Transferring Phone Ownership

Question

I currently have an HTC Desire handset. I am just about to upgrade to a new HTC handset and would like to be able to pass this phone on to my wife.

What’s the best way of changing the account setup n the phone to reflect the new ownership. I intend on using my existing Google account on the new handset to transfer my own settings over.

I would like to keep using the same Google Play account to retain the installed apps, but I would like my wifes telephone contacts to be kept separate and sync independently to my own as well as preventing Gmail emails on my address from pinging up this old handset.

Is this doable?

My current plan is to create her a Gmail account. On the existing Gmail account within the phone turn off syncing of Contacts, Calendar and Gmail. Add the new Google account and turn on syncing of the same.

This /sounds/ like it will work ok, but never having done this before I’m not sure how things will work in practice.

For future readers who've not transferred ownership yet: it might be difficult to remove the device from the old account in the settings on https://play.google.com, or to register the phone to the new account, to make Device Manager on https://play.google.com work for the transferred device. (I have no solution yet.) — Arjan, Jan 30 '15 at 17:26

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 11 '12 at 15:03

Yes, adding a second account and disabling sync on the original one will work as you are expecting. You'll retain the ability to install and use apps you purchase with the original account, while having the sync enabled only on your wife's account will ensure the data from your own account is not present on her phone.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 11 '12 at 18:50

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I'd do a factory reset, and then add both your account, and your wife's. This isn't much different than Chahk's answer, but might be a tad safer -- who knows what weird customizations you might have made to your phone that will surprise your wife?

answered Jun 11 '12 at 18:50

offby1

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Thanks for the suggestion. It's setup pretty well at the moment so don;t really want to fiddle too much. No odd customisations that I can recall, but if so I'll be on hand to sort. – Rob Jun 12 '12 at 08:20

Transferring Phone Ownership

2 Answers2