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Help Google Account not valid?

ericbergan

Lurker
Jul 29, 2011
9
2
I have a Google account, associated with my Android tablet, that is not a gmail.com account. I can't get my Photon/Gingerbread to accept it. But all my apps, as well as contacts, etc., are associated with that account. How can I configure my Photon to work with all of them?

eric
 
Welcome to Android Forums!!

Your post is not clear. What do you mean you have a Google Account, that is not a gmail account?

I've had it for a very long time (predates gmail), and is tied to my personal domain, not gmail.com or a Google App account. Works fine with my tablet (and has my apps tied to it), works with Google Analytics, Google+, etc. But my new Photon insists on a gmail.com domain for its primary Google app.

eric
 
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I've had it for a very long time (predates gmail), and is tied to my personal domain, not gmail.com or a Google App account. Works fine with my tablet (and has my apps tied to it), works with Google Analytics, Google+, etc. But my new Photon insists on a gmail.com domain for its primary Google app.

eric

Have you tried logging onto gmail to see if it'll connect? If it predates gmail, I'm not sure how it connects to everything else that google offers. Only possible thing I can think is that you'd need to register the username as a gmail account, in order for it to link up. Try that first. If it logs you into google plus, I can't see why it wouldn't work for gmail...unless, someone had already registered that particular gmail email account.

If you don't want to do that, you don't necessarily need to log a gmail account into the phone. Just bypass the initial setup, then go to the email setup in the settings area and set up your email address as your primary.
 
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This is a known problem for people with Google serving their mail domain prior to gmail.

Others often find that they have to bite the bullet, get a gmail account just to get things squared away, then work with adding the legacy account second.

I've seen a number of hits and misses on this - I'll look around to see if I can find some common denominator on the hits, post back if I do.
 
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This is a known problem for people with Google serving their mail domain prior to gmail.

Others often find that they have to bite the bullet, get a gmail account just to get things squared away, then work with adding the legacy account second.

I've seen a number of hits and misses on this - I'll look around to see if I can find some common denominator on the hits, post back if I do.

I've been tempted to do that, but then I think I lose all the Android apps associated with my existing account, some of which are paid apps. Also, then I think I hose my tablet, because as far as I know, there is no way to change the primary Google account in honeycomb (also a known problem.)

Feels like I'm caught between a rock and a hardplace, just because some Gingerbread programer thought @gmail.com was mandatory... So any suggestions greatfully accepted!

eric
 
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Your apps associated with your normal Google account will be in place.

The trick is in getting your phone up and running with a gmail account - that goes and pervasively sets all google access to that - and then overriding the Market and associating your phone with that normal Google instead of the gmail one.

I'll keep looking, I've seen this accomplished, as memory serves.
 
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The tablet is running Honeycomb 3.1.

Heard back from Google, apparently the issue is that 2.3 has an old version of Market bundled into it, that forces the gmail requirement. The >3.0 versions don't.

I ended up creating a gmail account for my existing Google account. So far, the world hasn't ended. My tablet still sees the market, my desktop Google apps still seem to be working, and the Photon is now seeing apps and contacts.

eric
 
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The tablet is running Honeycomb 3.1.

Heard back from Google, apparently the issue is that 2.3 has an old version of Market bundled into it, that forces the gmail requirement. The >3.0 versions don't.

I ended up creating a gmail account for my existing Google account. So far, the world hasn't ended. My tablet still sees the market, my desktop Google apps still seem to be working, and the Photon is now seeing apps and contacts.

eric

It didn't mess up the fact that you had your original google account linked to your personal domain, right?

When you mentioned that, that was the only reason I didn't chime in again because I wasn't sure if creating a gmail account with the same username would cause issues with the link between your original google account name linked to your personal domain.
 
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It didn't mess up the fact that you had your original google account linked to your personal domain, right?

When you mentioned that, that was the only reason I didn't chime in again because I wasn't sure if creating a gmail account with the same username would cause issues with the link between your original google account name linked to your personal domain.

No, it seemed to add the new gmail address to the existing account, so that both the gmail address and my personal domain both log into the same account. (Minor problem, gave the new gmail address a different password, which changed the password for the existing address.)

So essentially, different aliases for the same account.

Haven't checked out all the edge conditions (other people's Talk connections to me, etc.), but so far, so good.

eric
 
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No, it seemed to add the new gmail address to the existing account, so that both the gmail address and my personal domain both log into the same account. (Minor problem, gave the new gmail address a different password, which changed the password for the existing address.)

So essentially, different aliases for the same account.

Haven't checked out all the edge conditions (other people's Talk connections to me, etc.), but so far, so good.

eric

Nice. Okay, only other thing I'd check too is just to be sure that emails sent are still coming from your personal domain and not gmail. I'd assume that's important for you (as I know it would be for me, were I in your position).
 
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Nice. Okay, only other thing I'd check too is just to be sure that emails sent are still coming from your personal domain and not gmail. I'd assume that's important for you (as I know it would be for me, were I in your position).

That's not really an issue for me, because my personal domain goes through a completely different email ISP. The only thing is my "note to self" comes from and goes to the funky gmail account - I can clean that up with setting up a forward. Guess I'll have to remember to also change account for any voice command "send email", but I do that very rarely.

eric
 
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That's not really an issue for me, because my personal domain goes through a completely different email ISP. The only thing is my "note to self" comes from and goes to the funky gmail account - I can clean that up with setting up a forward. Guess I'll have to remember to also change account for any voice command "send email", but I do that very rarely.

eric

Ah, okay. Well, good deal. I'm glad it worked out for what you needed (getting the apps and contacts on your phone).
 
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