Bug in Nokia software shows wrong caller ID

During the past month one of my cell phones, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic , was not showing the caller name when a friend was calling. The number in the contacts list was correct but the name wasn't showing, nor the custom assigned ringing tone. It turned out to be a bug!

The story behind this is that accidentally the same number was saved again in the contacts list, but without a name assigned to it. The software was matching the later one, so no custom ringing tone, no name shown. Removing the duplicate entry fixed the issue. Software version of this phone is

v 21.0.025
RM-356
02-04-09

I wondered what will happen with multiple duplicates and if this was fixed in a later software version so I tested with another phone, Nokia 6303. Software version is

V 07.10
25-03-10
RM-638

• Step 0 - add the number to the contacts list, with name Buddy 1
• Step 1 - add the same number to the contacts, with empty name. Result: You get a warning this number is already present for Buddy 1! When receiving a call, Buddy 1 is displayed.
• Step 2 - edit the empty name contact and change the name to Buddy 2. Result: when receiving a call Buddy 2 is displayed.
• Step 3 - add the same number again, with name Buddy 0. This is the latest entry but it is sorted before the previous two (this is important). Result: You get a warning that this number is already present for Buddy 1 and Buddy 2. When receiving a call Buddy 0 is displayed.

Summary: so it looks like Nokia fixed the issue with empty names, by simply ignoring them but when multiple duplicate contacts are available it displays the name of the last entered in the contact list, independent of name sort order.

Later today or tomorrow I will test on Nokia 700 which runs Symbian OS and update this post with more results.

Updated on 2013-03-19 23:50

Finally managed to test on Nokia 700. Software version is:

Release
Nokia Belle Feature pack 1
Software version
112.010.1404
Software version date
2012-03-30
Type
RM-670

Result: If a duplicate contact entry is present it doesn't matter if the name is empty or not. Both times no name was displayed when receiving a call. Looks like Nokia is not paying attention to regressions at all.

Android and iPhone

I don't own any Android or iPhone devices so I'm not able to test on them. If you have one, please let me know if this bug is still present and how does the software behave when multiple contacts share the same number or have empty names! Thanks!