Invalid Credentials Gmail Issue - Droid Razr Maxx from Paul - 06/24/2012
Here’s a couple of ideas that might help you get going again. It worked for me.
I spoke with Verizonwireless and according to them, although the Ice Cream Sandwich software upgrade is starting to roll out for the Razr, they said it does not automatically push to the phone. You have to go to Settings/About Phone/System Upgrades to Check for Upgrades and see if its available on your device.
So this should not be the cause of this issue.
(FYI, I would recommend not downloading the upgrade for a few months until the inevitable “new app shake out” occurs and some “Updates” are done.)
From my testing so far, the problem only seems to appear when using the Motorola “Messages” application and only with the Gmail app within it, not with accounts established under the “@” Email icon. Please let me know if you have found otherwise.
Here is one possible cause of the problem:
Does anyone having this issue have an “M” Gmail account they set up to pull emails that is a duplicate of the “core” email? To see the difference, on your Razr go to: Settings/Accounts and it will display the core email as a Black and White “g”. The non-core Gmail has an “M” icon.
I’m wondering if Motorola’s “Messages” app is conflicted by having two identical gmail accounts in the same area? (“g” and “M” accounts being the same)
My wife and I both have Razr Maxx phones. (I’m completing a review on it this week).
On my Razr Maxx, I have the core account email (the Black and White “g” for google), set to a Gmail address that does not have a duplicate Google “M” gmail account in my phone accounts. (I use this Gmail account as the account in Gmail “on the web” to consolidate multiple email addresses into one place for convenience.)
I used this email address as the core because the “core” email does not actually pull email, (you have to set up an “M” account to do that). It also matches my Google Play/Market email address, which is important.
Google Play/Market looks to your phone’s “core” Gmail account to match up your “My Apps” list in the store for keeping track of the apps you’ve downloaded. So you want them to be the same.
On my Razr I set up only the individual Gmail “M” email accounts and non-Gmail POP accounts (using the “@” Email for them), that I wanted to pull to my phone and none of them duplicate the core Gmail name.
So far anyway, I have not experienced this issue.
However, on my wife’s Razr Maxx, she is experiencing this problem.
The one difference I can find is that her core Gmail (Black and White “g”) account is also duplicated as her default Gmail “M” account on the phone. I set it up using the google “M” icon under the Motorola “Messages” App, as you would expect (vs using the alternate “@” Email POP icon in the same area).
When this problem occurred for her, I set up the same Gmail account using the “@” Email in the same area and it pulled correctly. (just not imap).
But that left her with a Universal Mail box with a broken Gmail account I cannot delete, and a working, identically named, email that does work in the same area.
Because I don’t want her to be confused by this, I simply put the Motorola “Messages” app into the Trash, went to Google Play and downloaded the Gmail “Top Developer” version of the Gmail App. I set it up where the Messages icon used to be on her phone and it works perfectly.
Although it’s not as pretty at the Motorola presentation, the Gmail app does have a big efficiency advantage: The Google app has a fast delete/archive check box located next to every email, allowing multiple emails to be marked and deleted simultaneously. (Nice)
The only other item in her Universal box was Text, and that appears at the bottom of her fixed icon bar visible on every screen on the Razr. So that’s still conveniently located.
If Motorola fixes the problem with their app, I could always put back her Motorola Universal Email box, if she wants it. But for now, we don’t have to do a “Factory Data Reset” the wipes out all the personalization she has and everything appears to be convenient and working fine.
One other option for now, to potentially avoid the deadly “Factory Data Reset” approach, could be this:
If your core Gmail account does match the email account you picked for the Google Play/Market, Leave the core (Black and White “g” Gmail) account in place on your phone. (If not, this might be a reason to do the Factory Data Reset, and make them the same. The Reset is the only way to change the core Gmail address on your phone.)
Next, create a new Gmail account in Gmail on the web. Within Gmail on the web, set it up to pull your other emails to this new Gmail account (Gmail has a feature that allows you to automatically pull up to 5 email addresses into the one Gmail account for you.
(When logged in to Gmail on the web, see “Accounts and Import” under the Settings Gear Icon on the far right upper corner of the Gmail screen.)
Then establish that one email on your phone as the “M” Gmail account the phone reads.
This will give you a unique, single “Universal” email you create via Gmail, rather than having multiple separate accounts set up on your phone. You can then manage the accounts from the web within Gmail, if you need to.
If you need to separate any email address or have an enterprise corporate email on your phone you can add that account to your phone. Just be sure you don’t use an email address that duplicates the core Gmail address, in case this duplicate issue is the issue.
One other thought. If this “Invalid Credentials” problem is occurring due to this duplicate email name issue, the “Factory Data Reset” may not be a permanent fix, unless Motorola fixes their app.
Hopefully some of these options may keep you from having to do a Reset and should work long term for you, especially if a Motorola fix takes time.
All the best, Paul G.
