Help Changing gmail on the droid

[lhorwinkle]

I set up my droid to use my existing gmail account. That gmail account was a long-standing "throw-away" account, set up under a pseudonym It's not my "real" email. It gets lots of spam.

(I use my "real" email address from my ISP for real mail purposes ... mailing to friends, family, and reputable companies ... and so I don't get much spam there.)

Well, now I want to use gmail for "real". So I deleted my junk gmail account online, and I created a new gmail account ... with my real name.

Now the droid gives me notifications that it cannot sync to the junk gmail account. Of course not! That one doesn't exist anymore.

If I try to delete the junk email from the droid, it tells me I cannot. Instead it says that I must reset the phone to "factory original settings". That will destroy all contacts, pictures, ringtones, wallpapers ... everything. No way! (Stupid phone!)

It's been suggested that I should export all of that stuff first, then do the reset, then set up my "real" gmail on the phone and import all of the "stuff".

But I don't know how to do the export (or the subsequent import). The manual that came in the phone is a miniature brochure, not much bigger than the little puzzles that come in a box of Cracker Jacks. No help there.

Anyone?

 

[mobil3gen]

You could try to backup your contacts to your SD then restore the phone to factory settings... Or go to settings and accounts, then add your new gmail account, then try and delete the old one

 

[lhorwinkle]

You could try to backup your contacts to your SD then restore the phone to factory settings.

That's just what I want to do. But I don't know how.

Or go to settings and accounts, then add your new gmail account, then try and delete the old one

That's what I tried ... and I got the warning "You can't do that, you have to reset your phone". (And that's exactly what I don't want to do.)

 

[NoBloodInTheseVeins]

I went from a moto droid to htc incredible and when i entered my gmail info on initial set up it added my contacts and such on its own.. so wouldn't it do that for you? The ringtones, wallpapers, photos etc should be on your mem card anyway.

 

[lhorwinkle]

Before deleting the gmail account on the droid, the message says:

This account is required by some applications. You can only remove it by resetting the phone to factory defaults (which deletes all your personal data).

I don't want that (deletion) to happen. So I must first backup all my stuff.

I know how to copy out all of my ringtones, music, and pictures. They're on the SD card.

But how do I backup (and later restore) the contacts?

BTW ...
I just logged onto the gmail account from my computer. There are NO contacts there. None.

Maybe if the phone would send the contacts up to gmail? But right now the phone says "Sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly." It's been saying that for 3 days now.

 

[lhorwinkle]

It seems that anything on the SD card is not affected by a master reset.

So I found the "export contacts" item (no thanks to the worthless manual).
- Exported the contacts to a file on SD.
- Did a master reset.
- Rebooted the phone.
- Re-registered with Verizon.
- Reset my wallpaper.
- Imported the contacts.
- Re-created my gmail account on the phone.
- Reassigned a few ringtones.
- Re-downloaded a couple of apps.

No more problems.

 

[mg1cigar]

I wanted to change my g-mail account to another address, so after thinking about how to go about it I decided to call the Verizon's Tech support #, thinking surly they could tell me. I explain the girl who answered the phone what I wanted to do - remember this is "Tech Support", she told me to go online (GOGGLE) and walked me through the process. She then proceeds to tell me go into my phone, go to accounts, add my new g-mail account address, and delete the old one. OK great that all worked up until the point I pressed OK to delete old account - a box popped up stating "to delete this account your phone will be reset to factory settings". I tried a number of times to go to Google and type in my deleted account user name - no go. I founds the number to Google Tech Support - it's all electronic, no real person to talk to to explain my situation. After reading forum posts, I understand "security risks, etc., but please let me talk to a live person.
So now I have another gmail account, but I have a Google sign in error for my other account that keeps popping up.
I guess I have two people to thank for this, me and Verizon's Tech Support for not letting me know I'd have to reset my phone back to factory settings, in turn loosing All my apps.
Any ideas? Sorry about venting.
Mike