A data management system and method for a mobile device to provide complete perception and access to a data collection, such a user's data collection for example, without requiring either persistent storage of the user's complete data collection locally on the mobile device, or network access requests for each user data request from the mobile device. The data management system and method employs a data probability function to predict the probability of the mobile device accessing specific types of user data based on the operating mode of the mobile device. The data management system and method executes as a background process to provide and store locally on the mobile device, the data most probable to be accessed by the user. The data most likely to be accessed via the mobile device is available locally, thereby minimizing latency issues that occur when data requests cannot be fulfilled using data stored locally in the mobile device and network requests are performed.