Company names backwards

[Ilfracombe]

Here is another Newby, fresh from iPhone question.

I have a lot of entries in my contacts app which are just companies, without names. For example, 'Mitsubishi Tokyo Branch'. These show up fine in my contacts list if I have them sorted according to first name. However, when I change, as I prefer, to sorting by Family name, then my contacts apps (both People and Contacts+) assumes that the last word in the Company name is a Family name, and displays it as, for example: 'Branch, Mitsubishi Tokyo'. As far as I can see, there is no such division in the field where this information is entered. Is this normal behaviour? Is there anything I can do about it, short of reverting to sort by first name?
thanks

 

[B. Diddy]

You could just enter the company name in the Company field. Open one of your contacts that is a company name, Edit it, and tap on "Add Organization" under the Name field. You will then see an option for Company. Put the company name there, as opposed to the Name field.

 

[Ilfracombe]

Thanks, but the Company names are already in the Company field (in the Organization section). I've tried deleting the company name, and then adding it again, but I still have the same problem of, for example, Mitsubishi Bank showing up as Bank, Mitsubishi.

 

[B. Diddy]

That shouldn't be happening if the name is truly in the Company field. Can you go to Google Contacts on the web and edit them there? Make sure the company names are in the right field there.

 

[Ilfracombe]

The Addresses are not in Google Contacts. I'm using Smoothsync. I suppose there must be a problem with that.

 

[B. Diddy]

That may be the case. I don't use SmoothSync, so I can't comment on it.

Posted via Android Central App--please excuse the brevity and any typos!

 

[Ilfracombe]

Just found out it happens in the Google Contacts list too. I created a contact in that list just by typing 'Tokyo Property Office' in the Company field, along with a phone number. First, it was listed fine as 'Tokyo Property Office', but when I looked a few minutes later, it had changed to 'Office, Tokyo Property'.

 

[B. Diddy]

That's odd. I can't duplicate that phenomenon on my Nexus 7. You're talking about the People app or Google Contacts on the web?

Posted via Android Central App--please excuse the brevity and any typos!

 

[ajgarvin]

I use Google GMail Contacts and this has happened to me too. I have lots of contacts with no values in the first/middle/last name fields but with with an entry in the "company name" field. I think the sort order for companies changed when my phone was "upgraded" to Android 4.3 (it certainly hasn't always been this way) but I can't swear that's when it started.

My preference for the order of people's names is Last, First. In GMail (in a browser on my computer), the sort order is completely sensible: If there's a person's name, it's alphabetized under last name; if there's only a company name, it's alphabetized under the first word of the company name. So company "Budget Rent A Car" is listed under Budget. But, on the phone, the same entry is showing up under "Car, Budget Rent A". It's nuts and it didn't used to be this way!

I'm actually relieved to find someone else reporting that they're seeing this behavior. I was beginning to think I was the only one. Any guidance would be appreciated! BTW, I'm using a Verizon Galaxy S3.

 

[Ilfracombe]

Well, I'm glad (sort of) that I'm not alone. Are you syncing from another machine at all? Smoothsync appear to be stumped.

- - - Updated - - -

Talking People contacts, but the same thing happens with Contacts +

 

[ajgarvin]

It's striking to me that I had to search as hard as I did to find mention of this problem on the web and that in this thread, there are only three of us reporting the problem (so far). It seems absurd to think that if the issue were affecting the entire group of Android users who

[a] have company-only entries in their contact lists,
prefer to view contacts last name first, and
[c] have noticed the crazy inversion of company listings​

that only three people would be complaining.

So I have to suspect that there's some set of causative factors common to the three of us. If we knew with the common factor(s) was(were), we'd know better where to look for solutions. But the list of possible contributing factors seems large. Among them...

• Model of phone. My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S3 (of the Verizon Wireless flavor). Maybe the problem is only exhibited by certain models of phone? If I had access to another cellphone of a different model, I'd check whether the problem is occurring on that phone too. Can either of you try this test?
  .
• Brand of phone. Again, mine is Samsung and -- since I haven't rooted the phone and replaced the OS with vanilla Google Android -- the OS is a Samsung customized* version of Android. What brands of phone(s) are you experiencing the problem on?
  .
• Carrier. My carrier is Verizon Wireless and, again, since I haven't rooted the phone, the OS is further customized* by Verizon. Do both of you happen to be with Verizon Wireless?
  .
• OS version/build. My current OS version is 4.3, which seemed to cause other problems; I've been able to fix some of those, some not. On this point, however, there are LOTS of folks out there complaining. But it's entirely possible that a change in 4.3, in combination with the other factors, has triggered our problem. As I said in my initial post, I have not always had the problem and I think its appearance coincided with the arrival of 4.3 (I just can't swear to it).

* "customized" is a euphemism for something I'm not allowed to say on this forum.

 

[Ilfracombe]

Sorry to be so long in replying. I hadn't noticed your reply.
I have a Nexus 5, up to date system (just updated in fact). Carrier is emobile in Japan (using the softbank network).
I have found no solution to this, and the Smoothsync people have given up on me. But, as I said, it doesn't seem to be just them.
I've found a couple of things which should shed light on the problem (I say 'should', but it seems that it hasn't).
Firstly, if I alter a company name on the web, then sync it over to the phone, the contact on Nexus remains listed the same as it was before, and the new name simply appears underneath.
Secondly, and this is the strangest: I create a company contact on my computer. I sync, so that it is listed on the phone (People). Then I completely erase the company name from the contact info on the phone, so that there is absolutely no mention of the the name anywhere in the edit fields. However, the contact is still listed under that company name! There seems to be no way I can get rid of it on the phone. However, when I sync, the company name is deleted on the computer.
I don't understand this at all. Have you found out anything?

 

[Ilfracombe]

I discovered that she Weber database was interfering with the data base created by Smoothsync. I got rid of Weber, and the problem went away.