Hello and thanks for taking time to read my thread. I'm posting because under my Google account in system settings, I see many sync options which are redundant, exact duplicates, or completely vague. I'm hoping someone knows some more about any of these and why there are duplicates.
I've tried searching Google and XDA, but there just seems to be no info on this. Only thing I found was another thread from a year ago asking about some different options under Google account sync settings, but the thread never reached an answer.
The individual settings I have are below and I've noted the ones which I don't understand. Any help or tips in the right direction for getting clarity on this will be greatly appreciated!
App Data
[*]Calendar
Chrome — I assume this syncs recent/open tabs and history from Chrome running on my PCs, but...
ChromeSync — then how does this differ from "Chrome"?
Contacts
Credentials State — ????
Game Data
[*]Game Data — Why are there two of these? And does anyone know what data it actually syncs? Scores, achievements? Will Play Games still integrate the same way with the few games I play if I turn these off?
Gmail
[*]Google Fit data
Google Opinion Rewards —This was already off, but I still get notifications for new surveys. So what is this even for?
Google Play Music
Google Play services —
Google Play services —
Google Play services — Holy hell, why must there be three of these completely nondescriptive entries?? My best guess is that these are some catchalls that Google threw in because either A) they are lazy or B) they wanted to lump some things together so you couldn't disable certain things you might find intrusive or unnecessary without breaking something else you actually do want which is bundled into these entries.
Google+
Google+ Photos
Google+ Uploads — What uploads are there other than photos?
Keep
Location Reporting and Location history — How does this differ from the location history setting in the "Google Settings" app? I can turn either one off and the other stays on, so they seem to be independent settings.
Offline credentials sync — I can't seem to figure out what offline credentials are used for in Android or whether I actually utilize them. Is there any way to know?
People details — Another confusing one. I would assume this had to do with contacts if there wasn't a separate entry for that. Anyone have a clue what this is?
Push subscriptions — AFAIK, I don't have any subscriptions via my Google account, but I assume this will break some important notifications of some sort. Anyone know?
Reminders
Hate to bump my own thread, but maybe someone online at this time might know something.
Bump
I'm curious as well
It's probably because you guys have the 'Reveal Hidden Sync' feature in Greenify enabled like I have.
It's not a bad thing really, probably Google's way of syncing account data. Multiple Play Service sync for different data, Credential for payment methods stored in your account (nothing unsafe if you have 2F enabled), Push subscriptions because there are many apps that use GCM push etc. It's really nothing to worry about.
Anachronizer said:
It's probably because you guys have the 'Reveal Hidden Sync' feature in Greenify enabled like I have.
It's not a bad thing really, probably Google's way of syncing account data. Multiple Play Service sync for different data, Credential for payment methods stored in your account (nothing unsafe if you have 2F enabled), Push subscriptions because there are many apps that use GCM push etc. It's really nothing to worry about.
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Click to collapse
Haha. Yeah, thanks. I had figured that out some time after posting this thread, but never updated here since it looked like no one else cared anyway
I suppose the differentiation between the duplicates is really only relevant in the code or the syncing process itself and not so relevant to the user. I do still have "People details" and the Opinion Rewards (which doesn't seem to affect the app receiving new surveys) when the Greenify option is turned off, so I still really wonder what those are for.
Related
Hello,
I am sure there are numerous applications for GPS tracking and remote controlling/wiping all the data and settings pattern/numeric access codes for your mobiles.
Problem is that executing these safety measures are somehow dependent on certain other factors and can have successful or unsuccessful consequences.
I am thinking of anything more basic and hassle free way of ensuring that even in worst condition I can have certain peace of mind that my critical gmail account data would not be accessed for unauthorized use. For example when it was unlocked for use and meanwhile it was lost or snatched how can I be sure that my google account information specifically gmail/maps are safe. I know I can change the password by reaching to a nearby PC, but that is not always a possibility.
I have got my Samsung Galaxy S2 for more than a month and just figuring out a safe way before putting it in active use.
An idea which I am thinking of is to have another Gmail account specifically for use with Android Phone, and import/export the actual "Contacts" only to this new email account. Since contacts are the most frequently used item, they would be in sync with the new email account, any delta changes would have to be replicated to your original gmail account as well.
I dont use Picasa, so it is of no importance to me to sync the pictures with picasa account.
For access to my actual gmail and other emails (like work email) I can use an add on email android applications like K9-Mail to configure the gmail as IMAP. To get access to this email program I can install any application which can password protect the access to applications and can reactivate the password after any time of inactivity. I dont know whether in such case would I get popup in the notification bar for new emails or not.
The only two most used applications now left are
- Maps and Latitude
- Google Plus
Now both of them need to be used with my actual gmail account, since all contacts and connection are related to my actual identity on google.
So i need to know that is it possible to use one gmail (fake/secondary) account on android phone just for syncing contacts and use another actual (primary/original) account for logging in the official google maps and google plus applications. I know even in this case the password needs to be changed in case of a mishap, however I can be a bit satisfied that all critical data in the email storage is safe.
I just need your opinions and suggestion on the mentioned procedure, or is there any other good and recommended practice for getting multiple accounts configured on Android Phone and selectively use the google accounts for different applications.
Thanks for your inputs.
Hmm...seems like everyone is so sure of the safety of their handset, no one even gives a s*** to think about the worst-case scenario of losing a device.
Cheers...hope everyone retains the droid for life..
The weirdest thing to me... I type in "ducks without feathers" on my work or home pc and that same search shows up on my galaxy s3 a little while later. Im connected to a wireless network on both and signed in to google on all 3. Is this why? Does it work the opposite where things written on the phone show up on the computers? I find this invasive if i want to search something in private but it shows on my work pc? Anyway, just curious whats going on.
tuffluck said:
The weirdest thing to me... I type in "ducks without feathers" on my work or home pc and that same search shows up on my galaxy s3 a little while later. Im connected to a wireless network on both and signed in to google on all 3. Is this why? Does it work the opposite where things written on the phone show up on the computers? I find this invasive if i want to search something in private but it shows on my work pc? Anyway, just curious whats going on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
because you are signed in on your PC with your mobile Google account. so they save search history to your account...
if you think this is invasive, the. I think you should logout of Google for when your searching up these things you for some reason don't want recorded.
on a personal note, I would say delete your accounts and toss your phone and stop using the internet if you think linking search history that is only viewable to you is invasive. do you know how many things are tracking you web wide, not just search history on Google?
"Ducks without feathers?" :what::what::what::what:
Like stated above, search history is saved onto your Google account and synced. You can disable it in settings, though.
Sent from my MB508 using xda premium
gagdude said:
"Ducks without feathers?" :what::what::what::what:
Like stated above, search history is saved onto your Google account and synced. You can disable it in settings, though.
Sent from my MB508 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where in settings exactly?
dakunesu said:
because you are signed in on your PC with your mobile Google account. so they save search history to your account...
if you think this is invasive, the. I think you should logout of Google for when your searching up these things you for some reason don't want recorded.
on a personal note, I would say delete your accounts and toss your phone and stop using the internet if you think linking search history that is only viewable to you is invasive. do you know how many things are tracking you web wide, not just search history on Google?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you will search for ANYTHING on your work computer then? Its none of my employers business if i think i have cancer and want to search for symptoms on a personally owned device.
tuffluck said:
So you will search for ANYTHING on your work computer then? Its none of my employers business if i think i have cancer and want to search for symptoms on a personally owned device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally wouldnt use a personal Google account at work honestly. less trouble period. a better solution I think would be to use a second account for business use only. limits potential vectors that something can obtain your PW, personal info and such.
Under your account sync options sync browser is one of the available selections.
Google History
I am having the same problem however, I am not searching FROM my PC , I am searching from my phone and it shows up on my work PC. I am not even logged in to my Google account at work! How is this happening?
It's not "Sync Browser"
MissionImprobable said:
Under your account sync options sync browser is one of the available selections.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That doesn't stop it.
I've had "Sync Browser" disabled since shortly after I got the phone, because "Sync Browser" is a battery killer. (Before I disabled "Sync Browser," Settings->Battery showed 33% used by "Browser" when I'd done no web browsing on the phone at all; after I disabled "Sync Browser" that went to zero.) But even though "Sync Browser" is disabled on my phone, my google searches on the computer (in any web browser) are still showing up on the phone, almost immediately.
I also tried disabling "Sync Google+," "Sync Google+ Photos," and "Sync Google+ Uploads," but that didn't stop it, either.
I also tried disabling "Sync App Data," but that didn't stop it, either.
The only other Sync settings I have enabled are:
Sync Calendar
Sync Contacts
Sync Gmail
Sync People details
This is very annoying!
Ridicious
tuffluck said:
The weirdest thing to me... I type in "ducks without feathers" on my work or home pc and that same search shows up on my galaxy s3 a little while later. Im connected to a wireless network on both and signed in to google on all 3. Is this why? Does it work the opposite where things written on the phone show up on the computers? I find this invasive if i want to search something in private but it shows on my work pc? Anyway, just curious whats going on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SO RIDICULOUS! I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT I'M WATCHING UNFOLD???? YET AS YOU SEE BY SOME OF THE ANSWERS IT DOESN'T SEEM TO ANGER PEOPLE WHOM SHOULD BE ANSWERING THE CONCERNS YOU ARE REQUESTING. DEVELOPERS ON THIS VERY WEBSITE TELLING YOU TO DELETE YOUR GOOGLE ACCOUNT. ITS SCARY WHAT GOOGLE IS CAPABLE OF DOING, WE ALL HAVE PICTURES, DOCUMENTS, PRIVATE THINGS WE'D BE MORTIFIED WE DIDN'T KNOW WERE SHARED ALREADY. I MYSELF HAVE TROUBLE SEEING, I'LL TAKE A PICTURE OF SOMETHING I'M READING TO ZOOM IN, OR REFER TO INSTRUCTIONS INSTEAD OF 10 WINDOWS OPEN AT THE SAME TIME. I ASKED GOOGLE PLUS A QUESTION, AND IT SHOWS UP IF I GOOGLE MY OWN NAME, ABOUT GAME OF THRONES!!!! I SAY OKAY GOOGLE CONSTANTLY TO NOT HAVE TO TYPE ON MY PHONE. ONE SUGGESTION IS TO SEARCH "INCOGNITO" ITS RIGHT IN THE TOOLS ON GOOGLES MENU. GO TO (website blocked me from providing you the site) sign in there and look at everything one by one. it shows where you've been, where you've signed in, you can change all kinds of settings through that. Most of all fear google plus the most! Because they auto upload without permission your cameras pictures and aren't private by default. It used to be Picasa I think Google bought it. So much more,,,, For now start those suggestions
My understanding is that this is a known issue, I'm looking for a workaround or resolution.
Using KitKat, and the standard AOSP email client, I setup my corporate email account in the usual way. Everything works the way it is supposed to except for syncing contacts.
Normally I have fewer than 100 contacts, but with KitKat I end up with over 600. From my research into this issue it is because KitKat is syncing the "suggested contacts" from exchange, not just the contacts listed in my address book. I'm not sure who made the decision to do that, but it doesn't sound like the best idea to me.
I see this problem on my tablet which is running the CM 11.0 nightlies, but I do not see it on my HTC One running AndroidNow, even though Android Now is at 4.4. That is what tells me that the problem is in Exchange Services for the standard AOSP client. I confirmed this by finding this site:
http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/1...4-4-with-gmail-style-ui-and-a-slide-out-menu/
I downloaded the appropriate files and installed the apks on my HTC One. When I setup my corporate email there I started seeing the same issue.
Does anyone have any news or recommendations on this issue? By the way, I'm not looking for "install such-and-such email client, it's better" type recommendations. I've tried the majority of them already.
Thanks
It is interesting to me that no one has anything to say on this issue. Perhaps no one saw my post?
At any rate, I found a "solution" which is clumsy but seems to do the trick. The suggestion I found in the google forums was to delete the "Suggested Contacts" folder (I did it in the Exchange web mail app), delete the Corporate account and recreate. I did and I now have the correct number of contacts.
From what I have found this problem is caused by code added to KitKat for syncing sub-folders. It is an issue that Google is aware of, but has marked at a very low priority. I assume that means that a real fix for this will be a long time coming.
dlbarron said:
It is interesting to me that no one has anything to say on this issue. Perhaps no one saw my post?
At any rate, I found a "solution" which is clumsy but seems to do the trick. The suggestion I found in the google forums was to delete the "Suggested Contacts" folder (I did it in the Exchange web mail app), delete the Corporate account and recreate. I did and I now have the correct number of contacts.
From what I have found this problem is caused by code added to KitKat for syncing sub-folders. It is an issue that Google is aware of, but has marked at a very low priority. I assume that means that a real fix for this will be a long time coming.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In case you may not have noticed, there is a open issue for this now:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=61979
Im having the same problem with you, but removing the "suggested contacts" folder from Outlook didn't work (not that I should have to do that). It was if the contacts were cached to the phone.... even after removing the account. I even tried disabling sync, putting it in airplane mode, and using "Contact Remover" from the Play Store to delete the contacts from my phone (disabling sync and airplane mode to prevent a total deletion of all contacts on next sync). After that, I removed the account from Android, removed all phone pairings from Exchange (through OWA), and cleared the cache of the phone. As soon as I resynced, they all came back.
I'm beyond pissed. I literally have 5,000 contacts, and I can barely open the People applet. This is ridiculous.
Flapjack said:
In case you may not have noticed, there is a open issue for this now:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=61979
Im having the same problem with you, but removing the "suggested contacts" folder from Outlook didn't work (not that I should have to do that). It was if the contacts were cached to the phone.... even after removing the account. I even tried disabling sync, putting it in airplane mode, and using "Contact Remover" from the Play Store to delete the contacts from my phone (disabling sync and airplane mode to prevent a total deletion of all contacts on next sync). After that, I removed the account from Android, removed all phone pairings from Exchange (through OWA), and cleared the cache of the phone. As soon as I resynced, they all came back.
I'm beyond pissed. I literally have 5,000 contacts, and I can barely open the People applet. This is ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't argue with your assessment, especially since it is a known issue that is, apparently, not getting any attention from Google. That is disappointing.
dlbarron said:
I can't argue with your assessment, especially since it is a known issue that is, apparently, not getting any attention from Google. That is disappointing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have this same problem, but it seems to be Exchange email address history (start a new email: start typing address and the autocomplete list appears)that is causing the problem for me. If I delete the history the contact is now longer shown in my contact list. The problem is this history list is ever growing and changing. It seems we are forced to live with excess users until Google gets this fixed.
zoaguy said:
I have this same problem, but it seems to be Exchange email address history (start a new email: start typing address and the autocomplete list appears)that is causing the problem for me. If I delete the history the contact is now longer shown in my contact list. The problem is this history list is ever growing and changing. It seems we are forced to live with excess users until Google gets this fixed.
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Ahhh, well that would make sense why deleting the "suggested contacts" folder doesn't fix it. I don't want to flush my autocomplete history. It's quite useful.
In the interim, I'm just 'pushing' my contacts from Touchdown using the "Copy to Phone" option, and not adding the corporate email option for now.
Here is a pretty nice work around to this issue.
Go into outlook and create a new category for all of the contacts you want to sync with your device. Once the contacts are part of the new category, go to your device and in the contacts>>accounts to display>>select the corporate account>> and select which list(select the category you created in outlook>> thats it and resync your contacts.
zoaguy said:
Here is a pretty nice work around to this issue.
Go into outlook and create a new category for all of the contacts you want to sync with your device. Once the contacts are part of the new category, go to your device and in the contacts>>accounts to display>>select the corporate account>> and select which list(select the category you created in outlook>> thats it and resync your contacts.
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Click to collapse
A slick solution to the problem. To bad it is necessary.
dlbarron said:
A slick solution to the problem. To bad it is necessary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, a true fix is still needed. The biggest problem with this solution is making sure you put new contacts into the new category when they are being added.
I have the issue that my phone will not sync to the exchange contacts PERIOD.
It downloaded them fine apparently, but any changes made on the device do not get updated on the server.
WTF? How ****ing stupid is google to break activesync!?
I'm not just having problems with contacts... my entire calendar will not sync. I basically get no meeting reminders. I can log into exchange webmail and check my calendar there, but that is ridiculous.
As for the contacts, none of the tips and tricks in this thread have helped. I have completely deleted "suggested contacts" (which is a shame, because it was actually useful), but my phone is still pulling them from somewhere....
The only thing that works for me is installing Touchdown and using it to sync, then push the contacts to the phone. It does pick up the bullshvt ones...
Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk
This is by far the most irritating part of KitKat.
I work for a mobile phone company with business customer and its a very common complaint.
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BazmanFoo said:
This is by far the most irritating part of KitKat.
I work for a mobile phone company with business customer and its a very common complaint.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
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I can't understand why it cannot be fixed. I don't even fully understand the problem, as I've gone through Outlook/Exchange multiple times cleaning out the "suggested contacts" and still had my phone's contact list spammed with every email address that is and ever was.
It took a long, long time... but I used "Contact Remover" from the Play store and just went down the list checking contacts I wanted to delete. It's much faster than going into each contact, hitting menu, then hitting delete. Still, you have to be careful not to delete contacts you want to keep. Many times, they're named exactly the same as the spam ones.
On a side note, I am struggling to understand why there are so many contacts that have been "augmented" by apps such as Facebook and Lync 2013. I never choose to sync those, but it appears to have done so anyway.
same problem here, contacts on phone (nexus 5) are filled with rubbish now
Hi,
I have a lot of paid apps, and of course I'd like to use them on my wife's phone as well. However, I'd like to have my play store account on there without also showing up in her gmail, Google+, photos, etc. I have sync turned off, but the account can still be easily accidentally selected.
Perhaps there's an xposed module, or similar? I looked, but couldn't find anything.
Right now, I've deleted my account from her phone, but I have to put it back every few days to pick up app updates, then delete it again.
I've searched, by haven't found any simple solution. Ideas?
Thanks,
Dan
No solutions yet, but so far my wife doesn't seem to have been reading my email...
There is no solution and if google catches you they will ban your account all the way around with no way to reactivate it
I have a Note 2 running OctOS M, which is based on CyanogenMod.
I don't want my contacts sync'd to Google, and I have had contacts drop out during backups and restores over the past year or so. While mentally berating software devs during my troubleshooting process, I have disabled Google Contacts ability to read to my contacts (thanks to Android M's permission system). I have also disable the sync-to-Google feature within the contacts app. Well, at least I thought I had. See, anytime I edit or create a contact, I will get a popup message saying "Google Contacts Sync has failed", and the only option is to click "OK".
I don't want Google to have any more of my contacts than they already do, so how should I go about setting that up? Hacks? Tweaks? Apps? Settings in certain apps? I would also like robust backup/restore and possibly management, which I thought were available in the default apps (apparently not, since it failed).
Did you ever figure out a solution to this problem? I'm having basically the same issue. On LineageOS I disabled all permissions for Google Contacts Sync in the Privacy Guard settings and I use a firewall that doesn't permit it to connect to the internet. But I frequently get a pop up window that says Google Contacts Sync has stopped. I'm wondering if I can just uinstall it using Titanium or if that will cause weirdness.
No, I did not find a solution. I wound up doing a factory reset for other reasons, and apparently never got around to sandboxing google calendar sync, because I don't get that error anymore. However, the contacts I backed up and tried to restore were all jacked up. I lost all the relatively new ones and a random smattering of old ones. I looked around on the software recommendation stack exchange, and it appears that all contacts apps are now cloud and/or ad enabled, which means they are most likely scraping and stealing your contacts.
It would be nice for a local-only contact manager.