It is syncing for me too and I have everything set to manual. It's driving me crazy as my old "original" Note did not do that. It was also set to manual and did not download messages unless I manually downloaded them. On the Note 3, I now have the sync turned off completely, but it is a pain to have to turn it back on for 6 different email accounts if I will be out for just a few hours. If someone has a solution, that would be fantastic!