Many people use a combination of desktop, laptop, tablet, and smartphone devices to access and store information. It is helpful when specific information is the same across multiple devices. For example, when scheduling appointments using a calendar program, each new appointment would need to be entered in each device to ensure that each device is up to date. Data synchronization eliminates the need to constantly make changes to every device.

Data synchronization is the exchange of data between two or more devices, while maintaining consistent data on those devices. Some of the types of data that can be synchronized are: