What Exactly Do These Settings Do and Should they be On/Off?

[brettnussb]

First time Android user and want to make sure I have the proper settings so I currently get the most out of my battery, but also so that my applications will receive updates, email is pushing on K-9, scores are updating on Scoremobile widget, etc: I also don't use Gmail and occasionally turn on my gmail sync to back-up my contacts but typically keep it off.

Could you help me explain what these settings actually do and if you would recommend to turn them on or off?

Accounts & Sync --->Background Data
Accounts & Sync--->Auto Sync
Privacy---Back Up My data
(If you recommend turning that on) Should I also turn on Automatic restore and what exactly does it do?

 

[AndroidOne]

Accounts & Sync --->Background Data
Accounts & Sync--->Auto Sync

These two settings control the syncing of data of any account you have added to your phone (i.e., Gmail, Facebook, etc.). They allow the phone to automatically sync these accounts when changes are made - allowing the apps to new emails, FB notifications, etc - and is usually a good idea to keep both on.

Privacy---Back Up My data

This allows your phone to back up all data, settings and installed apps list to a Google server. If you have to do a factory reset this will allow the phone to recover all that information automatically for you so as to minimize the setup time. This one you can turn it off if you want without affecting functionality; if you do so, then you will have to setup the phone and reinstall all apps manually if you do a full reset.

 

[brettnussb]

Thanks for the response, if I have Privacy Back up my Data off...could I just do a back-up before I did a full reset. What account does it back this information up to if my phone were ever lost/stolen?

Also what does automatic restore do? Its greyed out and checked? I currently have back up my data unchecked

 

[AndroidOne]

Thanks for the response, if I have Privacy Back up my Data off...could I just do a back-up before I did a full reset. What account does it back this information up to if my phone were ever lost/stolen?

Also what does automatic restore do? Its greyed out and checked? I currently have back up my data unchecked

Not sure about the backup frequency or timing, the Google FAQ I read about this feature was very superficial in that regard. One thing is for sure, is not user intiated or controlled. So if you turn it on just before doing a reset, not sure if you'll have a successful recovery.

Your phone data is backed to on line servers at Google, you have no direct access to it from the Google dashboard or any other place that I've been able to find. The Google FAQ indicated the all stored data is completely erased if the user unchecks the backup function on the handset - so you have no access but have a way to delete the data if you so choose in the future. The data that is stored appears to be phone settings/apps lists/app data from the phone main memory and not the SD storage.

Automatic restore will be greyed out as long as the backup option remains unchecked - you can't restore what you are not backing up, sort of makes sense. This option allows recovery of data after a factory reset.

I have not seen any issues with the background backup function, given the convenience of automatic restore in case is needed, I would suggest to leave both on.