"File-as" changes to "company" when syncing with Outlook 2007

Same problem here, the new plugin (downloaded this morning, doing a full sync now) changes the FILE AS to the company name (when existing) in Outlook and creates duplicates of all my contact names in Outlook (strangely, not on the Soocial website). FILE AS settings in Outlook are correct (Firstname, Lastname).

It's all pretty messed up (again) now.

Windows XP Professional, all latest updates
Outlook 2007, all latest updates

I will send you some names, but not on this board (I don't want people to find their names on Google referring to this page), but you can check names under companies like American Express, BSC, Quest Software, BMW -- there's plenty of names!

Hi Bart
As you write all my contacts that had company data changed "File as". My previously setting was "First-last name"

Yeah -- that worked like charm for me. Just follow the above mentioned steps and all your contact data will be back to normal :)

I know what you mean -- especially with the Plaxo plugin installed that updates contacts data automatically within Outlook, this will get messy over time as people update their profiles on Plaxo every once in a while.

I am going to wait a while before I install the outlook connection. I just take too long to clean up if contacts get changed. More distubing for me is that when I sync my phone the contact details are changed and searching for people is diffecult.

I use SonyErisson Xperia (X1) and it is Synced via Exchange server (company phone)

I have this problem too and noticed the business phone number goes to the company main phone number in some cases and as a result my blackberry which syncs through a BES (so indirectly through Outlook) does not have the phone number I need anymore.
This changing of business to company phone happens to a lot of other contacts of mine too, making it impossible to call them when I'm on the road.

Okay, I did some research on this and it appears that some work phone numbers are labeled as preferred, with a star. If I remove the star the work phone number will move to business in Outlook instead of Main Company Phone. Because there is a change this will trigger the "File As" field to be changed to the company name.
What sets the preferred star on a phone number (and other fields) other than setting it through the web application?

I installed the new client and tried to sync with outlook. It somehow changed all the File As areas to the company rather than the name of the contact.


I have once again uninstalled Soocial. They Can't seem to get this Right

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
FILE AS - Syncing with Outlook creates new problems this time around.

Same thing is happening to me. Along with the other show stopping bug (Contacts added in Gmail contact never get synced across to Soocial unless there is a Soocial event that initiates the sync has made pull the plug.

I'm out of here until this thing is closer to prime time.

Let me see: Outlook is *the* biggest desktop client. Gmail is *the* biggest web-based email system. Neither syncs properly!

THIS AIN'T BETA IT'S ALPA-WARE.

Social: "Hassle-free Contacts" should be rebranded "Hassle-FILLED Contacts" until they get their act together.

DrEdwardo ... Stop your crying and use other sync application that are not free. Let people here benefit of this free tools and want to help develloper here.
Regards, Eric

Serious Bug in Outlook-Sync since latest update (0.0.104)!

When I edit a contact in outlook then after syncing the Organization-Field is copied into the "save-As"-Field. Completely unusable now!

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Outlook AddOn copies over SaveAs-Field (by Organization-Field).

outlook primary address resets to "business" address as primary regardless if soocial and gmail addresses are labeled "home". If the the outlook primary address is changed it resets to business at the next sync.

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Outlook Address Defaults to Business.

Any hints on when this bug will be fixed?

Thanks!

Contacts that have both a company name and person's name are being synced back to Outlook with sorting based upon Company Name, but the original sync from Outlook to Soocial are by person's name.

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Outlook sorting by Company name not person's name.

When a contact has a company the company is wirtten in the "Save under"-Field. If I change the "Save under"-Field to my like, the next sync will reset it to the company. How can I change that?

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Company-Name in "Save under"-Field.

Ouch... just had this problem with file as being dropped as well. I have a hosted Exchange account and sync my phone via Active Sync. The contacts list on my phone is dependent on my Outlook Mobile Contact list (my phone book) is my main Outlook contact list... pedantic explanation because... I use File As for my phone's friendly contacts (i.e., my mom's full name as her contact in Outlook, but File As allows the Caller ID to pop up Mom).
Come to find this AM that all my phone's contacts were listed Unavailable... all the info is there, but File As is missing.

Unfortunately, I LOVE SOOCIAL, but this has caused me to remove it from Outlook now. I'll use it once in awhile as a backup method (after CSVing my contacts out of Outlook then reimporting them so I have a synced Gmail) but day to day Soocial use is now off the table.

Not a hater, though, I'll give it another shot as versions progress. Great program and still gonna recommend the service... just with a Caveat for Window Mobile / ActiveSync contact lists.

I'm also having the problem with the company name overwriting the "File as" (or "display name"). In addition, I keep getting duplicates for all of my contacts that are stored with a display name "Last, First". I see in the discussion above that Soocial has problems with Last/First display for some reason. This is going to be an important one to fix, I think. The display name is really the only way of getting a last name sort on my contacts when displayed in a long list, and that needs to allow last/first. Surely there must be a way of doing this without creating duplicates? Also, making certain changes to a contact in Outlook results in an immediate refresh in Outlook back to whatever it was before the change. I'm eagerly awaiting an updated client that hopefully will fix some of these anomalies.

I will add that while this is frustrating, at present this is the only free product that will sync my GMail and Outlook contacts, and I have confidence that these problems will be fixed. I'm frustrated, but still very grateful at having availability of it and knowing that it is being improved.

I am frustrated to.
I use MS Windows XP Professional
MS Outlook 2003
PDA: Windows Mobile 6.1

and all my contacts have change to company as file. When I sync it with my pda phone, it also list all my contacts from the company name, and you can't even search it in the "view>last name".
It takes a while for me to find my phone numbers in my cell phone, since their contact search feature is not as strong as the desktop outlooks.

Please fix it!!!!!!!

I guess I can't speak for everyone, but from my perspective, we'll manage in the meantime. A valid workaround has been posted. Anyone who is giving you guys a hard time over this and making angry demands is really out of line, as this IS a free product and as such we should be thanking you for making it available in the first place. Even an imperfect free product such as this is providing more functionality than any of the other free alternatives, which to my knowledge are either a manual import/export or something like Plaxo which doesn't even do a 2 way sync with gmail.

I seriously appreciate your time spent on this, your dedication to fixing the problems that do exist, your patience in dealing with the demanding knuckleheads who can't be grateful for something that's free, and for being polite even amidst users who may be freshly frustrated at the moment of encountering a problem. Anyway, thank you.

As another workaround for Outlook "File As", here is some VB code (that can easily be tailored for your preferences) that will change all the "File As" for all contacts to what you want based on testing to see if strings exists in the fields ( LastName, FirstName, CompanyName )

Steps
0. Go to Soocial Preferences and set Get Changes to "Never". (You will now manually synconize Soocial when changes to Outlook contacts are made and then run this VB code)

1. Open up Outlook Visual Basic Editor (Tools | Macro | Visual Basic Editor)
2. Insert | Module
3. Paste Code below (and customize after "For Each itemContact In contactItems") depending if you want Last, First OR First Last OR Company, etc.) The code below uses Company ONLY if no First and Last Name exists. If First OR Last name exists it uses that. If both First and Last name exists it uses Last, First.
4. Save and Run

VB CODE BELOW HERE

Private Sub ReFileContacts()
Dim items As items, item As ContactItem, folder As folder
Dim contactItems As Outlook.items
Dim itemContact As Outlook.ContactItem

Set folder = Session.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderContacts)
Set items = folder.items
Count = items.Count
If Count = 0 Then
MsgBox "Nothing to do!"
Exit Sub
End If

'Filter on the message class to obtain only contact items in the folder
Set contactItems = items.Restrict("[MessageClass]='IPM.Contact'")

For Each itemContact In contactItems
If itemContact.FirstName = "" And itemContact.LastName = "" Then
itemContact.FileAs = itemContact.CompanyName
ElseIf Not (itemContact.FirstName = "") And Not (itemContact.LastName = "") And Not (itemContact.MiddleName = "") Then
itemContact.FileAs = itemContact.LastName + ", " + itemContact.FirstName + " " + itemContact.MiddleName
ElseIf Not (itemContact.FirstName = "") And Not (itemContact.LastName = "") Then
itemContact.FileAs = itemContact.LastName + ", " + itemContact.FirstName
ElseIf Not (itemContact.LastName = "") Then
itemContact.FileAs = itemContact.LastName
ElseIf Not (itemContact.FirstName = "") Then
itemContact.FileAs = itemContact.FirstName
Else
itemContact.FileAs = ""
End If
itemContact.Save
Next

MsgBox "Your contacts have been re-filed."
End Sub

Hello, anyone has tried this VB Code workaround? It seems perfect for my needs, but I'm quite the NOOB and would like to know if anyone else has successfully tried this aside David who is obviously not NOOB... :D

One question, after creating this VB Code module, can we set the Soocial preferences back to automatic syncing? Or does this mean we will have to stay with manual sync only?

Thanks Guys!

The reason why this is a showstopper is that it makes dialing by name in your phone impossible on a windows mobile phone. When I dial the person's name on the dialer by typing the first few letters, there is no match. That's because the company name is in the field the phone is using to find a match. What really sucks is that most of my contacts retain the lastname,firstname in the "file as". Only some of them refuse to remain changed. Talk about frustrating. I changed the same 20 contacts 3 times in the last day and they change back. It's been 2 months since this issue was acknowledged. I'm surprised there is no fix yet.

Miguel, I confirm the VBScript is working... but you have to keep in mind that when you will sync. again, the problem come back; as it is said, DISABLE sync with Outlook upon the new release.

Regards, Eric (AdasOsorus)

Why do my contacts continue to be sorted by company name rather than last name? This continues to be a reoccurring problems. Further, the problem is sporadic. I can not determine why one contact is sorted by company name and another contact by last name. Please help.

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Sorting contacts by company name!? I want last name!.