Disparity beween two Samsung devices

[Bearium2]

Devices: Galaxy J7 Core; Galaxy Tab A8.0
Android version for both is v9,
Issue: Contacts list: On the J7, I have a full page of entries available including Email, Work (address) phone, option to add further phones. On the Tab I only have "Phone" with no option to add any further details - most importantly, additional phone numbers.

See attached picture.

This may be a User error but I'd appreciate some help.

Regards
Bearium2

 

[Hadron]

It's because you are storing the contacts on the device in one case and on the SIM in the other (the tablet).

SIM contacts are limited to one number per contact. They are basically a legacy solution these days. Store them as device (unsynced) or Google (synced) contacts and you'll have the features you want.

 

[Bearium2]

Hi,
Thanks for the info. Dumb me, confused SIM with SD card. I bought the Tablet, never intending to go online with it (WTF?? You ask) as I bought it primarily for the display and for reading eBooks -better display than the Kobo H2O, IMHO.
Anyway, I acquired a SIM and it was recognised immediately and I seem to remember there being a message to see it had been discovered and that something would be saved to it. Assuming this is my Contacts, how do I a. get them back onto the phone and b: default to phone when adding a new contact? (Note: I added a couple of contacts and defined the SIM as defaul, but the same question still comes up.
Thanks for any further help you can give.

B.
PS. I'd prefer not to have my stuff in the "out there", so on the device is the preferred solution.

 

[Hadron]

OK, most devices have 3 ways they can store contacts: SIM, device (unsynched), attached to an account (synched - commonly to a Google account but other accounts can also sync contacts). Some have fewer options, e.g. Pixel devices don't offer on-device (unsynched) contact storage, at least not through their default contacts app. I don't have a recent Samsung device so don't know exactly what options you have, so am going to talk in generalities here.

Getting contacts off the SIM card should be easy: in the Contacts app's settings there will be an option to import contacts from the SIM (that's been there on every Android device I've ever met that had a SIM slot). Exactly where in the app's settings this will be will depend on the app (on my phone it's sitting in plain sight under "import", but I've had older phones where I've had to go deeper into the settings to find it - "manage" is also a word to look for, as the option is likely to be under that). That should offer you a choice of what you import them to (device only or synched to some account).

As for the default, again my contacts app's settings have that sitting in plain sight, but I can't guarantee it isn't in some sub-categeory on yours. But there should be an option in the Contacts app's settings somewhere (if not clearly visible it could be under editing options, account options, or contact management. Samsung mess with settings more than anyone else, so there's always some extra fun in guessing what they will have done ).

Since device-only contacts are not synced, if anything happens to the device you will lose them. My suggestion would be, once you have set up your contacts, to go into your Contacts app's settings and "export" them to a vcard (.vcf) file. You can then copy this somewhere safe (off the device), and then if you ever need to you can import it back into any Android device and pretty much any contact management app on any platform (Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux - this is why standards are good and proprietary formats a pain in the proverbial ).

 

[Bearium2]

Very many thanks.
You were right about Sxamsung moving things around- The settings icon appeared then disappeared, ot be replaced by a profile picture. It appeared below it but I hadn't seen it. Having done so, however, it was as simple as you described.
As a test, I loaded up a Contact with a known issue (only one line), deleted it from the SIM at its request, then the whole lot came up.
I also changed the default, and willl take your advice re. exporting to a .vcf file.
Kind regards
Bearium2