Can someone give me an understanding of what Sync does

[Raz2802]

alasdairk, that is a very realistic and incisive observation on technical-minded people. Unless you are a professor or teacher, you end up indulging in “techno speak” in front of newbies.

There is certain skill in presenting your thoughts to beginners – which unfortunately does not come that easily to all “experts”; although they may be right in whatever they are saying (and which can only be understood by “intermediate to advanced” people.

 

[c is for cookie]

Never use a word to define that word. I came here to find out what the word "sync" means. You tell me in essence that "when you sync something, you sync it." That does not help at all.

And he still didn't answer her questions.

 

[Patricia Wanless]

Richard your message has been sent 3 times to my gal 4 ☺

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[CreativeCreator81]

Hrmmm. Another great, first post. Welcome to the forums. ,:|

I am admittedly, at times, arrogant and less tolerant of behavior that doesn't make sense to me. In this thread and others, where there was a question, I believe I generally provide a helpful or sufficient answer. But where a post is primarily negative (criticizing others, snarking about previous posts, deriding the topic), I may provide a comment that's less help and more fight fire with fire.

...I see BOTH of yours opinions equally & I'm more or less neutral about it because everyone perceives things differently, hence "FREEDOM OF SPEECH"...for better or worse, but still...✌

 

[CiaoBella1]

I wanted to understand more about Sync, in re my Nexus device and my Firefox account on my desktop.

I don't sync anything, because I think that I'm giving up more privacy. I especially don't want to share more with Google (on tablet) than they already have.
On tablet, am I missing the whole point of sync? Am I right or wrong having privacy concerns?
I also get strange results using Gmail, which is not synced. I don't use Gmail, because I only opened the account in order to take advantage of the basic functions of a Nexus tablet. (Even online, Gmail is a lousy email platform, so it would never be my preferred personal email preference.
Coming from a music background, for me, the concept of sync is easy to grasp.

So I agree with the person who explained how NOT to define a word. I also understand the frustration of far more technical people, so I try to learn how to ask a specific question. Sometimes I fail.
I think that I have asked simple enough questions. Also, you should know that in seeking information about "sync," this is one of the first hits using my search engines.
If I get a response, and since I can't read anymore - if it's silly not to use sync, did people say yes to auto sync (to save battery) but to lessen the frequency?
Thank you.

 

[MrDoh]

Well, I have some questions about sync, but more like how often does my phone sync to google for email if I turn on sync? What really makes sense ot me is to have my phone pick up new email from google when I open the email app, and then when I close it, sync again to remove deleted emails. I don't want my phone going out every minute or so to pick up new emails and delete the ones that I've deleted, just not that important to me, and I don't turn on email notification, etc.

So what is syncing to my google account costing me, that's what I really want to know. And how can I get "enough" syncing without paying more for it in terms of battery usage than it's worth to me? Syncing is a general term, I'm trying to find out more specifics about timing and how I can set up my phone to do what I want to do.

In other words, I'm looking for useful information *smile*.

 

[LearnTheInternet]

I agree completely with Don Carter and I find ChromeJob's reply disrespectful and quite arrogant. Stryker asked "if I turn Auto-Sync on what does that do? Is it just another word for update? "

He wants to know what sync means. In common with many, many "experts" I've come across on tech sites, the reply ignored the essence of the question and imparted information which while clear to someone already "in the know" means nothing to someone not part of the club.

The problem techy people often have is that is that they know lots about tech but don't seem to know how to communicate with others.

You need to get down from your high horse. This is the Internet, a neutral area, don't stamp your morals on people you do not even know or will never know. You're not going to get respect from others that way on the Net. ChromeJob was in his absolute right to give that man a little attitude for his snide comment about "definitions". The original post did not ask for a "definition"; it asked to explain the Auto-Sync function, NOT THE DEFINITION OF SYNC. Anyone can clearly open a dictionary (book or electronic) and look up its definition, why waste the time of a very informative person on stupid questions (and don't give me that excuse of "im not tech-savvy so I wouldn't know", its a definition for goodness sake). Or if you're a little smarter, you can extrapolate what "SYNC" might mean since its derived from the term "synchronize". Maybe ya'll heard of the term?
So, do you like it when I get sassy like Mr. Don Carter did? Probably not huh? ChromeJob is basically answering your questions and you guys just attack him because of "feelings".
RUDENESS OVER THE INTERNET? Welcome to the 21st century where your feelings don't matter as far as the internet is concerned. Last thing, ChromeJob's retort was about as polite and sophisticated as any chastising could be done over the internet. You guys don't even know what "Deep-Net" is do you. Ignorance is bliss.

 

[lrwbaglin]

I now understand the principal of 'sync' but have to experience syncing to really understand.
will reread page in case I missed something.. ..

 

[Taffy86]

I agree completely with Don Carter and I find ChromeJob's reply disrespectful and quite arrogant. Stryker asked "if I turn Auto-Sync on what does that do? Is it just another word for update? "

He wants to know what sync means. In common with many, many "experts" I've come across on tech sites, the reply ignored the essence of the question and imparted information which while clear to someone already "in the know" means nothing to someone not part of the club.

The problem techy people often have is that is that they know lots about tech but don't seem to know how to communicate with others.

So then what is the right answer for the original question, what does it mean to sync?

 

[Eris1]

Thanks for your note Lorna. That totally makes sense! I only stumbled across this forum because i googled the "what does sync mean?" question and your post came up. So I am also a first time user of the forum. Not sure why that is a big deal and worthy of note in Chrome Jobs replies. I agree with Don Carter. Chrome Job's reply was arrogant but moreover just unnecessary. Also agreed with Alasdairk. We are all experts somewhere. If it is not in the world of techie so be it. Snark is not a particularly brilliant or helpful response for asking a question.

 

[anon(10000400)]

Hi. I have the same doubt that stryker88 and Taffy86 have – what does sync do?

When I open “accounts” in “settings” I have lots of accs, as Google, Samsung, Facebook, Messenger (FB), Outlook, Whatsapp, Telegram, and some others. Except for Google and Samsung, when I tap any of the other accs, the option that I get is “sync contacts” (and the majority is turned off), only.
I am still receiving notifications, even from the ones that are turned off. So, the only thing that sync will do will be to show my contacts from these accounts in my phone? If this is the point, then I’ll be better with sync off, since all of my contacts are synced in the Google account/gmail.

Thanks

 

[harrykrishna]

Yes, it's identical to that of sodium chloride.

 

[Paul Owens1]

Hello there and welcome to AndroidCentral.

Sync essentially syncs your contacts and other things with Google and other services. You may see all accounts on your phone by visiting Settings > Accounts and Sync

The Sync part of Android syncs things such as Documents, Contacts, and other things to services such as Facebook, Google, Ubuntu One...

When the device "syncs", it syncs the data from your phone onto the service's servers. That way if you switch phones, if your new phone would have Syncing capability, you could retrieve your contacts and documents back to the phone. The syncing part of Android is also simplistic in a way too... Just add the account, turn on Auto Sync, and your done.

The "Auto Sync" feature can be changed from Settings > Accounts and Sync... That setting basically means that it will sync your device with the service's servers. If you turn Auto Sync OFF, you will have to go into Settings > Accounts and Sync and Sync the Accounts manually by tapping on them and tapping the menu key and selecting Sync Now.. This feature is good for those with limited data or restricted data on their Wireless Service Plan. I recommend keeping this option on when you have Unlimited Data that way your device will always be syncronized with the server's.

As far as the question for Facebook, Android always does that. It pulls up the name of the contact followed by the number.. not just from Facebook...

Hope it helped.
Tap that LIKE and THANKS button below if I helped you out, please.

Also, you don't need sync on to receive fb messages, feeds and comments. These use push messages.

 

[engineertony]

I gather that sync syncs things?

 

[GrahamRounce]

I gather that sync syncs things?

Indeed : ) There's nothing like a picture, or in this case examples, for making things clear.
What actually happens when I sync with eg Facebook?

Is it true to say that if I have auto-sync on for a certain application, say GMail, then the GMails on the phone and on the computer will always look the same? New mails will appear in both, a mail that's deleted in either will be deleted in both, one marked as read or unread in either will be marked as such in both? Etc?

Does it depend on having the same email client on both?
And having the computer on all the time? Or, when I turn it on, will everything have magically changed to the same as the phone?

I have Outlook on the computer and use Gmail (because I don't know any better : ) on my phone, non-synced. So I can delete non-urgent emails from my phone, so as not to clutter it up, safe in the knowledge that they will still be there on the computer. I find that useful.
For some reason it doesn't work the other way: whatever I delete on the computer gets deleted on the phone too...

And lastly... Where does The Cloud come into it?

Thank-you,

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

I missed this one when it was first posted. But I can help the next person with the same questions

Indeed : ) There's nothing like a picture, or in this case examples, for making things clear.
What actually happens when I sync with eg Facebook?

I'm not a Facebook user, but I think I can tackle this one. Facebook sync is for your contacts. If I know you in real life and you have me in your contacts, and I also have a Facebook account my Facebook contact information will be added to your address book. For example:

We're friends. All you need for me in your contacts is a name and a phone number. We're also friends on facebook. On Facebook I have entered all my other details like address and birthday and a second phone number. When you sync your contacts, that gets transferred to your phone and merged in your address book.

It also needs to be said that Facebook sync on Android really sucks. How it is supposed to work and how it actually works can be two very different things and there are plenty of horror stories about your contacts being duplicated (sometimes over and over). It's my advise to not do it, and if there's something on my Facebook profile you need to have in my contact card you should enter it manually.

Is it true to say that if I have auto-sync on for a certain application, say GMail, then the GMails on the phone and on the computer will always look the same? New mails will appear in both, a mail that's deleted in either will be deleted in both, one marked as read or unread in either will be marked as such in both? Etc?

If you have autosync enabled for Gmail on your phone, anything you do in the Gmail app also happens in the cloud. It you delete a mail message it is deleted on the server. If you send a mail or archive a mail or save a draft or anything else, it is also done in your gmail account online.

Does it depend on having the same email client on both?
And having the computer on all the time? Or, when I turn it on, will everything have magically changed to the same as the phone?

If you go to the gmail website it will be exactly that same as the app on your phone if you have autosync enabled in the app. You can open the gmail website and do something on your phone and watch it change on the website a few seconds later.

The same thing will happen if you use a mail client on your computer and it is set to autosync. Depending on the client, it may need to wait until its next sync cycle (many desktop mail clients automatically sync, but at a defined interval instead of always and instant)

I have Outlook on the computer and use Gmail (because I don't know any better : ) on my phone, non-synced. So I can delete non-urgent emails from my phone, so as not to clutter it up, safe in the knowledge that they will still be there on the computer. I find that useful.
For some reason it doesn't work the other way: whatever I delete on the computer gets deleted on the phone too...

Outlook has a setting that deletes mail on the server when you delete it from your mail box. Since it's not on the server, when you open the gmail app and it refreshes and syncs (that happens every time you open it) it no longer sees the message because it's no longer there.

If you want to stop it from doing this, change the setting for that account in the Outlook program. Even better, make a folder and name it something so you know it has stuff you deleted from the computer side. That's not trash, so that folder will appear on the phone. You'll eventually run out of space in your gmail account, but I just checked and i have 49,022 email messages archived and in my account. You'll be good for a long time.

And lastly... Where does The Cloud come into it?

Thank-you,

Part of the cloud is where any changes are actually done. Since we're talking about Gmail, let's use it as an example.

You read an email from john doe on the gmail app on your phone. When you're done, you delete the message.

What you are doing is telling the cloud to delete your message. Your space in the cloud is isolated from everyone and everything, even you. But the computers that have your account details on them can also take any of your requests and do what you have asked. In this case, they will know you read an email (and mark it as read a few seconds after you have opened it) and then you deleted it. They will move the message from your inbox to the trash folder. When it comes to your account, the cloud computers will only accept a command from you. We all have our own place in the cloud and it works the same for all of us.

When you are home and you open your Outlook program, it syncronizes with the cloud — not your phone. The cloud tells Outlook what messages are there and what messages are deleted, and Outlook listens and does the same on it's end for any messages that have been downloaded.

If you checked your mail on Outlook but did not read that email from John doe, a portion of that email (called the header) was downloaded to your computer. The cloud is what can remember what you did on your phone and tell outlook to do the same thing.

The cloud is also storage space for your stuff. Since you have a Google account, you also have a Google Drive account ready to activate if you haven't already activated it. part of that Drive account is free or paid online storage. You can store anything you want (except a file with a virus as drive scans when you upload and when you download) in your drive storage, until you reach the limit and have no more space.

Other companies like Dropbox, SpiderOak and Microsoft (there are quite a few) also offer free cloud storage and have apps in Google Play you can use to upload and download your stuff to them.

Both ways you use the cloud — as storage for your stuff and account data for all of your Google apps -— are the same from every device you use to access them and changes are almost instant. This is how apps like gmail know what you did on one device and make another device match that as well as upload something from one place and download it form another.

 

[Rod Moore1]

Can you describe for me the taste of salt?

The taste of salt could be described the same way in which one could also describe this forum: "salty!" XD

 

[Rascallybear]

I'm new on here, and this is my first post, so let me say hello.

My name is Rick and, according to my job description, I'm supposed to explain stuff like this "sync" thing. So let's have a go.

We're all familiar with creating things like diary notes on our computers or smartphones. But unless there is some way to make whatever you type into the diary of your smartphone also appear in the diary on your computer, you'll have to check both diaries whenever you want to know what you're doing and when.

Ideally, you only want the one diary. That's where sync, or synchronisation, comes is. You may be familiar with the term in synchronised dancing, where two or more dancers do the same thing at the same time. Or we might synchronise our arrival time at a restaurant. Well, it's the same when we sync the diary on the smartphone and the computer.

Technically it's quite simple. If you have seperate diaries on your two devices -- and those two devices never talk to each other -- you have what's called two standalone, or un-synchronised, diaries. But, if we can get those two devices to talk to each other, then we can have just the one shared, or synchronised, diary. A synchronised diary has the advantage that if you add a hot date on one device, then you can see or amend the same entry on from either device. ...makes simpler when you're stood up ������.

To make this work, both devices must agree to share that one synchronised diary over the Internet. In actual fact, what we might call the 'master copy' of the diary is stored on the Internet (all part of what's termed Cloud Computing). So, whenever you open your diary program on either of your two devices, it tries to connect to the Internet and synchronise -- or sync -- its own copy of the diary with the 'master copy' that's stored by Chrome in the Cloud. If the Cloud 'master copy' version has changes newer than the copy of the diary on the device you're using, then sync-ing updates the copy stored on the device. So, with a sync-ed diary, you're always looking at the latest version.

Well, at least hopefully. Each device stores its own copy of the diary, so you can still access the (possibly out of date) diary stored on the device even when you can't get onto the Internet. However, if things are going well and your device can successfully access the Internet, whenever you access your diary on any device, a sync or synchronisation occurs, and you'll be looking at the latest version, even if you'd made changes (and sync-ed them) on another device.

All being well, all changes made to the diary on any of your devices will sync to that 'master copy' in the Cloud. But, if you add or amend or delete a diary entry on a device that is unsuccessful in accessing the Internet, then those changes will not sync across all of your devices until that device is successful in establishing an Internet connection and updating the 'master copy' of the diary in the Cloud. As such, sync isn't fail safe, but is great if you have reliable Internet connectivity, such as 4G and broadband.

In our case the Cloud storage of the 'master copy' of our diary is provided by Chrome.

You can sync storage of many things, so you always have access to the latest version. Your photo album, your spreadsheets, or word-processor documents, for example.

Just one word of caution: do be aware that anything you sync is stored on Chrome's computers in the Cloud, as well as on your own devices. So do not allow any highly-confidential information to be sync-ed! If Chrome suffered a data security breach, the bad people would have access to your data (unless you encrypt it).

Hope this helps,
Rick

Oops! You also asked about costs, in terms of data usage and battery life.

The answer depends upon how Chrome designed their sync process. If sync only occurs when you access the diary program, for example, then data usage and battery usage should be minimal. However, if they designed their sync to constantly update, such as the frequency your email application checks for new emails, then data and battery usage could be relatively high. This is probably configurable when you set up the scyn for each program, but I don't know.

Rick

 

[SeekingSimplicity]

Rick is a gem!

 

[Eric Webb]

As someone who headed a government agency, serving as the last stop for all hardware and software questions--including those from Nobel Laureates--I can assure you that diplomacy can pay rich dividends. Diplomacy is always preferable to a fight.

Also, having used the internet since a Duke freshman in 1975--I surely could be arrogant to those who have played no part in the development or initial use of the "connected internet."

However, I'm not insecure, which is the primary reason for arrogance.

One never knows who might be posting a question; they could change your life if you simply answer a serious question. I should know, solving problems for others far deeper than these android questions resulted in jobs most people could only dream of obtaining--all because I *cared* about the problems of others. No, I don't feel smarter than the average person. The more in any field I learn, the more ignorant I feel.

Quantum computing and entanglement will humble anyone in a New York yoctosecond

Of course, troll questions deserve no response. But insecure people will take the bait and blather back at the troll. Never do that.

Whatever anyone thinks they know, there's always someone who knows more. Keep sniping and you'll run into someone who proves you know less than you believe you know.

Hope my note strikes brain. I am trying to help everyone with this note.