Described is a method to provide sync notifications to a client device. The invention maintains a notion of the state of the device. When an event of interest occurs for the mobile device, the server decides whether or not the device needs to be prompted to sync. A parameter that indicates whether an event of interest renders the device no longer up to date from the perspective of the server or whether an event of interest occurs and the device has not contacted the server for a certain period of time is compared to a last known parameter for a device. If the parameters match and the current time is greater than a timeout value, a sync notification is sent. If the parameters don't match, the sync notification is sent. The method is repeated for each event of interest.