shannon702

I just got this phone off eBay. it was already rooted and the problem I'm having is the previous users gmail account is connected to the play store so I'm not able to download anything from Google play because I don't know the password to that account. which also keeps me from being able to delete the account as well. basically everything is synchronized with this persons account and I can't do anything about it. I keep getting notifications on "sign in error" for this account. so my question is, is there anyway yo remove this account or unroot my phone? I'd like to keep it rooted because from what I've read, this phone is better with android over windows. but not being able to personalize my phone because of this persons gmail account is very frustrating! hope someone can help.
thanks,
Shannon

Brian706

Hi shannon, welcome to Android Forums.

There is a couple of options here. One option would be to go into your settings menu and find the manage applications section. Look for Play Store and choose clear data.

Another option would be to go into accounts and sync in your settings and delete the google account associated with the phone.

The last option (and likely what I would choose) is to factory reset the phone. This will wipe all data and return the phone to the state it was in when purchased. Basically you would be starting from scratch as if you'd just purchased the phone from your carrier.

I don't know why someone would sell a phone without factory resetting it and removing their personal data That's pretty scary. I hope this helps!

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shannon702

I tried all those already. play store doesn't even show up in my manage application settings. I did do a factory reset and that did absolutely nothing. it has been so frustrating because nothing seems to work. I've read rooted phones are supposed to be easier to manage, yet I'm having so much trouble

DragonSlayer95

Now now Brian, clearing market data isn't going to resolve it

Without a factory reset, go into app drawer, settings, apps, all apps, navigate to accounts and clear data. Once you do this clear out market data as well.

Welcome to AF! Hope you enjoy your stay here.

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DragonSlayer95

How exactly did you factory reset? Because with a rooted phone, you would think your doing a factory reset when you actually aren't for people not familiar with root.

Another factory reset method you could try is doing so from the Hboot menu, in other words power phone completely off, and continously hold down either volume down or volume up+down with power and it'll bring up your hboot menu where you can factory reset from there as well.

Last edited by DragonSlayer95; November 13th, 2012 at 06:21 PM.

Brian706

I completely missed that this phone was rooted. Try doing this for a factory reset. Turn off the phone then pull the battery and put it back in. Hold volume down+power.

This should get you to your bootloader. From there use the volume down or up keys to navigate to recovery. Select with the power button. Once in recovery, you should find in there a wipe menu.

Depending on what recovery your phone has, you may have to navigate with the volume and power buttons or it may be touch screen. See if you can find a wipe menu in recovery and find an option such as wipe data/factory reset.

DragonSlayer95

That's what I just suggested above blondie

Thought I'd throw that in there

Brian706

You edited while I was typing! Man you aren't cutting me any slack today!

DragonSlayer95

It takes 6 minutes to type that?

Always gotta give you a hard time

shannon702

I did a factory reset from the settings—privacy menu. ill try what you guys mentioned. what exactly dies this do? sorry I'm so stupid when it comes to this technology rooting stuff lol

DragonSlayer95

That's odd, and it's still showing the previous owners email address in the email setting and play store?

It's just a different way to factory reset if the way you tried didn't entirely work.

If you get the hang or rooting and start flashing roms, this will be one way you factory reset when you flash a Rom.

Brian706

It's basically the rooted version of a factory reset. It will wipe all data. So you will lose any apps that aren't system apps. You will lose all text messages, etc. You can use an app such as titanium backup or rom toolbox to backup anything you need or want to save. Although, you'd have to download it with that other person's play store account

But it sounds like you just got the phone and want to start fresh anyway, so it's probably good to wipe all data. Really, the previous owner should have done that.

Wiping data will not take away root access or anything like that. Just make sure you choose to wipe data/factory reset, and not format all partitions.

shannon702

yea. the factory reset I did literally dud nothing. and when I try removing that Gmail account it says "thus application is required for different applications..." I still click the remove account button buy it doesn't remove it. I just don't understand why it wont remove

DragonSlayer95

I didn't think about this earlier, instead of pain of powering off device etc. You also could try holding down power button (while phone is on) and hit reboot and see if it gives you option to reboot or reboot into recovery/boot loader. As some devs incorporate this option in their rom.

DragonSlayer95

Ohhh!!!

Go into settings and apps, and uninstall ALL downloaded apps and this should fix it.

shannon702

i just deleted all the downloaded apps. still wont let me delete that account. im going to try the factory reset mentioned above. i have rebooted the phone already. it doesnt give me any alternative option. just reboots it. hopefully this other factory reset option works :/

DragonSlayer95

Report back and let us know.

rectina

There is a couple of options here. One option would be to go into your settings menu and find the manage applications section. Look for Play Store and choose clear data.

DragonSlayer95

The only thing about this method, he wants the previous owners email off of his phone, and doing this, the email will still be linked.

shannon702

i tried that factory reset. all that happened was it gave me a screen with a red block on top with letters and numbers, green block in the middle, and blue block and a white block at the bottom with "serial" typed in it. but it wouldnt navigate to anything. pressing the volume buttons didnt do anything and touching the screen did nothing either.. ughhh.. i think im a lost cause

DragonSlayer95

This is agitating the **** out of me, because your device should not be doing this.

Let me see what else I can come up with and ill report back.

Can you download anything from the market yet?

shannon702

nope. nothing has changed on my phone. when i try to go into the market. it says "wrong password entered" for the previous users gmail account. its frustrating the hell outta me too! i just wanna be able to use my phone

DragonSlayer95

Alright we'll try one other thing since you can't access the market.

I'll upload rom manager to my DropBox for you to download in a minute and have you flash cwm recovery and try to get you to wipe everything from recovery.

shannon702

ok..just tell me what to do..

DragonSlayer95

http://db.tt/eTw0Ygv1

Download from the link, install and once it's open, top of screen it'll say flash clockwork mod recovery. Choose that and report back.

shannon702

tried that. did everything you said to do. it said there was an error while trying to do it.. could there be something wrong with how my phone is rooted?

shannon702

it also said to confirm my phone and htc desire was the only thing that came up. I have an htc hd2. are they the same thing?

DragonSlayer95

This is where it gets tricky and risky then, do you remember how to go to recovery via Brian's advice earlier?

Just for my sake of mind, go here http://m.gsmarena.com/htc_hd2-2957.php and confirm that is definitely your phone.

Last edited by DragonSlayer95; November 13th, 2012 at 08:29 PM.

shannon702

the factory reset by taking out the battery, putting it back in, then holding in the power button and volume down button at the same time?

shannon702

yes that is my phone

shannon702

should i try that reset option again?

DragonSlayer95

Doing a search, cwm is compatible for your phone, im just a bit iffy with you flashing it on since it's finding it as the desire.

shannon702

like i said..could there be an issue with how my phone is rooted? i dont know anything about rooted phones

DragonSlayer95

No it shouldn't have anything to do with how you are rooted.

shannon702

btw.. i really appreciate you trying to help me fix this...sorry its so frustraing :/

DragonSlayer95

It won't hurt to try, go ahead and try to flash recovery.

shannon702

it did the same exact thing as it did the first time i tried it. except this time it didnt say "serial" at the bottom of the screen

shannon702

should i just try to unroot it?

DragonSlayer95

So its not letting you flash clockwork mod recovery?

Brian706

Thanks for sticking with this dragonslayer! I'm kinda busy and haven't had a chance to troubleshoot. I'm starting to think we might need to dig up the ruu and start from scratch pretty soon. I'll look around for it. Shannon, can you do me a favor and boot up using volume down + power again (your bootloader) and type the first few lines of info at the top of the screen?

T hd2 is international right? Isn't it the international equivalent to the original evo 4g or similar?

Anyway, that info will help me locate the proper ruu for your phone and/or a rom.

It may be easier to find the stock rom and just flash that. Start from scratch but keep root. Simpler than running an ruu if you want to keep root access.

DragonSlayer95

Thanks for chiming in Brian, im sure keeping root in the last worry right now lol

DragonSlayer95

I just found a thread with the exact same problem. It's definitely worth looking at

HTC HD2 Not able to do factory reset/Hard reset and unable to delete previous Google user info.

shannon702

in the red top of screen it says
PB81120 HX-B3
SPL-2.08.HSPL 8G XE
0x05
CotullaHSPL 0x40

shannon702

i got to the boot menu! i clicked ad recovery and it came up "no boot sources"

shannon702

i was finally able to do a hard reset.. IT WORKED!!! thank you guys soooooo much!!!! i dont have some strangers account messing with my phone anymore!!! thanks everything! you guys are the best!!!

shannon702

Now that I did a hard reset and my phone is working brilliantly, is there any apps you guys suggest I should have for a rooted phone?

DragonSlayer95

Nice!!!

So glad you finally got it! First as a root user you should flash on clockwork mod recovery as I was suggesting earlier if you intend to flash roms so you can make backups of your phone.

Another handy root app is titanium backup which allows you to backup an app along with its data.

Brian706

Awesome! I'm so glad you got it working!! I was starting to worry.
Root Apps to check out:
Rom toolbox
Titanium Backup
Hmm... I thought I had more but apparently I don't use a lot of root apps. Maybe I just haven't installed them all on this new rom. That's all I have for now