Parse.com objectID issue

From what I gather, you are trying to store user preferences within your ParseUser object to keep track of what the user has elected to save for their app settings.

You have a number of options:

1) Use JSONObject

JSON is a simple way to store data in key/value format. Let's make it easy to keep track of all the settings in one place, with one single object. You can then store the object as a field for your ParseUser and save/update it when the user has made changes.

Example of initializing the preferences:

JSONObject newUserPrefs = new JSONObject();
newUserPrefs.put("audio", true);
newUserPrefs.put("anotherBoolean", false);
ParseUser user = ParseUser.getCurrentUser();
user.put("prefs", newUserPrefs);
user.saveInBackground(); //Not shown here but I suggest using SaveCallback

Example of getting the preferences:

ParseUser user = ParseUser.getCurrentUser();
JSONObject userPrefs = user.getJSONObject("prefs");
if(userPrefs.optBoolean("audio", false)){
    preferences.putBoolean("audioLocal", true);
}
//do more stuff here with other values!

The advantage here is you only have to query the DB for your ParseUser and you have immediate access to the user's preferences! No extra queries needed.

2) Use ParseObject

Later on down the road, your preferences might get a little more complex (ParseFiles, other ParseObjects, etc...) so this might be another alternative for a more advanced set of preferences. Here instead of a JSONObject, you store a reference to a ParseObject instead. This will require a query every time you need to access it, but provides more power (not just simple types!). I suggest subclassing this object and creating it as a simple POJO:

@ParseClassName("UserPreferences")
public class UserPreferences extends ParseObject {

     public ParseFile getBackground(){
         return getParseFile("background.jpg");
     }

     public boolean getAudioStatus(){
         return getBoolean("audio");
     } 

     public void setAudioStatus(boolean status){
         put("audio", status);
     }

     ...
     ...
} 

Now, when you create an instance of this new object type:

UserPreferences userPrefs = new UserPreferences();
userPrefs.setAudioStatus(true);
//do more setters/getters maybe
ParseUser user = ParseUser.getCurrentUser();
user.put("prefs", userPrefs);

//may or may not be necessary, the user's save in background might capture this, but to be safe we save this object as well!
userPrefs.saveInBackground() 
user.saveInBackground();  //again, use SaveCallback

Retrieving it:

ParseUser user = ParseUser.getCurrentUser();
UserPreferences userPrefs = user.getParseObject("prefs");
userPrefs.fetchInBackground() //again, use a callback to ensure it's successful fetch

//do stuff with the userPrefs now that you fetched it, like setting local preferences!

Note: See how I stored the ParseObject for User prefs as a field for the ParseUser, and saved the ParseUser. This updates the DB to have an object storing all the user preferences, similar to how we did with the JSONObject. And also note that when we fetch the ParseObject for UserPreferences, we have to fetch the object after getting reference to it. This is because that object still has data that has not been retrieved by the network yet, because it is not just a simple object.

The problem your facing is that you are storing the objectID for the preferences in your local preferences, which defeats the purpose you are trying to accomplish! You want to store reference to the preferences object on the cloud so that every time the app is wiped from a device, or data is wiped, you can restore the preferences, which means you need to store it on the Parse cloud. At the same time, you want to store the reference to the preferences with the associated ParseUser so make it a field of that parse user using the above examples I provided. I suggest starting with a simple JSONObject and going from there

References: Parse Objects Parse Data Types JSONObjects