Contacts created on iPhone won't sync with exchange, only via USB

Question

When I create a new contact on my iPhone from within the phone app, it doesn't get synced to my exchange server, in fact it doesn't show up anywhere in the contacts app or under contacts in the phone app. If I create a new contact from the contacts app it only allows me to create it in my exchange contacts folder but it does sync properly. When I create a contact from within the phone app I am not given a choice of group at all and unless I have a recent call from that contact, it is nowhere to be found on my phone or computer. So the question is how do I get new contacts created on my phone from within the phone app to sync with exchange? The only way I have been able to sync contacts created within the phone app thus far has been with iTunes via USB which works fine but I want to sync contacts bidirectionally via exchange ota.
Thanks for any help

Answer 1

I have more information to share.
When you launch the Contacts app on the iPhone, hit the "Groups" button in the top left. What I see on that page are these 3 sections:
All Contacts >
From My Mac
All From My Mac >
Group A >
Group B >
Group C >
etc
Foobar (Exchange)
Foobar Global Address List >
After many hours of trial and error, I have come to the understanding that the iPhone Contacts app has potentially multiple data stores which seem to correspond to each sync source configured (eg AddressBook, Exchange, etc.) Refering to my example above, I have enabled Contacts syncing with my AddressBook (via iTunes) and an Exchange mail account, so my iPhone shows 2 separate sections with the generic "All Contacts" appearing as the first section at the top.
Entering the contact listings page via the "All Contacts" button will show an integrated list of contacts from all sync sources (in my case, two: contacts from AddressBook on my Mac and contacts from my Foobar Exchange account).
If you click the "+" button to add a new contact when you have entered the listing page via "All Contacts", it seems the record is only stored on the iPhone and does NOT get sync'd. Specifically, it does not get synced to the Mac AddressBook nor to the Exchange account.
However, if you have entered the listings page via any group in the "From My Mac" section or "Foobar (Exchange)" section, and create a new contact via the "+" button there, that contact DOES get sync'd to the appropriate sync source (AddressBook or Exchange in my case).
Furthermore, if you enter the listings page via a specific group in the "From My Mac" section (eg "Group A") and create a new contact from in there, it will appear in "Group A" in AddressBook after sync. If you enter the listings page via the generic "All From My Mac" button, then the new contact will be added to whatever group you have specified in iTunes (under the iPhone Info tab etc. as mentioned in the prior post).
All up, I guess, there may not be a bug here after all. I must simply always remember to add new contacts when I am in the "All From My Mac" section, if I want them to be synced to my Mac.
However, I do think that it's a confusing and poor user experience (and may lead to loss of data) if you add new contacts from the generic "All Contacts" entry point, because they will NOT be synced as you'd expect them to. I am guessing this also might only happen when you have multiple sync sources defined, simply because the app doesn't know which sync source to associate them with: AddressBook or Exchange? But, at the point of adding that new contact, the app should prompt you for the sync source to use, or at least WARN you that your contact is going to be an orphan record solely residing forever more on your iPhone. If you ever reset your iPhone those contact records would be lost forever.