Our smartphones have many great features, such as browsing the Internet, chatting with friends, taking pictures and videos, playing games, and many other advantages. But among the most prominent features that it provides us is the automatic sync feature, which allows this feature to sync data, contacts, app data and other content with the servers or cloud of services we use. Of course, it is a great feature because it saves a lot of important information for you in case you make the decision to change the phone suddenly.
But there is a downside or one weak point as a result of activating the automatic sync feature on Android phones, which is that this feature works all the time in the background, and may cause slow phone performance during use, especially with weak and old phones, and this is because it works in the background all the time Without us realizing it, it also drains a lot of battery charge. So, let us show you through the following explanation how to disable it.
What is the automatic sync feature?
We think we all already know what auto-sync feature is. To explain it in detail: The word “Sync” is a simple form or abbreviation of the English word “synchronize”, which in Arabic means “synchronize”.
This feature on our phones or on PCs or tablets has one purpose: to help apps and services work together across different devices and operating systems.
So, in a nutshell, the Auto Sync feature on your Android phone means that the data of most of the apps you use, including all Google apps and online services, will be synced to get the latest notifications, messages, etc.
For example, when you activate automatic sync, the Gmail app will take care of fetching the latest new emails to your phone, so you don’t have to open Gmail on your computer to check your new messages.
In some other cases, photos, contacts, videos, and even browser history and bookmark links are synced to the services cloud itself. That’s why you get all the latest messages and notifications for web and social apps whether you’re on your phone or your PC.
Let’s say, for example, that you uploaded a photo to your Facebook account from your computer while the auto-sync feature was enabled. This means that if you unlock the phone now, the photo should be automatically updated on the Facebook app on your phone.
If you have auto-sync turned off, that means you’ll have to wait for a longer period of time to be able to see this new photo and interactions with it.
You can also see: How to Transfer photos from iPhone to computer And vice versa for Windows and Mac systems.
What are the disadvantages of the automatic sync feature?
Of course, it is a very important feature because it keeps you up to date with the latest developments and new notifications no matter what type of device you are using. The only drawback of this feature is that it runs all the time in the background, and it consumes a lot of phone data and battery power.
So, in some cases, you may want to disable it to reduce the amount of data you consume from the internet package, whether through Wi-Fi or mobile data.
In some other cases, you may need to disable it to disable the amount of charge it consumes from battery power since it is running all the time in the background. Fortunately, the auto-sync feature is getting smarter than before and allows us to disable it with specific apps or disable it completely on our Android phones. Now let us show you how to disable the auto-sync feature on some Android apps or on all Google services as well.
Related: Tips to Reduce iPhone 12 overheating.
How to disable auto sync feature on Android
First, head over to the Settings app, then scroll down the screen until you get to the “” feature.Accounts and syncOr if your phone is in English it is calledAccount & Sync. Then open the feature. Inside you’ll find all the apps that use the auto-sync feature.
If you want to permanently disable the feature on all mobile applications and services, you can do so by disabling the “” feature.Sync data automatically.
Note that you can activate the “Wi-Fi onlyIf your only reason for disabling the feature is to reduce the amount of data consumed by automatic sync from your Internet package to you. And now, as you notice in the previous image, automatic syncing will be disabled on Messenger, Signal, Tik Tok, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook and all other applications that depend on the feature.
If you want to disable automatic synchronization on some Google services and applications, click on Google Sync Service and then choose the account on which you want to disable Google services. Now you can select the services individually or disable them completely if you like.
Just remember that the data of this account will not be synchronized from now on with the servers of Google. Thus, if you buy a new phone, you will have to transfer a lot of data manually or activate the feature again on the old phone before getting rid of it to sync the latest data on the phone.