Develop Bugs

Mail versus GMail

I want to try using the Mail app instead of the GMail one, but is it actually possible to disable the GMail app without losing all the other functionality you get from logging into your Google account? - there seems to be a unified log in used by GMaps as well, for example. And when I try to remove the account in settings, it says I have to do a factory reset, this seems bonkers to me.

I couldn't manage to get my Google Mail account to sign into the Mail app...

patp said:
I want to try using the Mail app instead of the GMail one, but is it actually possible to disable the GMail app without losing all the other functionality you get from logging into your Google account? - there seems to be a unified log in used by GMaps as well, for example. And when I try to remove the account in settings, it says I have to do a factory reset, this seems bonkers to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Turn off sync for Gmail under Settings->Accounts & sync.
You might also want to switch of notifications in the Gmail app too.
Regards,
Dave

Will the phone sync google mail contacts via imap on the mail app or do I need to stick to the gmail app for that?

foxmeister said:
Turn off sync for Gmail under Settings->Accounts & sync.
You might also want to switch of notifications in the Gmail app too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you must have a different version from mine. I have
Settings - Accounts& Sync
Background Data (tickbox)
AutoSync (tickbox)
Manage Accounts
Google
Stocks
Weather
If I tick Google I get a new screen:
Sync calendar
Sync contacts
Sync Google Mail
Sync Picassa Web Albums
(These all just trigger a sync)
At the bottom there are 2 buttons, Sync Now and Remove Account.
If I try remove account a box pops up warning that it will delete all the data, I say OK, then another box that says it can't do it, I have to factory reset because it is required by some applications.

I have been using the Google Mail app since I've had my phone, but today came across a problem - I could not copy & paste a tracking # from an email. I then quickly set up my gmail in the Mail app, & was able to perform this action very easily.
So my question is: has anyone used both apps extensively, & could they give me a quick "pro's & cons"?

thebosh said:
So my question is: has anyone used both apps extensively, & could they give me a quick "pro's & cons"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here you go someone has already done that:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=6175293&postcount=43
The only thing that really annoys me is the fact that your Mail widget does not update the list of emails unless you open the Mail application.
Even if you already updated the email list in your GMail appl.
For example: I receive an email. I get a notification in the notification bar. I open it and it takes me to the Gmail appl (by default). I check my emails, read them, exit the application.
However, my HTCMail Widget (sitting on the desktop) does not show any updates. I have to open the HTCMail manually, sync (again!) and only then can I see the updated list.
Aaaargh!

I've been tempted to move to using the mail application over the gmail one as well.
I think ill setup the mail application with my other gmail account then compare the 2

I much prefer the gmail app. I think its quicker and easier to reply, and it syncs straight away unlike the mail app.
Only downside is the lack of widget, but with the number of apps I have on my homescreens, this isn't an issue.

I always feel it's worth mentioning k9mail at this point, if only because it supports IMAP IDLE.

Arghhh... Hotmail/Gmail sync issues

Hey All,
Had the desire for a couple of weeks now and I must say I'm impressed with it, as most of you are as well.
I've come across the following very irritating problem though:
My primary e-mail address is hotmail. Been using it for years and years and I've never had the need to change to gmail. Having switched to android now I understand that I can't sync the phone to hotmail. I have it working on pop which is 'fine' but I want proper syncing of mail and calendars which is not supported.
Fair enough, I thought this was the time I'm supposed to switch to gmail. When I booted the phone up for the first time I was asked for a gmail account for google maps, etc. and I just used one I had created a while back. Now that I'm looking to migrate to gmail completely in order to benefit from syncing, etc. I want to change this e-mail address to another gmail one.
Has anyone managed to do this without doing a factory reset on the desire??
I've tried:
i. Changing the gmail password from a pc and rebooting the phone - it just says it failed to sign in and prompts for the new password, won't let you change e-mail address though.
ii. Clearing all cache's from google related application - gtalk, gmail, maps, gapps, etc. - This doesn't work either as somehow the account information is still held.
iii. Creating a secondary e-mail address and try get everything to use it instead then remove the primary one - didn't manage either. I changed google maps, gmail and the calendar app to use the new e-mail address but it still won't let me delete the other one as it says it's being used by some other app!
Any help would be much appreciated... I really don't feel like going through a factory reset and installing everything again!
Thanks!

Go to "Menu" - "Settings" - "Accounts & Sync", tap on the Google account en tap on "Remove account". (Go back to all accounts and you can add a new Google account.)

icedan86 said:
Fair enough, I thought this was the time I'm supposed to switch to gmail.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On this subject, my advice to anyone is to get their own domain name and then use Google Apps for Domains.
At present this is what I do for my email, but if in a few years time something better than Gmail comes along, chances are I can repoint my domain to a new mail service and thus keep my email address in perpetuity.
Regards,
Dave

Bulls-eye1 said:
Go to "Menu" - "Settings" - "Accounts & Sync", tap on the Google account en tap on "Remove account". (Go back to all accounts and you can add a new Google account.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forgot to mention I tried this as well but it won't let me remove it as it says the account is being used by some application
Really frustrating!

I got this same problem as this old post, but can not find the solution....does anyone know the answer as time has moved on and maybe it is an available solution.
My issue is that I just flashed LeeDrOid 2.3b&c to my Desire. I entered my HOTMAIL e-mail details as the first address at the set up prompt. Now i can not findout how to delete that account.
It seems that the whole Android E-mail setup and operation is not really as good as Windows Mobile! or its operator error ;-)
For my Sync'd HOTMAIL I'm currently using TouchDown and set the server name to 'm.hotmail.com' this thirdparty software allows full syncronisation to my Hotmail account both ways including any folders that i choose, apart from the deleted bin on my Webmail does not get emptied if i delete all from the TouchDown application on my Desire.
On my Gmail i have created my account in the Exchange option and used m.gmail.com for the server, whilst this gives me a view of all the account folders all of them show "no mail" even though i have set the Receive days to 30 days and know that I have e-mails in the folders that are newer than 30 days old.
I really would like a fully operational integrated IMAP set up for both my Gmail accounts (i have 2 account) and one HOTMAIL account, ideally using the built in Gmail and "standard Mail" programs that come with FROYO Sense.
So anyone know the answer to achieving this?
i) How to delete my original Hotmail account entered on start up of my new ROM.
ii) Is it possible to set up withing the Sense builtin applications for Exchange Gmail and also for Exchange Hotmail so that i can do away with hte TouchDown application?
Thanx for any assistance on this.

Googlemail and gmail - warning and advice

A slightly lengthy attempt to summarise the (often contradictory) advice on this issue.
The problem: Google is allowing UK users to change from @googlemail addresses to @gmail. Many users report persistent messages that google talk authentication has failed and downloads from the market are freezing.
How to make the change (READ the rest of this before you do!): Login to your Google mail account and go to settings/account. You will see a small link offering the option. Some users report a need to do this twice before it 'sticks'. (Baed on my experience, I suspect the change takes some time to propagate - see final note here). You can reverse this change in the same way.
Solutions (or not!)
1. There is no 100% reliable way to change the gmail account details on your phone without a factory reset.
Some users recommend clearing the Google Apps data from within Apps Manager which then prompts you to set up the account details again. This option is grayed out for many
Some have recommended changing your account password. For me this did not allow me to change all the account details on the phone​
2. You can set up a second gmail account on the phone with the @gmail details. However this may not allow you to delete the @googlemail account although some have suggested it does. You will recieve copies of all emails on both accounts!
3. Do a factory reset. Back up all your data, take a deep breath and go for it! Seriously, this did not actually result in a lot of work for me as I don't have a truckload of apps on the phone. You have the choice of reverting to the @googlemail account (which is what I did) or setting up with the new @gmail details. From what I can gather the latter approach does not result in problems with re-installing paid for apps - but no promises!
NOTE: You will receive email sent to either @googlemail or @gmail on your old @googlemail account so you could just start using @gmail as your address and forget about the problem!
...and finally. Having gone through all of the work associated with a factory reset to @googlemail, I discover that Google has reset my account to @gmail anyway and everything seems to be working OK! I do wonder if changes to accounts are propagating very slowly. (I also wonder if Google knows what it is doing, but that's another story)
Hope this is some help

I had this problem and corrected it by reverting back to @googlemail.
But what gets me is that considering how widespread this problem is, is the overwhelming silence from Google.

NineToTheSky said:
I had this problem and corrected it by reverting back to @googlemail.
But what gets me is that considering how widespread this problem is, is the overwhelming silence from Google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably because most UK Desire owners have phones from Orange, and they've removed Google Talk (although they've handily left the service running!), so this isn't going to be a problem for them. Also, a lot of people have always known that you could always ignore the `googlemail` thing and use gmail.

Why bother?
Any email sent to [email protected] is received by [email protected] anyway..
Fon22

Why bother? Because, as the OP says, if, in the UK, you change you address from googlemail to gmail, you won't be able to download anything from the App Market.

is there anywhere we can ask google to provide android switchover instructions?

You know you don't have to put the @ when setting up an account.
When I set up both my G1 and my Desire I just signed in with the Google user name.

Just to add my bit, I'm a Google apps account owner, my domain is not gmail or googlemail its simply hosted by Google and even though I've done nothing its stopped working for me also on my desire. I get the same googletalk auth error and can't download anything from the apps store either.
Interestingly, even from my pc, if I goto googletalk it won't let me in either, yet email and other Google apps like docs and calendar work no bother. Selecting Google talk gives a 404 unauthorized.

Plus side:
Picasa web albums now sync

Just to add my bit, I'm a Google apps account owner, my domain is not gmail or googlemail its simply hosted by Google and even though I've done nothing its stopped working for me also on my desire. I get the same googletalk auth error and can't download anything from the apps store either.
Interestingly, even from my pc, if I goto googletalk it won't let me in either, yet email and other Google apps like docs and calendar work no bother. Selecting Google talk gives a 404 unauthorized.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got exactly the same as this, after everything working brilliantly for 3 days!! I have now setup a gmail account to sign the phone up with and the turn all sync off for it, thrn setup my Google for domains and setup the calendar through exchange and everything is working fine...its a big faff, but it will works well: )
I did do a lot of reading and apparently Google for domains doesn't work with Google talk full stop... BUT why work for days with no problems!! Stupid!!
-------------------------------------
Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

[Q] Removing an account from google talk

Maybe this is more of a general ICS question but I'm not sure where else to ask it. I just bought a VZW GN and I'm getting it up and working but one thing is really bothering me. I have 2 gmail accounts, one general with talk enabled and one business account (google apps) with talk disabled. I have the account settings set to sync e-mail and calendar from the google apps account. However, google talk CONSTANTLY informs me that it was unable to sign in on the google apps account.
I use google talk quite a bit, but only on my personal account. Is there away to remove my business account from google talk? or at least stop the automatic sign on? This was never a problem in my previous android phones.

You should be able to disable the automatic sign in through settings. Don't forget to log off as well.

Another way around this is to wipe the phone, and then add your personal account to the device first. With every Android phone, the first gmail account to be added becomes the default GTalk account, plus it is the main market account. In the past (before you could switch market accounts), if you accidentally used the wrong account during initial setup, you had to wipe the phone to fix it. Now that market can handle multiple accounts, I think you only have to wipe to fix the default gtalk account.
I don't even know if it's possible to sign in more than one Gtalk account? If not, then you have to wipe and start over, making sure that the account you want to use for gtalk is your first account on the phone.
At least, that's how it's always worked with gingerbread and earlier. I don't know about ICS just yet (my GNex is charging and i'm avoiding setup until I get home).

Hey guys,
I've been messing around with this off and on all day. From what I can tell, ICS logs into multiple Gtalk accounts simultaneously. This would be great except for the fact that one of my accounts has Gtalk disabled.
@ Ves - I cannot find in settings where to disable automatic sign on. I can see the "sign out" option, but the account I'm trying to disable the automatic sign on for is already signed out (since it can't sign on). Still, I pushed it and it is still trying to reconnect quite frequently. I've been in and out of these settings all day so if I'm blind and another Nexus user found the option please tell me where it is!
@ ZPrimed - I actually did add the personal account (with Gtalk enabled) to the phone first. I added my work e-mail second. I am pretty sure what you are talking about was how I set up my Gingerbread phone before but now since there seems to be multiple signon to Gtalk it is adding both accounts to it and I still can't figure out how to remove one!
FYI, I think the failed sign ons are due to the fact that I am consistently losing 4g coverage every 30 mins or so (it's been this way since last week on my Thunderbolt) and the phone is trying to sign back on both Gtalk accounts when a connection returns.

Hmm. I have two accounts as well, gapps and standard, but my situation is reversed. I own the gapps domain, so I use talk on my gapps account, and my gmail account is just along for the ride. The gmail account is my spambin, or I use it when stupid websites feel that a hyphen is invalid in an e-mail address (my gapps domain has a dash in it). I don't really use it for anything else, i only sync mail and calendar on it.
I'm still using my Stratosphere right now, and on it the only account signed in to talk is my gapps account, and I can't find any way to enable the other account at all (i.e. I think gingerbread may be limited to one talk account, period).
Once I switch over to the nexus tonight I'll take a look and let you know what I find though.

asty said:
Hey guys,
I've been messing around with this off and on all day. From what I can tell, ICS logs into multiple Gtalk accounts simultaneously. This would be great except for the fact that one of my accounts has Gtalk disabled.
@ Ves - I cannot find in settings where to disable automatic sign on. I can see the "sign out" option, but the account I'm trying to disable the automatic sign on for is already signed out (since it can't sign on). Still, I pushed it and it is still trying to reconnect quite frequently. I've been in and out of these settings all day so if I'm blind and another Nexus user found the option please tell me where it is!
FYI, I think the failed sign ons are due to the fact that I am consistently losing 4g coverage every 30 mins or so (it's been this way since last week on my Thunderbolt) and the phone is trying to sign back on both Gtalk accounts when a connection returns.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My apologizes. I took another look and saw the option wasn't there on the GN. It's on the SGS2 as I took a look there. Mistook the option for each version.
Still weird that Google Talks keep trying to reconnect when you've chosen "Sign Out".
Have you tried activating the chat in Gmail then log in from your phone, wait a bit then sign out. Then go back to Gmail and disable it again.

Hey guys,
I asked the admin of our gapps domain very nicely to enable chat so i could try to fix my phone. once he enabled it, i was immediately able to sign on to gtalk thru the nexus, then select "sign out". This stopped the automatic sign on attemps. he disabled chat on the domain again and the phone seems to not mind. this seems to have solved my problem. thanks for the advice!

[Q] How to maximize privacy on the Z1

Hi,
This might seem strange but I would like to configure my Z1 in such a way that Google knows at least as possible about my life. If possible, I would like to use only Gmail and nothing else from Google.
Recently, I activated sync for the first time because I wanted the state of mails to be the same on my phone as my computer which came with a number of unwanted side-effects:
- I got an error message that the number of contacts to be deleted was too large. I immediately said cancel as I did not want to delete contacts. Moreover, I do not want that my phone contacts were copied into my Google contacts. I see no reason why I would store phone numbers in my Google contacts, I only want to use Google for email. Clearly, it was too late: all the phone numbers are now also stored in Google contacts -- information I did not want to share with google.
- my complete calendar was copied in Google Calendar. When I started using the Z1, I deliberately choose the standard Calendar from the Z1 as I do not want that Google stores information about my calendar and find it very, very uncomfartable that my personal Calendar is now data stored on a Google server.
Is it possible to get rid of Google Calendar without losing Gmail?
Is it possible to limit sync only to mail itself?
I would appreciate any advice on how I can maximize my privacy while keeping my phone "smart".

Try to ask Munjeni in his thread about his privacy guard rom his is a master of privacy
Wysłane z mojego D5503 przy użyciu Tapatalka

Just open your Google account in the settings menu, under the sync options uncheck everything but Gmail. That should stop sync of your contacts, people, calendar, chrome etc...

dvandyck said:
I would appreciate any advice on how I can maximize my privacy while keeping my phone "smart".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Leave sync off, it only eats battery.
Just remember to press 'refresh' when you open the Gmail app. You won't get status bar messages about your Gmail, but if you check manually couple of times a day, then you've saved yourself all the syncronisation agro.
I had the same problem with contacts and I didn't want all my email contacts ending up listed as contacts in my phone, as it makes sending group texts impossible, it kept defaulting to sending MMS instaed, because some contacts were email addresses. Grr.
So I made up another gmail account, that's blank, has no contacts. Then I log into the phone with that and let the phone set up with that account. Once it's done all the syncronising I added my real gmail account, but set to not syncornise. I just manaully sync when I open the Gmail app, saves all the problems.
There are a couple of apps that can help.
Afwall+, which is a good firewall. You can set which apps use your wifi and which apps use mobile data, or just stop apps dialing out altogether.
There's a mention above of Privacy Gaurd, but it's very basic and I'm not sure it works with 'system' apps like google. I would recomend DonkeyGuard, it's by far the easiest and most comprehensive way of regulating what apps see what information on your phone. To make it work you will need to have a rooted phone, as well as having Xposed installed. But if you are serious about your privacy, then you know that it's worth the effort.

To have Google unaware about your phone contacts and calendar you need create contacts/events as device contact/event, not bound to Google account. There is setting for that, make it default.
First time I wanted separate google from my personal data I deleted google account on my phone as no other method worked, I lost all my contacts as by default they were assigned to google.
I was better than that. I had backup, restored contacts as device ones.
From this moment I have my info private (hope so, possibly information leaks in background but it is over anyone's head, some things are deeply hardcoded in OS then you can do nothing).
Sometimes you HAVE to give Google some information.
There is Xposed module which provides FALSE info in such cases. Sufficient solution for me.
Unfortunately it doesn't work for native applications (not sure about it).

spudata said:
Just open your Google account in the settings menu, under the sync options uncheck everything but Gmail. That should stop sync of your contacts, people, calendar, chrome etc...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I unchecked everything except Weather and news, GMail and Google Drive (I backup some important but not very private docs there).

F308 said:
To have Google unaware about your phone contacts and calendar you need create contacts/events as device contact/event, not bound to Google account. There is setting for that, make it default.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I see indeed that when I create an event, I can choose the account to which the event is assigned. Google is standard for the moment.
Where can I set device account as the standard for contacts/events? I do not see such an option in the settings of Calendar or Contacts...
Also, it appears that I cannot change the account to which an already created event is assigned to.
Is it possible to move all created events in the Calendar from Google account to device account?
My phone runs on the 14.4.A.157 official build -- it is not rooted and I prefer to stay on the official Sony release channel.

dvandyck said:
Where can I set device account as the standard for contacts/events? I do not see such an option in the settings of Calendar or Contacts...
[...]
Also, it appears that I cannot change the account to which an already created event is assigned to.
Is it possible to move all created events in the Calendar from Google account to device account?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1.
Not sure. It was long ago. Cannot find now.
Maybe it will help you if I tell that I froze GoogleBackupTransport.apk, GoogleCalendarSyncAdapter.apk, GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk.
2.
I did it in such way:
a) made backup.
b) deleted google account from my phone.
c) defined acount again.
d) configured it as don't-synchronize (somewhere in synchronization settings).
e) restored contacts from backup. At this point I was asked if i want restore them to my google account or to device. I chose the latter.

F308 said:
1.
I did it in such way:
a) made backup.
b) deleted google account from my phone.
c) defined acount again.
d) configured it as don't-synchronize (somewhere in synchronization settings).
e) restored contacts from backup. At this point I was asked if i want restore them to my google account or to device. I chose the latter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that seems a very attractive approach as it does not involve re-entering things manually.
Did you perform the backup and restore with Sony PC Companion or did you use some other tool for this?
Does this mean that you also have the option to restore all events in Calendar and change the account to which they are assigned to as well?

dvandyck said:
Did you perform the backup and restore with Sony PC Companion or did you use some other tool for this?
Does this mean that you also have the option to restore all events in Calendar and change the account to which they are assigned to as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. In fact I do more than one type of backup.
You never know what will really work unless you try.
I used native Easy Backup app and exported contacts to file directly, there is such option when listing contacts.
Don't remember what else but you can find tons of applications of this sort.
I could restore calendar, too.
I think if you freeze apk's which I mentioned earlier - even Google will not be able to pull your info because will have no tool to do it.

If you want to delete your contacts from Google Contacts, you can go to https://www.google.com/contacts/, you can also export contacts to pc/phone

Well. Myself I am convinced that once they got information - they will keep it forever, you only will not see it.

F308 said:
Well. Myself I am convinced that once they got information - they will keep it forever, you only will not see it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the same too.

In fact it is lost case.
Security agency can compile information, add together Google info|Facebook|Twitter|LinkedIn|Microsoft (Skype) | phone number which I had to give Google | biometric passport photo | fingerprints required for passport and hell knows what else, DNA maybe.
Conclusion:
They know when to send you toilet paper because it has ended and you didn't notice.