Help Setting up restricted account on LG Nexus 5

[ivant]

Hello,

It's the first time I write on this forum, so please excuse me if I'm in the wrong section or even the wrong forum.

I have an old nexus 5, which I want to give to my son. He has a restricted account (he's 9) and I can't seem to add him.

I tried the following things:

1. I reset the phone to factory default
2. Tried to log-in with his account
3. I got an error saying that I need a newer version of the google services package

So, then I:

1. So Logged in as myself
2. Updated all the packages
3. Created a new user and switched to it
4. Tried to log-in with my son's account
5. I got an error saying that the restricted account works only as primary one
6. I can't delete the primary account, other that with factory reset, which would revert all the updates as well.

So it's a bit of a chicken and egg problem. I'd appreciate your help with this.

 

[Dannydet]

Before you did the factory reset did you log out of the Gmail account tied to the phone?

 

[ivant]

Before you did the factory reset did you log out of the Gmail account tied to the phone?

No, I don't think so.

 

[svim]

Do a Factory Reset on this phone to wipe your old saved data off and while leaving your original login account as is, then just set it up from scratch for your 9 yr.old son. At that point you'll have different options to suit how much access you want to give him.
There are integral parental controls in the Settings menu to enable:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1075738?hl=en
or use Google's Family Link app from the Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.kids.familylink&hl=en_US
or there's also the integral 'Guest Mode' option also in the Settings menu, that's more limited but still might be what you want for his usage needs:
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-set-up-guest-mode-on-your-android-1835913254
Your account on that phone is still there if you need to access it whenever you might want to alter his privileges. (Be sure to use a good password to keep him or any mischievous friends, locked out from it.)

 

[ivant]

Do a Factory Reset on this phone to wipe your old saved data off and while leaving your original login account as is, then just set it up from scratch for your 9 yr.old son. At that point you'll have different options to suit how much access you want to give him.
There are integral parental controls in the Settings menu to enable:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1075738?hl=en
or use Google's Family Link app from the Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.kids.familylink&hl=en_US
or there's also the integral 'Guest Mode' option also in the Settings menu, that's more limited but still might be what you want for his usage needs:
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-set-up-guest-mode-on-your-android-1835913254
Your account on that phone is still there if you need to access it whenever you might want to alter his privileges. (Be sure to use a good password to keep him or any mischievous friends, locked out from it.)

That sounds exactly like what I tried to do (my second attempt in the original post). And it in fact worked fine on a tablet - nexus 7/2013, but not on a phone.

And I just stumbled upon this: https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/2865483. If I understand it correctly, it says that restricted profiles work only on tablets. That's very strange. Or am I misunderstanding this?

 

[svim]

And I just stumbled upon this: https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/2865483. If I understand it correctly, it says that restricted profiles work only on tablets. That's very strange. Or am I misunderstanding this?

Parental Control and Guest Mode have been included in Android for the past several versions and should already be accessible in the Settings menu on that Nexus 5, if you have that phone in front of you check the Settings menu. Family Link will need to be installed from the Play Store, and is not limited to just tablets, works OK on phones too. (..and is getting included into Android 10 as a system-level service).