Missing some address book data when syncing with iphone

Question

Hi,
I sync my iphone 3G with software version 3.0 on my Imac with Leopard 10.5.7 I have used it for over a year without any problem.
Recently, the sync of address book has been omitting some phone numbers. Say a contact has an office phone, a handphone and a fax, I will only find the fax on my iphone. The number "sellected" for syncing with the iphone is not always the same... sometimes the fax, sometimes the office, etc. Most contacts are only allowed 1 phone number on the iphone, but some have none and some have them all. Last, the land address, the email and other fields are never affected.
Of course, before posting, I already restored my Iphone, but the problem remained.
This problem is in fact very serious since I must carry at all time a printed copy of my 600 contacts...
Thank you in advance for help

Answer 1

I have seen a similar problem on my setup (Outlook and Windows XP). In my case, I found out the iPhone doesn't like certain types of phone field names. When you create a new contact on the iPhone, you can choose mobile, iPhone, home, work, main, home fax, work fax, pager, and other. If, for example, your source data has a contact with a "main" phone number, that number doesn't sync properly.
If you go to Google Maps and find a new address and add it to your contacts, it uses the "Phone" name for the phone field. Oddly, that field is not one on the iPhone list. The phone shows up, but when you edit the contact and try to edit the phone, it automatically switches that field to "Mobile". I think that is an attempt by the iPhone to make sure you have a valid field name for your phone numbers.
The way I see it, it is a bug. I have never had a similar issue with other devices and sync software. Try going into a contact on your computer you are having problems with, and change the field name of one of the missing phone numbers to "work" and resync. See if that makes it sync.