Added Contacts disappearing from my Samsung Galaxy S5, how can I stop this?

[AC Question]

Added Contacts disappearing Samsung Galaxy X5

When I add a contact, it is there for less than a day and then it disappears. All contacts do not disappear, just anything I've added lately. It happens whether I add by manually typing in a number or creating a contact from call logs. I enter the contact, check it to make sure it's on the list, and at some point soon after it disappears.

Info:

I have fewer than 100 contacts
My contacts are not synced with anything - I just keep them on the phone.
This has been happening for a few months. Contacts added prior to that seem fine.
I have checked Settings to make sure that I am displaying all contacts
Software version G900PVPS3CPE2
Hardware version G900P.04
Android version 6.0.1

LMK any added info needed, and thank you very much for your help. This is driving me nuts, and online help I've found only deals with entire contacts lists disappearing, not individual contacts disappearing after a few hours.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! So these contacts are being saved to the local Phone account? Just curious--are you completely opposed to saving them to your Google account, so that they are synced automatically? Locally saved contacts don't sync anywhere, so if something happens to the phone, you've lost all of that information.

 

[jmkline]

I don't know if I have a Google account or want one, nor how to access it if I do want one. I have the Outlook app on my phone that is connected with an Exchange account - those contacts write themselves over to my contacts list even though I don't necessarily want it to do so. I'm not at all opposed to having them sync with something so that they are saved - I try to keep most things cloud-based so it's not dependent on a particular device. But I really want to be able to enter contacts on my phone directly into the Contacts list. I would be opposed to have to go to a website or a different app to create a contact if that's what it would take. I like creating them from phone logs, etc.

Also, as with many owners of Galaxy s5 16G phones, I am constantly running out of room and having to delete apps, so I don't want to have to add any app.

Does that help? Thanks for your response.

J

 

[B. Diddy]

Whenever you enter a contact using the Contacts app, there should be a field near the top that says which account it's being saved to--which could be the local Phone account, your Samsung account, your Google account, or any other account (like your Exchange account). Pay close attention to that the next time you enter a new contact. If everything is set to sync properly, then a contact entered into the Exchange account ought to sync to your account in the cloud. I think this should all work if you're saving a contact directly from the call log as well.

 

[jmkline]

I think that's part of it. I hadn't noticed the save-to account field at the top. It had been saving to my Exchange account, although none of the disappeared numbers appear in that account likely because I don't have anything set to sync. I'll look up how to sync and go from there. I also entered a test number with the save to device option. I'll see if that one disappears. I must have switched that save-to default account somehow without realizing it.

I think I should be set. I'll probably prefer to sync to Outlook and will start figuring that out, but at least I might be able to save them to the device if nothing else! I'll stop back here and close the loop either way. Thanks much for your help.

J

 

[jmkline]

Thanks very much for your help. That seems to have done it. When it was saving to the Exchange account, it wasn't appearing anywhere. When I changed to Device, it also started showing up in my Exchange account (the syncs were happening automatically) on the phone. They don't show up on the Exchange account on my laptop, but that's so far down my list of worries that it doesn't even have a pulse. I'm thrilled that they are at least saving to the device.

I appreciate your input and plan to bump around these forums (fora) more for helps and hints. When it comes to technology, I'm a huge under-user and can see that this site would be good for that.

 

[B. Diddy]

Great! Come back any time. We're open 24/7!