phone number format in Mountain Lion

Apple tech support suggested that we go to: www.apple.com/feedback/

Apparently if enough people lodge a complaint, the developers MAY eventually undo what they did to the contacts formatting. If noone complains, nothing will change.

I just sent -another- Feedback note on this one.

Meantime, I'm guessing many people in these Discussion forums have seen Apple's remarkable 1984 debut ad for the Mac -- wherein a far away Big Brother-ish dictator (a deliberate jab at "Big Blue", and symbolizing all the highest-profile, most financially powerful and market-dominating computer corporations of the day) extols the virtues of "Conformity!" to throngs of captive users -- demanding they embrace the one-size-fits-all mentality they're being offered.

Three decades later, it's still a great ad -- with a message some might argue is even more relevant today than ever before. Depends who's watching it, perhaps.

I'm just sayin'.

This does not work. The numbers on iCloud are actually the way they are supposed be formatted (despite iCloud defaulting to US formatting, even though I am in the UK and have always had my preferences set for UK default).

Newly added numbers on the Mac cannot be formatted correctly (or even formatted at all), and removing the format preference in Mountain Lion is just infuriating as it is naive.

Therefore, Apple's latest operating system is unable to format or display a phone number correctly. Wow.

I have posted feedback, but I feel stupid having to tell Apple I want to format a phone number in a 10 year old app correctly.

Agreed. I have differently formatted phone numbers on each device. The only correct ones are on iCloud - which, er… I never use directly!

I tried this, John, but when I logged into the dev site I got this message:

An error has occurred. Please report the error to Apple Inc. by emailing the error detail to devbugs@apple.com.

and had to fill out a bug report via email because the dev site is broken!

This is ABSURD.

How can Apple possibly assume that we have only contacts from the same country? In 2013? Have Apple ever heard of globalisation? They might, as they operate in 150 countries...

Doesn't Jony Ive have his chinese pals in his Contacts?

Yeah, yeah, if you put the + then it works (uses the country format for the country code you used), but what if you DONT want to do that? My operator in Brazil, for instance, does not complete calls with + signs...

So how about Apple putting back the option to creat custom formats like it used to before Mountain Lion? At leaset as an option, instead os selection a Country, selecting "Custom"??

I will call them everyday until they do so!!

I agree 100%

Since upgrading to ML (10.8.2), I've lost the formating of
all my contacts numbers. They default to the
country setting rules... Which as for others in this
post would appear to be the oppisit of helpful or
wanted.

Major step backwards Apple.

Anyone have a fix yet? This is totally ridiculous, Apple is really losing it...

Nope, still broked.

The irony that you cannot format a humble little telephone number in an app by the company that preyy much invented Desktop design is not wasted on me.

I sort of got round this by setting the address format to Samoa !!!!!

At least it now puts the nos in one block rather than dividing it up randomly.

Thanks, but the solution is for Apple to add back the formatting button. Totally ridiculous this hasn't been added back in the various updates they have sent out... Really gone down hill, very dissapointing lately.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try it. In the meantime, FCBLA is right. This is beyond ridiculous. Updates have come out and the problem hasn't been fixed.

Grrrr - lots of us having the same frustration & Apple haven't apparently addressed the problem for some 7-8 months!! Have sent a copy of this thread to their 'Support' suggesting they really need to sort it out, pretty please. They're making me want to go & live in a yurt!!

That is because there is no problem. It is 2013. Put a + in front of your number and you'll be fine.

Not really, etresoft. Some carriers, like mine, won't allow you to dial a local number with the complete international standard number format. Well, blame the carrier? That, too, but Apple should be sensible about real issues. It IS a global product...