Why is Sync Disabled? How to Enable Sync on the Samsung Galaxy s4 Smartphone!

If you, like me, want to use your SAMSUNG Galaxy s4 smartphone to access your emails via Gmail, then you’ll likely want to be able to turn on Sync on your S4 handset ASAP! This also works for other Samsung (and Android) smartphone devices.

Syncing your phone is important, and sometimes, you might find it has stopped working, for no apparent reason.

The instructions below allow you to do just that…

How to Turn on Sync on Samsung Galaxy s4

  1. Setup your email or Gmail accounts via the options (not covered in this tutorial)
  2. Scroll down the menu from the top – pull down on screen
  3. You should see two lines under the wifi and etc logos, drag this down to reveal more settings*
  4. You may need to scroll this selection of logos one to the right – to reveal the “Sync” option
  5. You will see the option to turn on “sync” near the end of this list (for us it is the very last option). Press this option to activate sync – it should light up. If it is greyed out, it is not active.
  6. That’s it!

*Another way to find more settings is to press the “edit” button here:

finding the sync button on a galaxy smartphone by pressing "edit" then scrolling

Leave a comment if this worked

If you have any problems with the above, feel free to leave a public comment below. Also, if this helped out your day, feel free to brighten ours by leaving a “that worked for me!” comment below too!

Also see: remove Life Companion

Another item of irritation with the fantastic Samsung Galaxy s4 smartphone is the text that says “Life Companion” on the lock screen. Click here to learn how to remove Life Companion from the Samsung Galaxy s4 Lock Screen.

Also works for other Samsung Galaxy devices

I just used this on Samsung Galaxy s7 and s8 (and updated the instructions too).

This is the same process for s2, s3, s4, s5, s6, s7 and s8. It will also work on the sister products. Its very likely extremely similar for all Android phones, unless your operator has customized settings options a lot.

Note I also tried this on Samsung j2 and it works.

Please note the colour and style of your screen is likely to be personalised and also has changed as Android versions have updated over time. If you’d like a current screengrab or video of this process, please let us know in the comments section and we will update this tutorial. Its designed to be a simple text description right now, to help smartphone users just get it working!

59 thoughts on “Why is Sync Disabled? How to Enable Sync on the Samsung Galaxy s4 Smartphone!”

  1. A number of people have been coming in here the past few days trying to find out variations on the following theme:

    “facebook sync is disabled s4”
    “Why is Facebook sync disables on my galaxy s4”

    and etc. Facebook syncing is controlled by the app settings AND ALSO the main “sync” options (detailed above) – so this solution should work for you, too. Leave a comment if not…

    Reply
    • Thanks a lot !
      I was stuck with that for the facebook sync of my contacts and your solution worked fine.
      Quite obvious finally but I didn’t know there was a sync button in the menu.
      After that, however, you have to go in Settings — Accounts to enable the facebook sync.
      Thanks again !

      Reply
  2. Alternatively to the “more settings” option, you can “drag” the settings to the left to reveal the additional stuff. The “Sync” setting is quite a long way over to the right… leave a comment if this worked for you!

    Reply
  3. the email syncronization is working, but it’ll turn off by itself tomorrow, and i have to turn it on everyday. how to make this forever without being turned off by itself?

    Reply
    • Not sure – it might be some app that’s turning it off, because I’ve not seen this issue before?!

      Try removing any apps that you don’t need anymore, and restart your phone.

      Reply
      • Hi.

        I have followed ur instructions re: email sync is disabled but it stil wont sync on its own and i hv to keep syncing emails myself! I hv the galaxy S4.

        Any other suggestions plz?! X

        Reply
  4. Thanx for that I have now turned my sync back on it was driving me mad that it was disabled,now I know thank you 🙂

    Reply
  5. I followed your directions on my s4 mini to turn on the sync. I do not have the sync option you are describing. Is there another way to do this?

    Reply
  6. I am having trouble with syncing also. My facebook pictures used to be there and now aren’t. I go to “sync” and keep receiving an error message. Help!

    Reply
    • Hi Brittany, it sounds like you may not have a working internet connection to Facebook for some reason. Try turning off wifi and turning it back on and re-trying – this sounds like it might not be related to syncing.

      Reply
  7. I have the s4 phone. I don’t have my email (aol) account synched. I don’t want it because I don’t want to be awakened everytime someone sends me an email at 3 in the morning. Why is it that when I push the refresh button it doesn’t load my emails? It worked on my old samsung phone.

    Reply
    • Not sure, Tasha. It might be worth putting sync on and turning it off before you go to bed, or don’t want to use it. This way you’d get your email only when you wanted to. I don’t know why “refresh” wouldn’t be working in your case – it could be a connection issue.

      Reply
  8. When I am in settings and I try to add an account I want to add “sync apps with Facebook” I enter my email and password it is accepted then I approve my Samsung account to sync with Facebook. Next I get an error message that says “log in failed. Try again later”
    Yesterday I had this account on my phone and it was working fine but today I can’t see Facebook on my calendar and it is not synced with other things.
    How do I fix this
    Thanks

    Reply
      • Sounds like a Facebook / Samsung issue. It would be worth reporting via the FB app as they’ll very likely want to find a solution and add this to their site. Going on the relevant plugin on Google Play and leaving this as a comment would be a great place to start.

        Reply
    • I am facing the same issue ! I had them on my Gallery 2 days back, however all of a sudden the SYNC stopped and now when I login I get an error message ” LOGIN FAILED, TRY AGAIN”.

      Mark and Nikki .. you are not alone..

      Reply
      • That sounds like it could be a username / password or connectivity issue rather than a sync issue: it is failing to login.

        Note that some countries / ISPs or even wifi providers block traffic to some email providers (for example Gmail is frequently blocked in China).

        We offer a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to clients who want to access email services where this happens, for this reason.

        Reply
  9. Hi Robin,could you tell me please how i can get my own music as a ringtone on a smart fone4 turbo? the usual way, hold down choose option etc, doesn’t appear and it’s very much getting on my nerves, its a new fone i have just got for my wife and all the pre-loaded ones are rubbish. Please help if you can.,Thank you.

    Reply
  10. Hi ,
    I ve Samsung galaxy S3
    I cant sync my apps any more with my facebook account
    i followed ur instructions settings – sns – connect
    it took me to sign in with fb , confirm my username n password , asking me to confirm to allow samsung galaxy siii
    however it comes up with an error sign in failed ttry again
    I wonder if you can help

    Reply
  11. Hi there

    I am currently using a Galaxy S4, with Android version 5.0.1. I manage to sync my contacts from Facebook…however I am unable to link them to my device or Google account. The contacts from Facebook is also un-editable, with everything from name, number and save being greyed out. Please advise. Thanks.

    Reply
  12. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I’ve been looking for the last week to try and turn on sync but couldn’t find
    how!! Not the end of my troubles but a massive step .. THANK YOU!

    Reply
  13. Finally an answer to my problem!
    Been reading various forums for the last few hours and almost got mad 🙂 This simple solution may work for “sync disabled”, “Sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly.” etc

    Reply
  14. On my galaxy s4 I know how to turn off and on the sink but how do I do choose on what to sink and what not to sink because it keeps tripping up quadrupling up my contacts help

    Reply
    • Not exactly sure with this device, but pull down on the top of screen, click “edit” in the top right corner, and then make sure Sync is enabled there. The word “edit” replaces what used to be a picture with 4 squares in it (when this was originally written) on most devices. Note your settings may look different on the device you mention.

      Reply
  15. Hello I am trying to switch off sync for Google Chrome eBay WhatsApp and vibe. Each asks for a password everyone I want to access. I have switched off sync and followed online advice and disabled but my galaxy s4 appears to reset. Thanks

    Reply
  16. Sync is disabled on my S4. Tried many variations but still not able to enable
    Like i went to1. settings 2. Accounts
    3. Clicked on email 4. Now it showed my account with sync disabled. 5 i did sync all bt it didn’t work 5. Sync settings – its showing master sync has been disabled.. 6. Still clicked bt shows sync disabled 7 sync schedule once a month
    Nothing works
    Help

    Reply
  17. I changed my facebook password 2 days back, before that its syncing with my samsung note 4 but after log in again its sync option got disabled. I tried to add account again and even the sync option but result was zero. Please help that how can i sync my account now so that i will get the contacts, calendar and other information.

    Reply
  18. My Facebook is disabled and my sync on Facebook if off I dont knw why please assist me because I did not get any notification

    Reply
  19. I cannot get to the three squares and two arrows.Does it have to do with the fact that I have thee s4 mini?Please help I have very important stuff to do and I can’t find a way to fix this.Please reply asap.

    Reply
  20. I looked under Accounts in the settings, went to my email, and clicked on it. My “sync” button way greyed out, it said “sync turned off” by my email, I did what this article said but the sync icon was already green. I go to the Google Play Stord and it says “Server Error [Retry]”. I’m not sure what to do, nothing is working.

    Reply
  21. Thanks… your answers
    Robin Scott
    01.30.2014 AT 10:37 AM

    with the big picture really helps. Now i know what is “more” button

    Reply
  22. I have a Samsung s4. My Facebook and messenger are turned off. How do I turn them on? My sync in turned on. I don’t get it, just quit.

    Reply
  23. Hi, I have a Samsung Galaxy S 111 mini. Cannot get my e-mails to download to phone. I have turned on Sync. Fairly resent change of password on Sky .com? I use Microsoft Outlook on my PC.

    Reply

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