Confused about Gmail calendar and contact syncing

[punk_beatz]

Hi guys,

Last night I was reading a guide about improving battery life and one of the things mentioned was stopping Gmail syncing your contacts and calendars.

I'm a n00b so I wanted to ask some questions about this and how much it can help the battery, and also if it's worth actually leaving as it is. If you can shed any light on the queries below I'd greatly appreciate it

1. When I set up my phone I added people as Google contacts rather than Sim contacts but wasn't really sure of the difference and what it would mean. Is it just a case of the phone finding those people on your Gmail account if you select to add as a Google contact or is there more to it?

2. How frequent are syncs with Google contacts and calendars and what exactly is synced between my phone and my Google account? Is it actually battery intensive or does it make very little difference?

3. I set up a Google Calendar a long time ago and subscribed to my girlfriend's calendar, but have deleted mine and unsubscribed to hers today as I just don't use it. Does this mean nothing is then synced with the phone as nothing exists?



I'm trying to get my head around exactly how my Google account links with my phone and how it affects the phone. Thanks again.

 

[JasonC]

Hello,

1. If you sync your contacts with Google then those contacts are also usable in Gmail (if you use it), it also serves as an automatic backup, so if you reset your phone or get a new one, you can just re-sync and all of you contacts will appear on your phone. This is a much better way than syncing with your PC IMO.

2. I don't think you can set the sync interval for contacts and calendar but if I add a new contact on my phone or in Gmail contacts on my PC, they update within a couple of minutes automatically. I have wifi on constantly and sync set to automatic and I get on average about 24hrs battery life.

3. If you have a google account then you will have a default calendar, if you add any entries to the calendar on the phone it will sync with your google calendar. Just login to your google account on the PC and check if you have any entries showing, there should be.

 

[CarsnGadgets]

by the way, because its syncing it works both ways, you can add stuff via the pc to your gmail callendar or contacts or even gtasks and it will sync with the phone.

 

[punk_beatz]

Thanks guys, looks like it's more of a benefit than a drag! I was just concerned about battery life but it looks like it can't have much effect on that at all.