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HELP with gmail/email

monsterz3ro

Newbie
Don't know if anyone can help me, because I'm sure I'm in the vast minority in not wanting Google running through every vein of my life and body...

So, I am always invisible in gmail in my web browser, because I rarely use it to talk, or have time to - I only even stay logged in because I do talk to my little sister (while invisible) and gf.

Now, I just got a replacement phone for the one I broke, and I've been working to get it all set up. Its been a long time since I set up my last phone, so I don't remember this but its mostly self-explanatory.

I have added my google account to the phone itself. I have turned off all options for sync except for calendar. I prefer the android email app instead of the gmail app, so I've set that up as well. I've added google hangouts and the gmail app to the "stopped" list (cleared cache, cleared data, turned off notifications, forced quit, and turned off).

Suddenly, I get the "Oops! You are not invisible because you're logged into Google Talk from another client, device, or location that doesn't support invisibility." message in the chat panel in my computer's browser window. Somewhere, something on the phone has me signed into gmail (or some part of my google account) in some manner, that is making me appear visible, and more worrisome, is maybe able to receive IMs where I might not even know I'm getting them (so, I'm visible, and people think I'm ignoring them).

Can anyone give me ANY idea how to fix this? I'd remove the google account from my phone, but that will remove all my contacts and isolate me from the app store. And anyway, the ONLY thing I have turned on there to sync is the calendar. Please help!
 
Hey mods, I don't know if this is already somewhere (but I didn't find it via search) - I figured out the solution to my issue. Don't know if you'd like to add it to a sticky somewhere (searching these keywords via google and on this forum resulted in a lot of other issues, but not this one in particular).

For people with 2-step verification on their gmail/google account:
Signing into your phone-wide google account (settings>accounts>my accounts>google) with your normal credentials will work (after an extra step), but will leave you in always-signed-in limbo, even if you sign out of Hangouts/Google+ as well as disable them. Instead, create an app-specific password for setting up your google account on your phone, and you'll have all options still available, but it will not keep you perpetually orange in gmail (and you will be able to use "invisible" in your web-based browser on your computer/tablet/etc).
 
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