Outlook address book, entries are modified

Question

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 !

Answer 1

@Steve

I also try to change it with VBS, but I find that the “File As” doesn't support the format of “First, Last” (You could change it to "First, Last" manually, but this file cannot be set to this format automatically )

If you want to change them to one of the exist and supported format(Such as "Last, First"), you could use a VBS to change them:

1. Enable the Macro for your Outlook:
   
2. Alt+F11 to open the VBS,
3. Right click on Project1 and choose Insert > Module
4. Copy and paste the macro into the new module. The macro is quoted from this article
   Please Note: Since the web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.
5. Change the "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Contact\FileAsOrder" to the version of your Outlook. (Outlook 365/2016/2019 is 16, Outlook 2013 is 15)
6. Then run this VBS to choose the format that you want:

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Answer 2

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

Answer 3

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:

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

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.