How to prevent android from auto-sync'ing gmail contacts and photos etc

I just got a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and when I go into my settings then add an account and add a gmail account, it gives me an option to choose what I want to sync. I unchecked 'photos' and 'contacts' and everything else except for 'gmail', but it still auto sync'ed my photos and contacts (and my apps and app data, even though I told it not to). I then deleted the account and tried again but this time, I didn't check anything at all (not even gmail) and it did not sync anything, which is good. But I want to sync only my mail, so then I went into the settings for my account and checked only the 'sync gmail' box and it synced everything again (app, app data, contacts, photos). How do I make it stop syncing everything? I just want to sync my inbox.

Answer

To turn off syncing of everything to google, except mail then you can try the following steps:

1. Go to "Settings" on your phone -> "General" -> "Accounts" -> "Google" -> click your email address in the top. From here, you can uncheck checkboxes on everything you don't want to sync with Google.


2. Google+ also has its own syncing options -> Go to "Settings" on your phone -> "General" -> "Accounts" -> "Google" -> "Google+" -> "Auto backup". In the top, you can choose "Off" to turn off the backup of pictures and files to Google+.

I hope this helps.