iPhone's Phone contacts vs. iPhone's Contact contacts!

Thanks again. In response to your questions:

• I believe I am saving to iCloud, but I'm not clear about your Settings path: in the Contacts section in Settings there is no "Default Account", but there is in the Mail section, which is presumably irrelevant (this is anyway set to iCloud).
• Not sure what you mean by "is it selected as a group to show contacts" - kindly explain. When I tap Groups in my Contacts, "All Contacts" is ticked, and the (non-editable) heading at the top says ICLOUD.
• Yes, I tap Done.

Just to reiterate: the new contacts I create based on incoming or outgoing phone calls are not appearing in my Contacts, yet they are registered in the Recents page and they appear under Info when I tap the Info icon. When I create the new contact, I see the little activity wheel turning to indicate that the information is being sent somewhere.

Thanks for that. At least now I know what the situation should be. All my groups are selected, so there's something else going on.

But now something else (related?) has come up: the contact I created is not appearing in "either" list of contacts, yet I definitely created that contact as that individual's name, company name and number appear in the list of Recent calls. Where has that contact got to? Something to do with iCloud?

Just discovered this, which exactly describes my issue (apparently it's something that iOS 7.1.2 changed): http://www.cnet.com/how-to/the-fix-for-contacts-not-showing-up-in-ios-7-1-2/

However, the author says that the Contacts section in Settings has a "Default Account" (indeed, that's what you said, Phil). The strange thing is, in my iOS version 7.1.2, I do not have this!!! I have Sort Order, Display Order, Short Name, My Info, then Import SIM Contacts. No Default Account!

Just to say I've "chatted" online with an Apple agent (and his supervisor), who were mystified about my "partial" iOS 7.1.2. I then spoke to a live agent (and his supervisor in Cork), who were also mystified that a Settings Reset didn't do the trick. The latter booked me in to see a Genius in London on Saturday. I'll keep you in the loop, but so far it looks like I'll have to "upgrade" to iOS 8 😟.

The Genius ascertained that the Contacts problem lay somewhere in my user data by initialising my 4S as a new phone without my data and finding that this solved the problem. So we then let iCloud reimport my old Contacts and Notes and I lost my photos, music, email accounts. No problem.

So we didn't have to upgrade to iOS 8. At that point, that "Default Account" line in my Contacts Settings was still missing. Then, later when I got home, I started reinstalling my email accounts - and suddenly found that the "Default Account" line had appeared! So I'm back to where I should be, and my 4S is snappier than before due to the reinitialisation and general spring cleaning. Thanks a million for helping out.

In answer to Phil0124

Yes, iCloud a/c set to include Contacts.

Rebooting has not helped.

If I restore, will I then have to accept iOS 8? My phone's only a 4S and I really don't want it to get slower....

Hm. I've booked a call from Apple for tomorrow morning (the one I booked for this afternoon never materialised...). I'll be in touch again after that. Tx