Greetings to all.
I just joined and need to ask an odd question. About two years ago, Google managed to screw up my Playstore account big time - to the extent that I'm sure the story would anger anyone. Let's just say security means nothing to them.
Now, I would like to upgrade CCleaner but Google blocks all attempts to make transactions. I am trying to find out if I can buy the upgrade directly from CCleaner. This approach has worked with some vendors but not all.
Any help?
Jake
Unfortunately Google's restrictive policies mean that you can only buy it through their store.
As a suggestion;
If they have messed up your account that badly then why not just abandon it?
You can create a new google account and associate your device with that new one. Then remove the old one from the device or simply don't use it.
https://support.google.com/android/answer/7664951?hl=en-GB
Many people have old, abandoned, google accounts that they created for a device which is no longer in use.
I know one who sets up a new google account, (and new gmail address which he redirects/forwards to his main email), everytime he changes phone.
That is an excellent suggestion, if I can do it without changing email account. I have a lot tied into it and it would take quite a while to change it all.
Can you say off hand if it is necessary?
J.
Not quite, but there is a workaround that you can possibly use.
It would depend on just what you mean by "tied into it", keeping in touch with email contacts is easy, Android apps may be a bit more difficult and you'll have to change it in each individual app that you have used it in, or possibly re-register with the app and start from scratch.
You can set a gmail account to automatically forward all emails to another email address.
I have that set on my gmail, so all emails received by my gmail are automatically forwarded to my private email.
You can forward to a different gmail address.
So you can set up a new gmail address, which gives a new google account, and then set the old one to forward to it.
https://hotter.io/docs/email-accounts/how-to-forward-gmail-to-another-gmail/
If you reply to any of the forwarded emails from the new account then the reply originates from that new account.
(You have to watch that if forwarding to a non-gmail address that you might not want to be seen).
Of course you still need to go to the original gmail to clear it out now and again or you'll run out of storage space on it.
That should give you time to gradually change contacts, and other things, over to the new address, once they are all changed over you can forget the old one.
It's not going to be easy but it can be done with a bit of work.
For a while you will have some apps on the old account and some on the new as you change them over, and that can get confusing remembering which is which.
Why do you think google ties everything in together?
It not for your ease of use like they tell you, it's mainly for data collection and profiling of what you do online, but it also makes it more difficult to leave a google account behind.
I appreciate your input, but I never have been a fan of anything Google. I am stuck with what is truly the least of all evils, taken in a broad view. Over time using multiple devices, I got my share of being "nickled and dimed" by Google and along with everyone else, put up with their blunders and carelessness; but no more. I won't change the world, but I will avoid contributing to the various causes that confuse, confound and create more problems that they solve. My wife and I spent our careers in IT and have heard it all. Unless the end users decide to change the paradigm, it will be an interesting show to watch the implosions along the way.
Sorry about the venting, but I'm pretty close to pulling the plug on all things chip-related. Again, thanks for taking the time.
Jake