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Help Changing Gmail login account

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NobodyAtAll

Lurker
I have read the sticky thread, but my issue doesn't seem to be covered, so thought I'd try here - if this is the wrong place, please can a mod move to the right place!

I have an HTC desire, which is still pretty new to me. Soon after I got it, I set up a gmail account to access android market and downloaded a few apps flawlessly (more or less!)

Unfortunately, I have lost the password to that account. Bizarrely, I also seem to have the wrong answer to the "reminder" question

Consequently, I can't download any apps, which is pretty frustrating. Today, I finally figured out I could add a new google account, and did so (I now have a note of all the settings!), but I still can't log into the market as it still tries to login with the old account. There is no option to switch to using the new account and when I try to delete the old one, it tells me the only way to do this is to reset the phone to factory settings (why offer delete then?)!

Can someone please, please tell me if there is a way to fix this - all I want to do is download a single app!

Thanks in advance
Billy
 
** moved to HTC Desire Forum **

Unfortunately, the secondary gmail accounts will only sync' mail and calendars. The original gmail account is the one that the phone is still registered to. If you cannot reset the password, then the only way to clear it is a full factory reset which will wipe all the data from the phone. Make sure you have a backup first, if you go that route.
 
Thanks for the reply,

What a ridiculous bit of programming - really sloppy work from what should be an A1 team!

The least they could do is give the correct options - the error reads "you entered the wrong password or your account has changed. Please re-enter your password" . . erm . .. how about letting me change the account as you've already identified may well be part of the problem

Good one Google . . why didn't I buy and iPhone?:mad:
 
There is a very specific reason why it was designed this way. If you could easily change the registration account without changing anything on the phone, you could load up on paid apps in the market and then simply pass your phone to someone else, change the account and have full access to apps which you didn't pay for.

It's a nuisance when it hits home like this but FYI, iPhones work the same way.
 
Don't get me wrong L59, I appreciate your attempts to help

What I find frustrating is that something so ridiculous ly simple to resolve is so totally embroiled in process without any thought for the user

Sure, I didn't help - I appreciate my privacy (what's left of it, a bit like Brin, Page et al, who suddenly have gone very shy - Zuckerberg, Brin, Page disappear from Google+ top rankings ? Tech Products & Geek News | Geek.com), so I didn't provide any alternative email address or anything else with which I could be identified (at least, not knowingly!).

I find it bizarre that I can't find the answer to my "security question" because the specific question has very limited answers for me, but apparently I can't find the right one.

Furthermore, the form I am requested to fill in is so badly designed that it won't even allow me to enter the email address I am supposed to log in with (an @googlemail.com address) because it isn't an @gmail.com address, so it doesn't recognise me and won't accept the form - you couldn't make this up!

If this were simply my error, I'd stick my hands up, but it's not, it's about a group of people that are so ingrained in their own thinking that they don't consider the user experience unless it fits with their "internal processes". The system simply doesn't even work - even with its own variables.

As an admin for several sites that use adsense, adwords, analytics, webmaster tools etc, I should be used to this sort of utter lack of consideration for the customer, but when it affects the whole operation of something I paid a lot of money for, simply because they couldn't be bothered to provide a solution that works (even with their own systems) that is inexcusable.

That they are not interested in even letting me contact them to discuss it (have you tried?) is worse . . . process, process, process - f*** the paying customer and their experience

At this rate, this will be both my first and last android phone
 
Just a thought regarding one specific point. Have you tried entering your email address in the support form as @gmail.com anyway? I'm fairly sure I set my phone up with a @googlemail account, but now I use @gmail to log into it. I think they are interchangeable.

Edit: I just sent an email to me@gmail.com, and it came into my me@googlemail.com account.
 
Thanks for that SiHa.

I have indeed tried entering it on the form.

Unfortunately, all the other details I need (dates of access etc) are . . . in my mail, which I can't access without the password - even the mail that is already downloaded to the phone, which is ridiculous - talk about an error loop!

Google have been singularly unhelpful and the error when using the "original" email address says nothing about the interchangeabilty of the 2 addresses and is spectacularly uninformative - nothing new there then!

Because I haven't used this address for ANYTHING apart from android market, they have nothing to check it against. As I have only ever had 1 password, I am unable to state "the last password you can remember".

Regarding L59s original comment:

"There is a very specific reason why it was designed this way. If you could easily change the registration account without changing anything on the phone, you could load up on paid apps in the market and then simply pass your phone to someone else, change the account and have full access to apps which you didn't pay for."
​
If the apps on the phone have been paid for, what does it matter WHO paid for them? This is again process-focus rather than cusomer-focus at its best.

That the only way around this seems to be a factory reset is seriously making me consider whether to even bother - thank goodness I don't use chrome or docs and, on the strength of this, I will certianly NEVER touch a PC OS from these guys if this is the attitude.
 
NobodyAtAll said:
If the apps on the phone have been paid for, what does it matter WHO paid for them? This is again process-focus rather than cusomer-focus at its best.
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Click to expand...

Because you could then log onto the market again from another phone with your account and download them again.

Seriously, you've forgotten your password, and your security question, didn't setup a secondary email/phone for situations exactly like this, and it is somehow Google's fault?

OK I accept that they're not helping you out much, but as someone who is so tech-savvy that they are a site-admin, you perhaps should have taken steps to better ensure you could always access your mail.

And why is a factory reset such a big deal?
You have hardly any apps to re-install, and your contacts can be exported to your SD card and re-imported again afterwards, or you can setup a second gmail account (which I guess you'll need anway) and sync them to that. They will then automatically sync to your phone when you re-install and use this gmail address, or add it as a secondary account.
 
Hi

if you can wait you should be able to do this after an upgrade. I asked the same question of Android Market support and received the following reply on the 14th July.

Thank you for contacting Android Market Support. The new Android Market will be rolling out in the coming weeks to Android 2.2 (Froyo) and higher phones around the world. No action on your part is needed - the update is silent, so you won't be prompted, and there's no way to force-update. If you
 
That's not going to help if he can't log in though is it.

Time to factory reset and set up a new email address. This time try to remember it
 
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