Contacts created from recent call list do not appear in contacts app

Question

Contacts created from recent call list do not appear in contacts app

Hi,

I've searched the support groups and found many instances of other users with the same complaint. However, several of the posts mentioned that they are using exchange, gmail, icloud or mobileme to sync contacts. I'm posting this to confirm that even without any of these external accounts if you select a recent call from your recent call list and choose to add it as a contact, it will not be found in the "contact" app, and can only be found via a spotlight search. I also confirmed that if you have a iphone that has its contacts sync'd with icloud the same problem will exist.

Here's detailed steps to reproduce:

1. Receive call from new number.

2. Answer or decline call.

3. Select phone app on Iphone.

4. Select list of recent calls.

5. Select the call and display its details.

6. In the detail panel select "Create New Contact"

7. Enter new contact details and save.

8. Open Contacts app.

9. search for the newly created contact or scroll to newly created contact.

Expected result:

1. Newly created contact should appear in list of contacts

2. New created contact should appear on other devices sync'd with the same iCloud account. (This assumes that you have enabled iCloud sync'ing.)

Actual result:

1. New created contact can only be found via a "spotlight" search on the iphone.

2. Newly created contact does not appear on the iphone's contact list.

Newly created contact does not appear on any other iOS devices sync'd on the same account. (Again assuming you've enabled iCloud sync'ing; regardless actual results 1 & 2 will occur on an iphone without any external sync'ing.)

I have submitted this bug to apple. But would greatly appreciate any assistance on

1. How to find all this "orphaned" contacts, and import them into my contact list, and

2. How to prevent this issue from happening.

Thanks

Kathleen

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.1, happens on 3gs and 4S phones

Posted on Apr 1, 2012 12:08 PM

Reply

Answer 1

modular747

Level 6

19,656 points

Apr 1, 2012 12:42 PM in response to Kathleen Corkett

Not a bug - the problem is in your phone. Others running 5.1 do not have it.

Do the basic troubleshooting steps described in the User Guide, Appendix B, as needed:

Restart phone

Reset phone

Restore in iTunes using a backup

Restore in iTunes as new, without using a backup/

Reply

Answer 2

Apr 1, 2012 12:53 PM in response to modular747

Thanks for the reply.

I have tried those work around steps prior to posting; unfortunately the problem still persists. I have also been able to reproduce the problem on different phones with different configurations.

I suspect the issue has something to do with which default address book the phone is using as described in this post:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3671100?answerId=17372988022#17372988022

Given the described behavior, I think its quite appropriate to describe the issue as a bug, especially from a user experience perspective.

Thx again for the reply.

Cheers

Kathleen

Reply

Answer 3

Apr 1, 2012 7:38 PM in response to Kathleen Corkett

Solved!!

As far as I can ascertain, there is a "hidden" contact account on your phone, which is serving as the default default contact book. Consequently, if you add contact from any other app it is being placed in this "hidden" contact account.

So there real bug is that the iphone is not allowing you select a different default contact book. So to solve this I needed convince the iphone that there is more than one contact account on the phone, so it will allow me select a different default. Here's how I did it.

1. Choose "settings".

2. Select "Mail, Contacts, Calendars"

3. Under the heading "Accounts" choose to "Add Account..."

4. Add exchange account which will sync contacts only. (If you already have an account do that if not go ahead, if not follow these steps to create a temp account as I did:

(Creating a dummy contacts account)

4a. On you computer, navigate to gmail, and choose to create a new account. (You can use an existing account, but I recommend creating a dummy account so you're not adding new contacts into the mix.)

4b. After creating the dummy gmail account go back to your phone where you select "Add Account"

4c. Select to add a "Microsoft Exchange" account

4d. Enter the following:

i. Email: yourdummyaccount@gmail.com

ii. Domain: Leave blank

iii. Username: yourdummyaccount@gmail.com

iv. Password: the password you used to create your dummy gmail account

v. Description: Dummy Account

vi. Press "next" - you will see a "verifying..." message

when it returns enter under the "Server" field: m.google.com

vii. Press next again and you should see check marks on all the fields. The choose "Done"

viii. You will new see three options "Mail, Contacts and Calendars".

ix. Mark the Mail and Calendars to "off" and Leave Contacts as "on".

5. Now that the new dummy account has been added, exit settings. (You may not need to do this but it sometimes takes a while to refresh)

6. Go back to settings, then "Mail, Contacts, Calendar

7. Scroll down to the "Contacts" section. In addition to "Sort Order", "Display Order", and "My Info" you should now see "Default Account".

8. Select Default Account You will see two options "iCloud" and "Dummy" (the account you just created).

9. Choose "iCloud".

10. Exist out of settings.

Now at this point you, I recommend restarting the phone, but it is not necessary. By selecting "iCloud" as the default Account, at the point going forward you when you add contacts via the phone app, the contact will be added to your iClould account, instead of the mysterious hidden account on your phone.

Once you confirmed everything is working go ahead and delete the Dummy account you created. You do this by selecting "settings">>"Mail, Contacts, Calendar">>under accounts pick the "Dummy" account you created and select "Delete Account" You will be warned that this will delete any contact on your phone from that account, but since that was a dummy account, nothing get's deleted.

Now a couple things to remember.

1. Any contacts you created to the mysterious hidden account still exists. You can search for them via spotlight. (I recommend finding them share the contact with yourself via email, delete the contact, and then re-add it from the email you sent youself.)

2. There doesn't appear to be a way to delete this mysterious hidden account, if you find a way to delete and export it values please let me know.

Well that's my solutions. As always, be sure to back up your phone before you do anything. I hope it helps.

Cheers

Kathleen

Reply

Answer 4

May 28, 2012 12:24 PM in response to Kathleen Corkett

I have the same problem in iphone 4s. This problem appeared in the system 5.0.1 and didn't disappeared after upgrading to iOS 5.1 😟

Reply

Answer 5

Clg83

Level 1

0 points

Jul 11, 2012 8:52 AM in response to Kathleen Corkett

All of you just made it way more difficult than u needed too. All u do is go to settings click on

Mail contacts calendars then u will see a brown icon that says contacts and it'll say on just turn it off and all your problems Are fixed and it'll ask a ? And when it does just click save to I phone it's. Very simple instead of setting up acc and all this going through unnecessary steps

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Answer 6

VKendall

Level 1

0 points

Aug 23, 2012 1:30 PM in response to Clg83

Thanks Clg83 - simple solution and it worked, was driving me mad!

No idea why that fixes it - if anyone works out why please let me know so that I can use iCloud properly for storing the contacts - the solution definitely looks like a sticking plaster than a complete fix

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Answer 7

Lauragro

Level 1

0 points

Aug 28, 2012 5:16 AM in response to Kathleen Corkett

I found a much easier way to do this. My issue was I have so many contacts under "all my contacts" but I want to keep the phone contacts separate to have quicker easier searches when I want to make phone calls. But when saving recent phone calls as new contacts, I was unable to find them on my iPhone contact list but only under "all my contact". So, go into settings...mail, contacts, calendar, ..go to contacts.. For default account my email address was checked so I switched it to " on my iPhone" and voila, all new contacts I save now appear on my phone contact list.. Prior new contacts saved I had to delete and now resave so they would be on this default account rather than the "all my contacts" list. Hope this helps!!

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Answer 8

Dec 24, 2012 11:09 AM in response to Clg83

No brown icon etc on myn iphone 4s. no way to turn clontacts on or off.

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Answer 9

May 11, 2014 12:52 AM in response to alexfrommv

My solution was to go to settings, then scroll down to contacts and I had my hotmail account as default account for contacts. So click on that and choose "my iphone". After this you can save all of your future incoming numbers and you will see them in your contact list. However the ones you have already saved will only appear in your other contact account. You have to go back and delete the contact info from recent calls and save it again.

Hope it helps.

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