Help Cannot Delete Google Account from phone, Settings Keeps Crashing

[Kellan]

Hi there, this is the first time I've used these forums. I'm using a Galaxy S4 on Android version 5.0.1

So it looks like my phone has synced my old work email account to my Google Accounts. I'm not sure how or why but the problem is this: the email no longer exists since I left that company a few weeks ago.
Now my phone is giving me a notification that I can't get rid of saying "Account Action Required!"
When I tap this notification, it asks me to sign in to said email which I can't do since it's not there. When I try to go in to my Settings with the intention of deleting it and click the Google button under Accounts, everything crashes saying "Unfortunately, Settings has stopped" and I get nowhere.

I've tried restarting my phone, clearing out the data in settings, and deleting other instances of this work email (no luck here yet).

I really don't want to have to do a complete reset (I don't even know if this would fix the problem since google seems to think this email is linked to my personal email?) and I have no idea what else to try or where to find a a support number for someone from Google/Android. Any assistance here would be appreciated!

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

[lunatic59]

Well, you can forget about a support number for Google. Their idea of support is to tell you to "Google it".

Unfortunately you're caught in what Star Trek calls a causality loop (removing any doubt that you're surrounded by geeks. ). My guess is the phone was originally registered to or somehow managed to be registered to your work account and not your Google account. And, to change account settings you need a valid registered account. While it's a minor pain in the rump, I think a factory reset will be your best option in the long run. If you upgraded the phone from 4.x and haven't performed a reset, then it's doubly beneficial to do so.

You'll need to back up first (including text messages and email) but then I'd really consider the reset.

 

[kellan]

Thanks for your reply!

Yes, causality loop describes it perfectly lol!

The strange thing is that I've had this phone for a few years longer than I've had the work email so I can probably assume it's primarily linked to my personal email.
I can't figure out why Settings keeps crashing every time I try to manage my accounts (I have several emails linked to my Gmail app and until now have not had problems with any of them) - I tried booting up in safe mode but I'm not sure if I've done it correctly.

I've never actually performed a hard reset on my phone before (gasp! I know!) - do you happen to know of a useful guide for a first time factory reset? I have a lot of important files/texts/etc. that I really don't want to accidentally lose. Most of them are on my SD card but I've heard that the S4 model has a reputation of corrupting the cards so I'd rather be safe than sorry.

 

[lunatic59]

Every phone is a little different so there's no one good tutorial for resetting, but fret not. We are here ... wait, let me get my cape and see if my white stallion is ready. Wow, that was dramatic. What were we talking about? Oh right, a factory reset.

Theoretically, a factory reset should only wipe the user data in the system partition and leave the user files intact. In practice, each manufacturer tweaks their resets and I think Samsung is one of them that will blow away your user files as well. External SD cards won't be effected at all, but they can be flaky on thier own so they should always be backed up regardless. If it's important to you, back it up. Period. If you don't, then we get to hit you with a dead fish until it sinks in.

You could use Kies, but I've never liked it. Sometimes, though it's a necessary evil. If you can tolerate the Samsunginess of it, then by all means give it a go. It will back up everything for you. Personally, I'd rather do it manually that way I'm not dependent on a utility.

Plug in your phone to a PC and put it in MTP mode, if it's not on by default. Copy your files like pictures and music. As a matter of fact, copy EVERYTHING from your /sdcard partion (this is not your physical SD card. That you should take out and copy to a PC using a card reader. Don't make me get that fish, just do it. Make sure you got it all, because it might all go bye-bye.

If you had your phone to backup apps and setting, you should be good as long as they were backing them up to Google and not that account that was cancelled. If you didn't have this turned on, I don't think you'll be able to now because of the account action prompt. I do believe that's saying it needs you to authenticate an account that no longer exists, which is hard to do without warp technology.

Next you’ll want your email and text messages. Email really depends on how you have your accounts setup. If it’s IMAP, then fuggedaboudit … it’s on the server, not your phone. (Gmail is imap … sorta) If it’s POP3, you’ll need to copy the messages you want to keep to files or forward them to an account for retrieval later. Backup your text messages using SMS Backup & Restore. It will create an .xml file with your messages that you can put back once flashed. Copy that file, along with everything else to your PC.

If you use a launcher like Nova or Apex, you can back up launcher data and settings so that once you got the phone flashed you can restore your home screens just the way you have it now.

Any settings you might not remember like email server config’s, write them down, you’ll need to set them back up.

When you're sure you have everything important backed up, then go to settings>backup & reset>Factory Data Reset and let it do its thing, but first verify you've got your files and stuff ... twice ... because once you reset if you don't have it ... well, you don't want to think about that right now.

 

[kellan]

No! Not the fish!

Thank you for your help. I'll back everything up and reset my phone tomorrow morning. (I figured doing this while tired isn't the best plan haha)

Cheers!