How to add or delete an account on an Android device. Removing a Google Account on Android

Let's figure out how to delete a Google account on Android or stop synchronizing it with the device. You will find out if your account can be restored. All step-by-step instructions are supported by illustrations and detailed instructions.

A Google account is a user page of the search engine of the same name, which allows you to combine all Google services (social network Google+), YouTube video hosting, Google Docs. Also, a Google account is used in the Android OS. With its help, you can manage data on your smartphone, set up email, and use the application store.

Linking a Google account to an Android device is the first action a user performs after purchasing a device. Without an established account, you cannot start using the phone. Let's take a closer look at how to delete a Google account from an Android phone and get the deleted data back.

Why do you need to delete your account?

Account deactivation is necessary if you have forgotten the password to access your old profile, transferred your device to another person, or simply want to create a completely new account for convenient use of the Google+ social network.

Sometimes users may encounter situations where their account is hacked. In this case, an attacker can remotely read your credit card data, logins and passwords from various sites. The only solution to the problem is to delete the profile or unlink it from the phone.

If you do not want to unlink your account from the operating system, but need to stop sending data and synchronizing your account with your phone, you need to temporarily disable the account in your phone settings. You can re-enable your account on your smartphone at any time.

Pay attention! Once you delete your account, it not only disappears from your smartphone, but is also permanently deleted from Google's server. This means you can no longer access your subscriptions, emails, and other important data from any device or browser. If the account needs to be deleted only on the phone, it is recommended to create a second account and link it to the device, and temporarily disable the first profile. Thus, the disabled account will remain available for use on any other gadget.

Deleting a Google account - step-by-step instructions for 4 methods

There are 4 main ways, how to delete google account in OS Android. Each method must be used depending on the installed version of the operating system and whether you have superuser rights.

Method 1 – Through Android Settings

This account deletion method is simple, fast and secure. Use it in such cases:

1. You now need to erase your profile in order to remove any errors that have appeared in your email, calendar, or Google services. After temporary deletion, the user will be able to re-authorize and use this account;
2. You give your smartphone or tablet to another person and do not want him to read your messages or have access to YouTube and your social networks;
3. You want to log in with a new account and need to use your existing account on a computer or another phone.

As a result of executing this method, all settings, user data and programs in the mobile gadget will be saved. Essentially, you do not delete the profile, but simply unlink it from your smartphone.

Follow the instructions:

• Open the main menu on your smartphone and go to the settings window;
• Go to the “Personal” section;
• Click on the “Accounts” section;
• In the window that opens, data about the linked Google account, which is synchronized with Android, will appear. Click on the additional settings button in the right corner;
• In the list that appears, click on “Delete entry”.

After uninstalling your account, it is better to restart your smartphone for all settings to take effect. When the phone is turned on again, the system will ask the user to link a new account (an existing Google page or a new account).

What to do if the message “Error deleting Google account” appears

Sometimes users encounter an error during standard Google account deletion. In this case, nothing changes and after a reboot, the old account remains linked to the smartphone.

The problem can be solved very simply - you need to create a new Google profile and link it to the Android OS. Then you should simply delete the second account that is no longer needed. Follow the instructions:

• Go to the applications menu and open the standard Gmail email client. By default, this program is installed on all devices with Android OS;
• After downloading the application, click on the “Options” button, which is located in the upper left corner;
• Select “Add account”;
• Next, you will be redirected to the new account linking window. From the list of suggested email clients, select Google;

• Now select the account type (new or existing). Register or enter your username and password to log in;
• After successfully logging into your new account, you will be able to select the desired account in the settings of the standard Gmail program. Please note that one mail (currently open) is the main one, and the second is an additional one. To change the status of a mailbox, simply click on its name. With the change in the status of the Gmail account, the main account for the entire OS on the smartphone will also change.
• After selecting a new account as the main one, return to the phone settings window and delete the extra account as described above. The uninstall error will no longer appear.

Method 2 – Complete account deletion

This method of deleting an account involves completely deleting all data associated with the account from your smartphone. At the same time, the account itself will be available for use from the browser, because the login and access password will be saved by the Google server.

There will be no settings or data left on the smartphone that were associated with the old account. This is possible thanks to the factory reset function (also known as Hard Reset). As a result of resetting and restarting the phone, the system will need to be configured again (create a new Google entry, select a time zone, reconnect to the router, etc.).

It is recommended to use Hard Reset if you have encountered serious problems with your smartphone, have forgotten your screen unlock password, your previous account was hacked, or you are absolutely sure that you will never need your old mailbox and other user data again.

Follow the instructions to completely delete your Google account on Android (the method works):

• Select "Backup and reset";
• In the window that appears, click on the “Reset settings” field;

• Confirm the action. The gadget will reboot automatically.

Pay attention! As a result of the reset, absolutely all user settings, files, installed programs, and phone book numbers will be erased. Before resetting, it is recommended to create a backup copy or move the necessary data to your computer.

Method 3 – Stop Synchronization

If you don't want to delete your account and link a new one, you can simply temporarily stop synchronizing the connected account with your phone. This option is available thanks to the Google Accounts service - a standard utility that unites all Google applications.

Google Accounts regularly uploads data about available updates and manages your account settings. To stop your account, follow the instructions:

• Go to your smartphone settings;
• Select the “Applications” section;
• In the window that opens, go to the “All” tab;
• Find the Google Accounts system service and open it;
• In the new window, click on the “Force stop” button. To restore the service, simply reboot the device. All account settings will be saved.

To erase all accounts linked to Android, click on the “Erase data” button.

Another removal method requires superuser rights. On phones with an active Google account, you can delete your Google account in a few clicks. Simply open the system folder in Explorer and erase the desired file.

Follow the instructions:

• Open File Explorer and go to the Android-Data-System folder;
• Find the component called ACCOUNTS.DB and remove it.
• Reboot the OS and log in using the new Google page.

Now you know all the basic methods, how to delete google account. Let's consider how to restore profile Android.

Google Account Recovery

A deleted Google account can only be recovered for a limited amount of time. Officially, the developers do not disclose the storage time for account backups on their servers, but according to user reports, this period ranges from 2 to 3 months.

To reuse a profile on your smartphone, you first need to restore it using any browser. You can only return the page to which the phone number was linked (and you have access to this number).

Follow the instructions to find out how to recover a deleted Google account on Android:

• Open your mobile or desktop browser and go to the page https://accounts.google.com/signin/recovery?hl=ru ;
• Enter your phone number or email address;
• A message with an access code will be sent to the linked number. After entering the correct code, the deleted account will be automatically restored. If recovery is not available, you will not receive a message with a code to the specified phone number.

Bottom line

As you can see, deleting and returning a Google account is quite simple and even a beginner can cope with this task. Share your options on how else you can delete your account or restore its functionality. Ask any questions you have below in the comments.

You can add Google accounts to your Android phone or tablet. The device automatically synchronizes data from accounts that are configured on it. To download applications from Google Play, you must add at least one account to your device.

Are multiple people using the device? Before making any changes, make sure you are signed in to the correct account.

How to add an account to your device

1. Open your device settings.
2. Select Accounts. If this item is not there, click Users and accounts.
3. At the bottom of the screen, tap Add account.
4. Select your account type.
   • To add a Google account, click Google. When you sign in to your account, all data associated with your account, including email messages, contacts, and calendar events, is automatically synced to your device.
   • To add another account, select Personal (IMAP) or Personal (POP3). This option is suitable for Microsoft Outlook and Apple Mail users. How to use IMAP and POP3 protocols to work with Gmail...
5. Follow the instructions on the screen.
6. If necessary, enter a PIN, password, or pattern.

Advice. If you're going to lend your device to someone else, you don't need to set up a new account. Instead, you can create a separate profile or enable Guest mode.

How to delete an account from a device

If you delete an account from your phone or tablet, all data associated with it will also disappear from the device (including emails, contacts, and settings).

Note. Settings may vary depending on the device. For more details,

Running Android (at least the one certified by Google) contains not only components assembled from AOSP, but also an impressive amount of proprietary Google programs. These are the same Google Play, Gmail, Hangouts, Maps and a bunch of other applications, including a dialer and a camera (starting with KitKat).

For all these components there is not only no source code, but also no explanation at all about the principles of their operation. Many of them are initially designed to collect certain types of information and send them to Google servers. This is how, for example, GoogleBackupTransport behaves, which is responsible for synchronizing the list of installed applications, passwords and other data, GoogleContactsSyncAdapter, which synchronizes the list of contacts, or ChromeBookmarksSyncAdapter, whose job is to synchronize browser bookmarks. Plus collecting information about all queries in the search engine.

There's nothing wrong with the synchronization itself, of course, and it's a great mechanism that allows us to set up a new phone in a matter of minutes, and Google Now even manages to give us useful information based on our data (sometimes). The only problem is that all this destroys our privacy, because, as Snowden showed, under the hood of the NSA (and, most likely, a bunch of other services) is not only some evil empire called Microsoft, but also Google, and as well as many other companies from the “we are not evil, but fluffy philanthropists” crowd.

In other words: Google will merge us all without any problems, and it’s not a fact that its employees, sitting in their offices with masseuses and dogs, are not laughing at the names from your contact book (everything is encrypted there, yes), drinking 15-year-old pu-erh from Yunnan Province. Or maybe to hell with Google? Let's take their Android and let them go through the forest?

What is Google Apps
The latest version of the custom KitKat-based firmware for my smartphone weighs 200 MB, however, in order to get a real experience from the smartphone, I also have to flash the gapps archive on top of it, the size of which is 170 MB. Only after this will I receive a system similar to that pre-installed on Nexus devices, with all the goodies in the form of a desktop integrated with Google Now, a screen lock based on a face shot, a camera with support for spherical shooting and a kilogram of Google software, from Google Play to Google Books.

I repeat once again: all this is closed software from Google, which in a good way cannot be distributed at all without their knowledge (that’s why it is not in custom firmware like CyanogenMod), but since it is quite easy to extract it from the firmware of Nexus devices, you can find it on the Internet a huge number of similar archives, including severely truncated ones. In order to release an Android smartphone with a set of gapps on board, the manufacturer must send it for certification to Google, which, after evaluating the quality and performance of the smartphone, will either give the go-ahead or kick it (but this does not stop the Chinese at all).

This is how Google Apps get to your smartphone. Of the users, 99% either use pre-installed applications or install them themselves on absolutely clean and completely anonymous firmware. And then, from the moment you enter your username and password, synchronization and downloading of information begins.

To figure out how this happens, let’s unpack the same archive with gapps and take a look inside. We are interested in the /system/app and /system/priv-app directories; during installation, their contents are copied to the directories of the same name inside the smartphone. The second directory is a KitKat innovation, apparently invented to store private applications that are accessible only to the administrator (owner) of the device and invisible to other users logged into the system.

In the /system/app directory we will find a large number of different Google applications, easily recognizable by the name of the package: Books.apk, Chrome.apk, Gmail2.apk and so on. Each of them will share information differently, but that's totally fine (yes, Google will know you're reading Paulo Coelho through their app!). The greatest danger here is GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk, which is only responsible for sending a list of contacts to the remote server. We write down the name in a notepad and move on.

Most of the files from the /system/priv-app directory are the services and frameworks necessary to run this whole synchronization and surveillance machine:

• GoogleBackupTransport.apk - synchronizes data from installed applications, Wi-Fi passwords and some settings;
• GoogleLoginService.apk - connects the device with a Google account;
• GooglePartnerSetup.apk - allows third-party applications to access Google services;
• GoogleServicesFramwork.apk - a framework with various auxiliary functionality;
• Phonesky.apk - Play Store (oddly enough);
• PrebuiltGmsCore.apk - Google Services, as the name suggests, is the core of the entire gapps suite;
• Velvet.apk is a Google search that includes a desktop search bar and Google Now.

Spoiler: Method number 1. Disabling through settings

The easiest way to unlink a smartphone from Google is to use the standard system settings. The good thing about this method is that it does not require root rights, installation of custom firmware, or custom recovery. Everything can be done in any stock firmware without losing access to your account and applications like Gmail (if necessary). However, no one can vouch for the efficiency, since it is quite possible that some gapps components will continue to send data.

The main location for synchronization settings is the menu “Settings -> Accounts -> Google -> [email protected]" Here you can disable things like syncing contacts, application data, Gmail, Play Music, Google Keep, and more. All you need to do is simply uncheck the desired menu items. Next, go to the “Settings -> Backup and reset” menu and uncheck the “Data backup” and “Auto recovery” items.

The Google Settings application, which is part of Google Services, is also responsible for many synchronization settings. With its help, in particular, you can disable Google’s access to your location (“Access to geodata -> Access to my geodata / Sending geodata / Location history”), disable sending personal data to the search engine (“Search -> Personal data”), disable Google Now (“Search -> Google Now”) and disable remote control (“Remote control -> Remote device search / Remote lock and reset”).

In the same “Google Settings,” by the way, you can disable any application that uses your Google account for authorization. We are talking not only about the software installed on the device, but also about all applications ever used, including websites. For example, I found a lot of sites on this list that I haven’t visited for at least a couple of years.

In the event that you do not intend to use Google services at all, it will be easier to disconnect your smartphone from your account completely, that is, simply delete it through the settings: “Settings -> Accounts -> Google -> [email protected]-> Menu button -> Delete account.”

Most Google applications can be disabled painlessly through the settings: “Applications -> ALL -> desired application -> Disable”.

Spoiler: Method number 2. Cleaning the official firmware

If the stock firmware has root rights, you can get rid of Google Apps by simply deleting them from the smartphone. As I already said, they are all stored in the /system/app and /system/priv-app directories. For example, in the case of KitKat, the list of Google applications in the first directory will be like this:

• Books.apk - Google Books;
• CalendarGoogle.apk - Google Calendar;
• Chrome.apk - Google Chrome;
• CloudPrint.apk - cloud printing system;
• Drive.apk - Google Drive;
• GenieWidget.apk - news and weather widget;
• Gmail2.apk - Gmail;
• GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk - contact synchronization;
• GoogleEars.apk - Google Ears (similar to Shazam);
• GoogleEarth.apk - Google Earth;
• GoogleHome.apk - home screen with integrated Google Now;
• GoogleTTS.apk - speech synthesis system;
• Hangouts.apk - Google Hangouts;
• Keep.apk - Google Keep;
• LatinImeGoogle.apk - keyboard with gesture support;
• Magazines.apk - Google Magazines;
• Maps.apk - Google Maps;
• Music2.apk - Google Music;
• PlayGames.apk - Google PlayGames;
• PlusOne.apk - Google+;
• QuickOffice.apk - QuickOffice;
• Street.apk - Google Street;
• SunBeam.apk - SunBeam live wallpaper;
• Videos.apk - Google Movies;
• YouTube.apk - YouTube.

• CalendarProvider.apk - stores calendar data;
• GoogleFeedback.apk - sends a report on the use of Google Play;
• GoogleOneTimeInitilalizer.apk - installation wizard for additional Google applications;
• SetupWizard.apk - setup wizard on first launch;
• Wallet.apk - Google Wallet;
• talkback.apk - voice notification about events on the device.

In previous (and future) versions of the system, the contents of Google Apps are different, so before deleting, I recommend downloading gapps of the desired version from the site goo.im/gapps, unpacking it using WinRar and viewing the contents. You should also take into account the dependence of some applications from the market on Google applications, I will talk more about this later.

Spoiler: Method number 3. Custom firmware without gapps

The previous method can be significantly simplified if you simply install custom firmware on your smartphone without Google Apps. In this case, the smartphone/tablet will be crystal clear without any connection to Google. The disadvantage of this method is the absence of Google Play, but you can either replace it with a third-party application store (more on that below), or use the following method, which involves installing a stripped-down version of Google Apps.

Spoiler: Method number 4. Google Play and nothing else

This method of partially decoupling from Google is a kind of compromise. It does not solve the problem of surveillance - at least without the settings from the first method - but it allows you not to clutter the system with a bunch of useless software that will hang in the background and eat up memory. The idea is simple - install custom firmware and upload a minimalist version of gapps on top of it, which includes only Google Play.

There are many such minimal gapps assemblies on the Internet, but I would recommend using the time-tested BaNkS Gapps, namely the “month-date” file GApps Core 4.4.2 signed.zip". They work on any smartphone, are ART compatible, and include only the basic gapps files, a list of which is given in the "What are Gapps" section, framework files, as well as several libraries. Essentially, it's Google Play, synchronization tools and nothing else.

Changing the search engine to DuckDuckGo
Even after completely disabling synchronization, the “built-in” Google search bar will remain on the home screen. In the stock firmware of some manufacturers (Samsung, for example), this is just a widget that can be easily removed from the screen. In pure Android and devices from many other manufacturers, it is “built into” the home screen, but it can be removed by disabling all search from Google (along with Google Now) using the menu “Settings -> Applications -> All -> Google search -> Disable" or by installing a third-party launcher. Next, just download DuckDuckGo from the market or another application store and add the widget of the same name to your home screen.

At the moment, there are three more or less viable alternatives to Google Play. These are Amazon Appstore, Yandex.Store and 1Mobile Market. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages, which mainly come down to the number of applications and payment methods:

• Amazon Appstore is the most famous application store after Google Play. Contains more than 75 thousand applications (compared to 800 thousand on Google Play), the quality of each of which is manually checked, just like iTunes for iOS. You can pay using a credit card or Amazon Coins, which are given as a gift for purchasing a Kindle Fire tablet or as a gift from another user. One of the most interesting features of the store is the daily free distribution of one of the paid applications.
• Yandex.Store is a store from the Yandex company. Contains more than 85 thousand applications, each of which is scanned by Kaspersky antivirus. It doesn’t particularly stand out, but it has a killer feature in the form of the ability to pay for purchases using the Yandex.Money service or a mobile phone account.
• 1Mobile Market is the largest third-party repository of Android applications, including more than 500 thousand software. It differs from others by the presence of exclusively free applications (not to be confused with pirated ones), which is why it allows you not to go through the account registration stage and maintain anonymity.

Open Source Market
In addition to those described in the article, as well as many other lesser-known application stores, you can find on the Internet the F-Droid repository, which is different from the rest. It is completely anonymous and contains only free software distributed under licenses approved by the FSF. There are only a thousand applications in F-Droid, but all of them are guaranteed to not contain backdoors or other systems for disclosing personal data. It is F-Droid that is used as the default market in the free Android firmware Replicant.

To address these issues, XDA user MaR-V-iN started the NOGAPPS project, which is developing a set of open source components to replace the original Google Apps functionality. There are currently three replacement components available:

• Network Location is a geolocation service based on Wi-Fi and GSM base stations. Based on Apple's IP address database and open base station database;
• Maps API - replacement of the interface to Google Maps based on OpenStreetMap;
• BlankStore is an open alternative to the Play Store client. Allows you to install free applications from the Google store, but is not recommended for use due to possible sanctions from the search engine (this is prohibited by their rules).

After all the manipulations, the software should work correctly.

Conclusions
For Google, Android is useless without its own applications, so it is not surprising that the company takes out the most delicious parts of the system in them and leaves the code closed. However, in this article I showed that there is life without gapps and it can be even easier and more convenient than with Google.
P.S. I have been looking for a solution to this dilemma for a long time and now it turns out that I am on the right track..

Are you planning to sell your old gadget and don’t want to leave confidential information in the form of a Google account? Then you should read the instructions on how to delete or unlink an account from an Android phone or tablet. The article provides comprehensive information, with the presence of all available ways to achieve your goals.

Easy to use: quick removal

To quickly unlink or delete the Google service, you can use the following methods:

1. Go to the phone settings, find the item with your Google account (depending on the model, it may appear in the form of sections “Other accounts”, “Accounts”), which contains information about the account and its synchronization. Through the additional menu, select the “Delete account” item. Please note that not all gadgets have such a solution. We didn’t find this in the smartphone, then we move on;
2. The second method is more complicated, but will help solve the problem. Through your computer, you should go to your Google account in the “Recently Used Devices” section. This page contains all devices that are associated with your account. Next, use the “close access” or “lost this device” buttons to unlink your account. The account will remain on the phone, but will be unlinked and require a password that the new owner does not know.

1. The third method can also be classified as a simple solution. It requires you to go into applications, find Google services and clear the cache (clear data). The solution does not always work, so the method cannot be considered effective.

Complex methods of untying

If the easy methods do not help, then you will need professional help from a friend or read additional materials and literature. Among the main complex methods are:

1. Reset settings to factory settings. This can be done through the phone settings in the special “Backup and Reset” section. In some cases, the function is hidden, so each device has an individual approach;
2. Performing flashing of a mobile gadget. This is a very responsible decision that should be implemented with an understanding of the process of completing the assigned tasks. To do this, it is worth carrying out preparatory work, finding information, current firmware, and installing the necessary programs. After the operation, the Google account will be unlinked;

1. Using root access to delete the “accounts.db” database. In many cases, getting root rights is no less difficult than flashing a phone. If you have superuser access, then you should find the file presented above in the data/system folder and delete it.

In conclusion, I would like to note regarding important data, contact numbers or personal information: before using any of the methods used, copy or back up the data. How to do this, read the publications on our website.

Are you planning to give your smartphone to someone else or just want to change your Google account? In this case, you need to unlink your current account from your device. As a result, contacts, application data and other information will be deleted. After this, the smartphone can be safely transferred to another person. How to delete a Google account on Android and clear your smartphone of data associated with it?

Using Hard Reset

Linking each smartphone to a Google account allows you to identify it and synchronize data - calendar entries, application files, backups, contacts in the phone book and much more. It is also possible to remotely control Android devices via Google services.

Thanks to them, editing contacts, remote blocking and many other operations are performed. It turns out that each smartphone is linked to an account. And by giving our smartphone into the wrong hands, we are forced to lose progress in games, our contacts and much more.

But there is nothing to be afraid of, since we can delete a Google account on Android and give another person a device ready to enter a new account and further work - we can easily restore progress in games and data on another device. The easiest way to delete your account and other data is to do a Hard Reset. The Hard Reset operation is the most common general reset, performed using standard operating system tools.

If you are planning to sell your smartphone to another subscriber and want to remove your Google account and other data from Android, you can perform a master reset and return the device to its factory state. This is done like this:

• We save all the necessary data in cloud services, on a memory card or on a computer;
• Go to “Settings – Backup and reset”;
• We confirm our intentions and wait for the reboot.

Now your smartphone is completely cleaned and ready to be transferred to other hands.

A master reset is performed in the same way on any other Android devices, for example, on tablets. A general reset, also known as a Hard Reset, does not affect the data on the memory card.

Deleting an account manually

Want to delete your account but don't want to touch other data stored on your smartphone? No question - we can only delete an account with personal data, leaving photos, videos, music and applications in memory.

In order to carry out this procedure, you need to go to “Settings - Accounts”, select Google and in the menu that opens, tap on your account. Click on the three dots or call up the context menu with the button and select “Delete account”. Next, we confirm our intentions and wait for the procedure to complete.

After this, we have at our disposal a smartphone ready to be transferred to other hands (if, of course, you don’t mind transferring photos, videos and other content). Another user, by going to “Settings - Accounts”, will be able to add his Google account or register a new one.

Complete account deletion

How to delete a Google account on an Android phone so that it disappears completely? That is, you need to make sure that it ceases to exist even on Google servers. How to do this? If the operation is performed from a phone, go to “Settings – Accounts – Google – Account Settings”, select “Disable services and delete account”.

Next, we will be transferred to the browser, where we will need to log in and confirm the deletion of the account and all enabled services. By the way, if you need to delete services, but leave the account itself, just select the corresponding menu item in the web interface.

Do you want to know what services are connected to your account? Go to “Settings – Accounts – Google – Account Settings” and click on the “Back” arrow. You will be taken to a menu that will list all applications and services associated with your current account.

Want to delete your Google account using your computer? Then you need to go to the search engine’s website, log in, go to the “My Account” section and find the “Account Settings” menu there. Here you will see the item “Disable services and delete your account” - go here and see what is there.

In this menu, users will find two items – “Delete services” and “Delete account and data”. We select the appropriate option, confirm our intentions by entering a password and wait for the results of the operation.

The “Account Settings” menu contains many links with which you can manage content, view associated applications and delete unused services - working with settings via a PC is much more convenient than on the miniature screen of a smartphone or tablet.