I've been sitting on this for a while but finally decided to speak up on it. I've been reading advice all over since the Froyo days that clearing Google Services Framework is a good idea to solve some play store and/or random app related problems. It is not a good idea to do this. Let me explain why:
Google Services Framework, among other things, contains device data for services like the awesome C2DM (Cloud to Device Messaging) service. What is this you ask? Well, in a nut shell, it is responsible for delivering messages from the cloud to your phone for a particular app without requiring that app to run and constantly maintain a data connection. This was introduced in Froyo (If I'm not mistaken) and helps conserve battery life. For example, Angry Birds Friends has C2DM because it will notify you of someone beating your score without the app running in the background. Angry Birds Friends does not use the on boot permission, so it needs not remain running eating up data just to receive notifications. Understand?
A lot of apps are designed like this and it is a very good practice for developers who want to include notifications without needing their app to run in the background all of the time.
Clearing Google Services Framework will cause the C2DM service for every app that uses it to fail until that said app also has its data cleared and is launched and configured again (first time use). If you've ever wondered why your notifications for certain apps stop working, it was probably due to reading advice on clearing Google Services Framework to solve some other problem.
If you don't mind setting up all of your C2DM capable apps again, then go ahead and clear Google Services Framework data. However, if you have quite a few apps, like myself, then clearing it is a bad idea. I found this out a long time ago. There may also be other side effects associated with clearing Google Services Framework, but this is the one I've never seen mentioned before.
Enjoy!
Google Services Framework, among other things, contains device data for services like the awesome C2DM (Cloud to Device Messaging) service. What is this you ask? Well, in a nut shell, it is responsible for delivering messages from the cloud to your phone for a particular app without requiring that app to run and constantly maintain a data connection. This was introduced in Froyo (If I'm not mistaken) and helps conserve battery life. For example, Angry Birds Friends has C2DM because it will notify you of someone beating your score without the app running in the background. Angry Birds Friends does not use the on boot permission, so it needs not remain running eating up data just to receive notifications. Understand?
A lot of apps are designed like this and it is a very good practice for developers who want to include notifications without needing their app to run in the background all of the time.Clearing Google Services Framework will cause the C2DM service for every app that uses it to fail until that said app also has its data cleared and is launched and configured again (first time use). If you've ever wondered why your notifications for certain apps stop working, it was probably due to reading advice on clearing Google Services Framework to solve some other problem.
If you don't mind setting up all of your C2DM capable apps again, then go ahead and clear Google Services Framework data. However, if you have quite a few apps, like myself, then clearing it is a bad idea. I found this out a long time ago. There may also be other side effects associated with clearing Google Services Framework, but this is the one I've never seen mentioned before.
Enjoy!
