Outlook address book, entries are modified

Steve 1 Reputation point
2021-09-22T12:19:11.663+00:00

Hi all experts, have an issue with my company O365 address book. All contacts are sorted "First name, Last name". Every now and then, Outlook modifies my File As list to "First name last name". The comma is removed, and obviously the contacts are now in a wrong position as I get some First names between the Last Names. Just found out that this is for all contacts which I have called in the period since my last manual clean-up. Cell phone model is Huawei P30 Pro, with synced address book. This is the only address book on my cell phone and my computer, ie mix-up from another address book is excluded.
To make it clear, it want my list sorted A-Z: Biden, Obama, Trump. If I call Obama, the list in Outlook will get mixed up, showing Barack first, since Barack Obama comes before Biden Joe.
Please don't contact me for their personal phone numbers, I will not reveal them ;-)
Thanks for your help !

Microsoft Exchange Online Management
Microsoft Exchange Online Management
Microsoft Exchange Online: A Microsoft email and calendaring hosted service.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
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  1. KyleXu-MSFT 26,201 Reputation points
    2021-09-23T02:13:19.667+00:00

    @Steve

    Could you provided more detailed information about this issue?

    All contacts are sorted "Last name, First name"
    Outlook modifies my File As list to "First name last name"

    How do you create this contact? Do you mean create contact in Outlook? Could you provide a screenshot about it? Outlook Contact will not show in Address book, it just a Outlook client function.

    The name that show in Address book is controlled by server side(The value of Display Name):
    134475-qa-kyle-10-11-59.png
    134493-qa-kyle-10-08-55.png


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  2. Steve 1 Reputation point
    2021-09-26T21:55:58.277+00:00

    Thanks KyleXu for looking into my issue. The contacts were all initially created in Outlook on my desktop computer. Previously I used a Samsung S5 with synced address book, there were no issues. After changing to the Huawei P30 Pro, I now have this unwanted modification from Last Name, First Name format to First Name Last Name in Outlook. Strangely, the contacts are still shown correctly on the phone. This happens to the contacts I have called, as for the shown Anton Schaerli. Nicola Affolter was not contacted in this period, so his name still shows correctly.135296-1.png135248-2.png135249-3.png

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  3. Steve 1 Reputation point
    2021-09-26T22:01:18.133+00:00

    To get it back right, I have to open the contact, make ANY modification (not necessarily in the name fields) and save/close the contact. It shows correct again (Last Name, First Name) until I call it the next time.

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  4. KyleXu-MSFT 26,201 Reputation points
    2021-09-27T09:06:04.247+00:00

    Strangely, the contacts are still shown correctly on the phone.

    It just a configuration for Outlook client, you could change it to the format that you want:
    135400-qa-kyle-17-03-44.png

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  5. Steve 1 Reputation point
    2021-09-27T16:23:56.29+00:00

    The Outlook options are (and always were) set correctly.

    135635-4.png

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