** appended to phone number

[JohnnyXI]

I have a Samsung A8 phone.  I entered a (local) phone number into contacts and it automatically appended two asterisks (**) to the end of the phone number. They cannot be deleted. When I make a call using this number I get a message "Hi, Public Mobile here.... Sorry, Talk is not included in your plan....". If I enter the same number manually from the keypad the call goes through as it should. I have entered numerous other phone numbers  which work without problem. Anyone any ideas as to what it's happening?

[hTideGnow]

@JohnnyXI  cool, so we got this figured out , at least with a workaround.

I was to suggest you call Samsung for support.  But honest, their first course of action would ask  you to wipe the phone and test and I guess you wouldn't want to do that for one or two particular numbers, esp now you found a workaround  🙂

[JohnnyXI · Accepted solution]

Thank you all for your input. I apologize as I did not describe the problem properly. I stated "I entered a (local) phone number into contacts and it automatically appended two asterisks (**) to the end of the phone number."   This was incorrect. I actually entered the number on the keypad where the 2 asterisks were automatically added, then after trying to call it, the number shows up in "recents", not into my contacts. When I moved/entered it into contacts it was saved in "Contacts" without the trailing **s. So, although I have no explanation as to why this particular number (Area code 705-739-xxxx) has two trailing asterisks added automatically, it becomes a non issue as I can call from my contacts file as opposed to my "recents" file.

In regard to the  "Hi, Public Mobile here.... Sorry, Talk is not included in your plan...."  it would appear that if you enter an invalid number (try 123-123-1234) you will get this message.  Thank you all for your input, and once again I apologize for the incorrect information in my initial post.

[JohnnyXI]

To esjliv, thank you for the various ideas. I tried the reboot but nothing changed. I believe the calling app is native to Android 9 and cannot be removed. I tried (by long pressing the icon)  but there was no option to remove and the disable option was grayed out. Please see my summary/correction following this post.

[hTideGnow]

@JohnnyXI   oh, only one number you have issue with.

Can you do the following?  Have that number to call you.  After the call, you go back to History/Log, you can Add to Contact and Add it to the contact.  See if you can add this number (without the **) to a Contact and then you can call from the Contact after

Talking about Contact, another thing to check, go through all the contact (make sure you understand you have different contact books:  Google, Samsung, SIM, Phone, etc...  Go thought them all and see if there is one contact book has that phone number with the **.  I wonder if there is one, when when you try to input the number, it looks up for you from the existing contact, found the one with the ** and calls that number for you.

[JohnnyXI]

Thank you for the idea but unfortunately I can't get copy/paste to work successfully with this screen. 

[JohnnyXI]

I mean I have entered numerous phone numbers on this phone without problem, only this one generates two trailing **s.

I have Android 9 May 4 2021 update, I'm entering using the standard keypad and when the 10 digit number has been entered the two ** are suddenly added. At this point I have not added the number to my contacts. Thank you for your input and thoughts, I will add more information shortly.

[esjliv]

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@JohnnyXI wrote:

I have a Samsung A8 phone.  I entered a (local) phone number into contacts and it automatically appended two asterisks (**) to the end of the phone number. They cannot be deleted. When I make a call using this number I get a message "Hi, Public Mobile here.... Sorry, Talk is not included in your plan....". If I enter the same number manually from the keypad the call goes through as it should. I have entered numerous other phone numbers  which work without problem. Anyone any ideas as to what it's happening?

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@JohnnyXI ,

As for the numbers that cannot be deleted...can you:

• REBOOT your phone and see if can delete them?
• uninstall the calling app, if it is one you can install, then reinstall it, can you delete or see them?
• reset your network settings then see if you can delete them?
• Also, ensure you have the latest software installed on your device.

That "talk is not included" message is something of a glitch, I believe, for the last few months. Are you on a Canada-Wide Plan? If so, reboot your phone and try again...if you can get those weird numbers deleted.

I have received that message as well a couple of times. I just re-tried and then the call went through.

[totalUser]

@JohnnyXI 

Can you try to copy the number (don't copy **) add another phone number entry paste the number then remove the entry with **

[hTideGnow]

@JohnnyXI  you mentioned  "I have entered numerous other phone numbers  which work without problem."      

So, you have enter many without problem on this phone or you meant without problem if you enter the contacts on another phones?

So, I understand correctly, this issue is when you try to add contact onto the Samsung Phone and it adds ** for you to the phone number.  Can you check where you were add the contact to?  is it on Samsung Account?  Google Account? Phone? SIM?    Can you try to add the contact to a different "place"?