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Swapping First and Last Names

I just upgraded from an old LG non-smart phone to an S4. My 250+ contact list was "successfully" moved to the new phone. I put successful in quotes because there's a problem. I had my contacts in "lastname, firstname" form on the old phone. When I entered a new contact, I'd enter it that way, e.g. "Smith, John". On the new phone, they look right, but they are not. I just entered a new contact as "Doe, Jane" but it was sorted under J, as Jane Doe, not under D, as Doe, Jane.

If I go to the settings and change it to sort on last name, which is what I want, then that record moves to the D section, as it should. Unfortunately, EVERY OTHER contact, the 250 plus that I already had, get changed to sort on the first name, which the phone seems to think are the last names. Is there a way to globally swap all the first and last names in the phone's database so that it knows that John and Jane are the first names and Smith and Doe are the last names?

Henry

Comments

Klue

Henry

Open up your contact list and press settings (soft key left side of home button} select settings > then select List By and Display contact by and change both to Last name first. This will resort your entire list of contacts. At least it did mine.

HenryHH

Nope. Setting them both to "Last name first" changes the sorting to first names, which the system obviously thinks are the last names.

SuzyQ

I think the smartphone is automatically converting Doe Jane into First Last, so enter it as Jane Doe. It will"get it" and sort properly. If you already have new contacts entered, just edit them and enter them as full names, no comma.

BigRedGonzo

That would certainly work, but I believe his issue is the 250+ contacts that are like that. I don't know of a solution other than actually editing the names, but I believe if I were going to attack that daunting task, I would do it online on Gmail instead of trying to do it on the phone. You may want to expand your search for a solution to Gmail online, there may be a way to automate the task there.

Good Luck,

BigRedGonzo

HenryHH

Yes, I think the thing to do is get them off the phone onto the computer and make the change there. I haven't gotten around to that as my computer is usually booted to Linux and there doesn't seem to be a good way to interact with the phone via Linux. I need to reboot to Windows and see what I can see.

Dave-in-Decatur

Here's an idea. PLEASE NOTE: This is just a random idea of mine; I have not tried it, do not know if it would work, and cannot say whether it would do more good than harm!

You should be able to export your Google/Gmail contacts to a .csv file: in Gmail on your computer (in a browser), click on the down arrow next to "Gmail" and select Contacts; then click the More button and select Export.... Save the .csv file somewhere handy, then open it in Excel or another program that can edit .csv files. See if you can select and swap the contents of the first-name and last-name columns (leaving the column headers in place). If that works, then you could save the file under a different name, go back into Gmail, take a deep breath, write out your will, remove all sharp objects from your house, etc.; and then delete your contacts and import the new file with the swapped columns. If it works, you're good. If not, you can delete the imported items and re-import the original ones you exported. You might even want to start by exporting 2 or 3 different copies, to make sure you've got one to go back to.

I repeat, I have not tried this and don't know how well it would work or what it might mess up. I wouldn't recommend doing it unless you're well experienced with using Gmail Contacts, Excel, and computers generally, and are basically a courageous, risk-taking kind of person. I take no responsibility for whether it works or not.

Klue

Don't have any reason other than your phone has a malfunction, but I have 72 contacts on my phone and I can switch to last name first, just by selecting that button in the settings menu how I want the name to be displayed.

BigRedGonzo

Henry,

The Linux system doesn't matter. The contacts on your phone should be sync'd with Google's Online Gmail App. So you would do the editing through a Web interface not in an application. Last time I checked even Linux has web browsers. Go online to google, login, access gmail, there is a pulldown button in the top left corner of the web page that will allow you to access your contacts.

IF YOU GET THERE AND THERE ARE NO CONTACTS... The S4 has three different types of contacts, on phone, on google and on SIM. If they aren't on Google, they are probably phone contacts, I would change them to Google Contacts and then do the editing. I do not know how to convert them from phone to google, but I think it is a menu option, or there may be an app for that. The advantage to using Google contacts is that they are always backed up on your Gmail account and when you get a phone upgrade and sign into your Google account on the phone to set it up, all of your contacts will re-download to the new device.

OK, I have rambled too much.

Good Luck,

BigRedGonzo

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