020 8:22 AM in response to LD150

While ur answer in Theory for mail is correct, it negatively impacts the way overall contacts are then displayed. Eg:


Sort Last / First - Smith Fred

Display First / Last - Fred Smith


This corrects the view order in mail to be how it was prior to the update to 14.2 BUT it does have the negative and completely unwanted effect of displaying all contacts in the same way First/Last


Apple therefore needs to do a further update that adds an Email Display option.

Nov 30, 2020 3:54 AM in response to LD150

Our company has Exchange Active Sync and Display Order in Contact Settgings was already set to First, Last. Email sender shows as following, Business Unit (Department), Last name, first name.

When I set Display Order, sender shows: First Name, Business Unit, Last Name.

On 14.1, it was: Last Name, First Name, Business Unit.

When I get a reply, in the mail it shows correct, just not in the Inbox overview.

Nov 16, 2020 3:08 AM in response to LD150

This does fix the issue in mail display and thanks. Unfortunately, it also changes how contacts are displayed. I find it troublesome to view contacts with first name first because there is no method to it and everything appears to be sorted randomly that way even if it is sorted by last name. This is a new and very unhelpful change introduced in 14.2. I hope it’s a bug because email sender names and contacts are not the same and should not be using the same display rules.

Nov 16, 2020 10:24 AM in response to livin1965

I just saw that it worked until I received new mail. I know it was caused by 14.2 which is frustrating but it also seems that in the Settings, Contacts and under the Accounts group, there is another association with your email account. Under it is the connection for Contacts with email. It’s may be that I may just need to disconnect Contacts from email. I any event, back to the drawing board... Soorry.

Nov 27, 2020 4:26 AM in response to frenyoa

No point in keep coming back at me. Plenty of feedback links in the previous pages. I just told you where you are at, but that doesn't make it my fault.

Feedback

https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

I have never know it any different with the Contacts database, and the update changed my sort preferences is all.

The fact that first name comes in col 1 and you prefer it in col 2 is a minor problem as I have said before.

I put this one in the "Siri says Uh Huh" or "I don't like the new calendar" category. Feedback to Apple (not here) then get on with life.


Nov 27, 2020 8:26 AM in response to LD150

Your solution unfortunately does not fix the problem. The adjustment changes the email names to first, last like they always were but contacts also change to first, last. Prior to this update my contacts were last, first and my emails came in first, last. It looks like a program problem with the update. Any idea if this will be fixed in a future update?

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Senders' Names Now Reversed in Mail Inbox (iOS 14.2)

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