Help Can't change Gmail without factory reset? WTF?

teikyo30 · Aug 23, 2011

How is this a SMART phone if to change my Gtalk email address I have to backup all my data and do a complete reset? Can you imagine having to format the hard drive and reinstall Windows to change your email address? How stupid would Microsoft look if you had to do that?

I've been using Ebuddy and Nimbuzz and a few others and decided to log on with Talk tonight, but it has my old email address. So I hit settings sure in my mind I can just edit the account details. Nope.

I switched from a Windows phone to an Android phone thinking "Android does", but in reality it feels like "Android does half-assed and only a little better than iPhone". Is that the case? My Windows phone didn't have this issue and that was on a Samsung SCH-i760. Know when that came out? 2007. A phone from almost 5 years ago could change email addresses with no issues, but my Thunderbolt can't.

teikyo30 · Aug 23, 2011

And I know someone will mention rooting the phone, but let me remind all of you that you don't have root access to Windows phones and they cooperate. I was really on the fence with Android. Topped with it being slower overall, not being able to disable apps from pre-loading etc, is really annoying. Like Angry Birds. Using it launches 44 other applications. There's nothing on my Windows 7 rig that calls up 44 other applications and used 93% of my memory till my system comes to a halt. One game on my Thunderbolt does, though. I have to reboot the phone to get it back to normal. And the reboots aren't gone like they promised. Never had that happen with a Windows phone. Not one single time. I seriously hope IF we get the Gingerbread update it fixes all this crap.

nateap87 · Aug 23, 2011

no...it's a security thing. Pretty understandable. also, then you could just log onto everyones phone and they'd have all the apps you paid for.

teikyo30 · Aug 23, 2011

nateap87 said:
no...it's a security thing. Pretty understandable. also, then you could just log onto everyones phone and they'd have all the apps you paid for.

Nope, that makes ZERO sense to me. How does having someone's email address mean you have their password? And how would that change anything if someone has physical possession of your phone?

How have Windows, Blackberry, and Apple avoided that problem?

b0b138 · Aug 23, 2011

Goto settings-accounts & sync. From there you can add and remove all kinds of accounts, including google.

I agree that its a bit hard to find and yes, maybe it should be easier. But, its a google app on a google os. It wouldn't surprise me if a windows phone had your windows live account buried into a handful of windows apps. for hotmail, messenger, etc.

Yeahha · Aug 23, 2011

Android is a Google product. It assumes when you get the phone you will not be logging into gmail with an account you don't want to use. The account is tied to all Google services on the phone.

dnoonan · Aug 23, 2011

I am confused. I have two Google email accounts, and can choose between them from the gmail app menu. I can add accounts there as well. Are you talking about the email account linked to your phone, or just getting to your different accounts?

dguy · Aug 23, 2011

This isn't gonna help you and it may frustrate you, but to play devil's advocate, Windows 7 preloads software exactly the same way Android does(so does nearly every modern OS). Being frustrated with preloading software comes from not understanding what it is or what it is for, not from any actual problem.

Yeahha · Aug 23, 2011

dnoonan said:
I am confused. I have two Google email accounts, and can choose between them from the gmail app menu. I can add accounts there as well. Are you talking about the email account linked to your phone, or just getting to your different accounts?

Email linked to gtalk. If you start gtalk can you choose either account to work with?

teikyo30 · Aug 23, 2011

b0b138 said:
Did you actually try creating a second account first, then deleting the one you don't have anymore?

If that still won't work then you might have an I/O error and need to root and reset

Yes, I already tried the 2nd account option and it didn't work. Have you tried that?

teikyo30 · Aug 23, 2011

RobertHaw said:
Is it you just like to complain, or are you being paid to shill for windows phone?

Is it you don't know how to be helpful or are you being paid by Android to suck up to their product?

teikyo30 · Aug 23, 2011

Yeahha said:
Android is a Google product. It assumes when you get the phone you will not be logging into gmail with an account you don't want to use. The account is tied to all Google services on the phone. Honestly it sounds like you would rather use WP.

So what you're saying is Android assumes you will keep your email account for life, and if you happen to change it you'd be more than happy to do what would be equivalent to formatting and reinstalling Windows? Really? I've been getting too much spam and I changed my email address. It really shouldn't be as difficult as rooting or resetting the phone to change my email address. It has nothing to do with wanting to use a Windows phone. It has everything to do with wanting to use a phone that DOES like the commercials hyped it up as doing.

One of my friends switched from Blackberry to the TB and she's getting pissed at all the things it doesn't compared to her old Storm. She also tried changing her email address on the phone and had the same problem, so contrary to what one previous poster wrote, I don't think it's an "I/O" error. That'd be strange since we got our phones in different cities.

teikyo30 · Aug 23, 2011

Yeahha said:
Email linked to gtalk. If you start gtalk can you choose either account to work with?

I have two email addresses for gmail on my phone. Had I known it would associate Gtalk with the first one and never let me change it, something that is nowhere in any of the manuals, I would have picked the newer email address.

Once you start Gtalk, no, you cannot switch it to your other account. You can't do it in any setting on or off Gtalk. But the funny thing is: every single app NOT developed by Google lets you do it by default. Which is another reason I don;t get why some of you seem to think it's a security issue. It makes no sense it would be a security issue since your email address has a password, and you can change your email on Android market if you want. So how would blocking it on the phone solve anything? If someone stole your phone you have bigger issues to worry about than them getting access to any apps you may have paid for.

Yeahha · Aug 23, 2011

teikyo30 said:
So what you're saying is Android assumes you will keep your email account for life, and if you happen to change it you'd be more than happy to do what would be equivalent to formatting and reinstalling Windows? Really? I've been getting too much spam and I changed my email address. It really shouldn't be as difficult as rooting or resetting the phone to change my email address. It has nothing to do with wanting to use a Windows phone. It has everything to do with wanting to use a phone that DOES like the commercials hyped it up as doing.

One of my friends switched from Blackberry to the TB and she's getting pissed at all the things it doesn't compared to her old Storm. She also tried changing her email address on the phone and had the same problem, so contrary to what one previous poster wrote, I don't think it's an "I/O" error. That'd be strange since we got our phones in different cities.

Well yeah Android does think you will stick to one email address. Your market purchases are tied to that email address so if you change it you lose your market purchases. If you want to change your email address you would need to do a reset. I didn't say anything about rooting as I don't think it would help you in what you are trying to do. I have personally been let down by all stock google apps I tried to use (aside from the market) and usually find a better 3rd party solution. I believe google want's to put out a proof of concept with basic functions and allows the 3rd party devs to improve it with better features.

Something you may find interesting Issue 4832 - android - Google Talk / gtalk support for multiple accounts - Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project - Google Project Hosting this was a suggestion to google to allow multiple accounts, status: declined. So google either want's you to use the account you use for the market or to use a 3rd party dev.

Add: And guys lets try to at least be nice to each other here, teikyo has a real problem and want's support from us

Yeahha · Aug 23, 2011

teikyo30 said:
I have two email addresses for gmail on my phone. Had I known it would associate Gtalk with the first one and never let me change it, something that is nowhere in any of the manuals, I would have picked the newer email address.

Once you start Gtalk, no, you cannot switch it to your other account. You can't do it in any setting on or off Gtalk. But the funny thing is: every single app NOT developed by Google lets you do it by default. Which is another reason I don;t get why some of you seem to think it's a security issue. It makes no sense it would be a security issue since your email address has a password, and you can change your email on Android market if you want. So how would blocking it on the phone solve anything? If someone stole your phone you have bigger issues to worry about than them getting access to any apps you may have paid for.

That post was in response to another poster not you, they said they had it set up. It doesn't appear to be possible with the stock google app and they don't appear to have any plans to change that. I've found plenty of failures with the apps google makes, gmail is a crappy program IMO compared to K9, google listen is a joke compared to other free podcatchers and even worse compared to paid ones. I agree it should be possible seeing as you can set up 2 gmail accounts stock. And yeah had I realized that the account I used would be tied to my phone forever I would have chosen something different but people at the VZW store are interested in the point of sale not helping you set up everything.

Steven58 · Aug 23, 2011

Some posts deleted for argumentative/rude. Please refrain from this type of exchange. Please peruse the site rules and abide by them. No infractions or warnings this time. Thank you!

jimdibb · Aug 26, 2011

teikyo30 said:
I have two email addresses for gmail on my phone. Had I known it would associate Gtalk with the first one and never let me change it, something that is nowhere in any of the manuals, I would have picked the newer email address.

Once you start Gtalk, no, you cannot switch it to your other account. You can't do it in any setting on or off Gtalk. But the funny thing is: every single app NOT developed by Google lets you do it by default. Which is another reason I don;t get why some of you seem to think it's a security issue. It makes no sense it would be a security issue since your email address has a password, and you can change your email on Android market if you want. So how would blocking it on the phone solve anything? If someone stole your phone you have bigger issues to worry about than them getting access to any apps you may have paid for.

Can't you uninstall Gtalk and/or delete the cache and data for it, then reinstall it and choose your other email address? Or is that Gtalk doesn't give you the option to choose which address?

Help Can't change Gmail without factory reset? WTF?

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