Husband and Wife names in Contacts

[Landa220]

Please help.

I'm trying to enter into Contacts the following: "John & Jane Doe". I am entering "John & Jane" as the First Name, and "Doe" as the Last Name. All seems fine, but at some point the system retains "John" as the First Name and changes the Last Name to "& Jane Doe".

My contacts are synched to my gmail account where I have it entered correctly. It stays accurate in my gmail contact list, but on my handheld it reverts back to the incorrect Last Name" soon after being corrected. I have changed it manually on my handheld as well as changed it manually within gmail contacts. This also used to happen before I began using gmail, so I don't think it's related.

Let me know if you all have any workarounds that I might not be thinking of. I even tried to "add a field" in the name section for a spouse.

I appreciate any suggestions.

[raino]

Enter this contact in manually. I just tried and it doesn't reset.

If this doesn't work, how about going with just the Does?

[SwitchBeach]

Or try using the word "and" instead of the ampersand character.

[Landa220]

Originally Posted by SwitchBeach

Or try using the word "and" instead of the ampersand character.

Thanks for the suggestion. I just tried it and it didn't work.

I'm still working at it though.

[Landa220]

Originally Posted by raino

Enter this contact in manually. I just tried and it doesn't reset.

If this doesn't work, how about going with just the Does?

Thank you for the suggestion, "the Does" might be a stopgap solution till I find the answer.


Here is more information. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the way the handheld is reading the sync'd info back from my gmail contact list.

I can enter it correctly either manually on the handheld or manually on my computer into my gmail contacts. It syncs rather quickly between the two. It will remain correct only in my gmail contacts. Shortly after entering it manually on the handheld, it will sync with the online contact list correctly, but will change to the "& Jane Doe" on the handheld.

I have also wondered if it was reading the space between John and Jane, so I entered it as "John_&_Jane". That didn't work.

Hmmm. I'm not giving up.

[kbz1960]

I wonder if it has to do with syncing. I have a mom and dad contact but no last name and it stays.

[Landa220]

Okay, I think I found the solution even though its not what I wanted.

The whole thing started when I decided to have my handheld contact list sorted by "Last Name". When I go back to have the list sorted by First Name, there's no problem. I will just hang with sorting that way.

I'm still looking for the actual correction as the handheld Last Name is technically incorrectly showing "& Jane Doe" or "and Jane Doe". I even tried "or Jane Doe". lol

I'll bet its something stupid, but who knows.

Let me know if anyone else has any suggestions.

Again, I'm not giving up.

Maybe tech support might have an answer.

[Landa220]

Update!

I seem to have found a way around the problem. I've decided to enter the names as "John/Jane Doe".

Apparently, it is the space that comes after the first name. Therefore if I do not enter a space, but "/" instead, it works.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. There still is a slight flaw in the way contacts last name is determined, but now I can properly list my contacts by Last Name and it not be all over the place.

[the gladiator]

I've faced this problem as part of the contacts sync (and I'm facing now the calendar sync problems). The solution RIM is offering about PIM synchronization it's a nightmare and it's really disappointing to see how such a company is falling miserably short compared to the competitors in a simple although crucial area !!!

Stop ranting now and here there are my two cents: I abandoned sync trough BIS for contacts (have you noticed what happen if you fill only the first name (may be you find odd to fill the last name for your kids) or if the last name has two words ?) and I'm using the Google sync app. It's working flawlessly for me so far and you don't have to use any workaround; on top of that as I don't update/create contacts so often, I selected the "manual sync" rather than the "automatic sync" with an associated battery saving.

[southlander]

Yes the behavior of the contacts app is to consider anything after the first space in the name field a last name.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9930 using Tapatalk

[TurboTiger]

My solution to this issue was to split the contacts. John has his own and Jane has her own.

Don't talk to me about how Google and BB don't like each other when it comes to the address field on the BB device when syncing through BIS. Totally screwed up.

Good Luck

[CDM76]

Originally Posted by Landa220

Please help.

I'm trying to enter into Contacts the following: "John & Jane Doe". I am entering "John & Jane" as the First Name, and "Doe" as the Last Name. All seems fine, but at some point the system retains "John" as the First Name and changes the Last Name to "& Jane Doe".

Enter it as "John&Jane" not "John & Jane" Without the spaces it works fine.