This is really weird, as I've never had this problem before.
I just upgraded to a Z Flip 4 and synced all my contacts from my outlook.com account, which worked fine. I've added a couple of contacts and deleted a contact without an issue through the contact app on the phone and the change always carried through to the outlook account. And to be clear, I've never encountered this issue on my previous Z Flip or any Samsung phone before...
However today I went to edit a contact to remove their last name (they just got married and I don't yet know what name they've taken so I removed it rather than accidentally call them the wrong thing), and the change doesn't carry through to my outlook account. Indeed after about a minute, the contact I edited changes back to the previous version with the last name in place as it syncs with the version online. In this case, I ended up deleting the contact (which worked fine) then creating a new contact with no last name, but as a test I tried altering another contact by adding a middle name.
This worked perfectly and their new middle name showed up online and stayed as I entered it on my phone.
I then attempted to remove the middle name through the contacts app. On the phone it showed as having no middle name. Then, a minute later, the contact on my phone flipped back to the way it was, with the middle name as it appeared to sync with outlook.com.
I've tried a few different types of changes and it seems that you can ADD to a contact when editing them (add notes, new middle name etc. Anything that is putting in new data), but you can't REMOVE any of the information, otherwise it simply reverts back to the way it is online.
It's almost like there's some sort of trigger that tells the phone to upload the data to Outlook, but it only triggers when data is added, not removed. Or there's some sort of permission that let's you add data but won't permit you to delete anything (except apparently it's fine with you deleting the entire contact)
Does anyone know what could be causing this? I've tried enabling and disabling syncing several times, deleting the account and adding it again, deleting all the contacts off the phone then syncing again from scratch and this behaviour continues. It's super annoying as any change I make "on the road" as it were, doesn't work and it simply reverts to the previous version...
Your contacts are often stored in different places like phone memory, your Google account, your sd card if you have one, Outlook, etc. When you create a new contact try exploring the settings before saving to identify where the new contact is being stored, It may be you are saving to one storage area but you have specified another storage as default and it defaults to what is there. Google something like using default contact list in android phone or syncing multiple contact lists in android (or Samsung device).
Thanks for the reply. My contacts are all in outlook, there are none stored locally on the phone. This is confirmed by clicking "storage location" and all are showing the correct outlook account as the storage location. There are no other accounts registered for contacts and as per my post, I am able to create and delete contacts correctly with no trouble at all.
Thanks. I have a gmail account but don't use the gmail app. My gmail account has no contacts in it and is also set not to sync anything either (no contacts, calendar etc). It's just an email account.
Hi Laura, thanks for the reply. The contacts can be edited fine everywhere else. Either in outlook on PC, or through the web portal for outlook.com.
Any change made anywhere else appears on my phone almost instantly, and any change made on the phone appears instantly in my outlook account (if it is adding new information, or even deleting the contact entirely), but if I try to edit the contact it doesn't happen.
To clarify, did the changes made on PC reflect on the phone app?
I suggest sending an error report within 2-3 minutes of the issue occurring for this to be investigated by our research and development team. Error reports assist with identifying any deviations in your device performance. Once analysed, our team will get back to you with a response to advise further steps. To send an error report: Samsung Members app > Get help > Error reports > select issue category > Describe issue and frequency > Tick ‘Send system log data’ > ‘Send’ in top right.
Yes, the changes made on the PC flowed through to the phone within a minute or so. I will try to send an error log in as the issue is easily reproduceable by trying to change any contact information.
