Daily "Account action required" Issue

[Android Central Question]

Hi,

I have a recurring issue with my gmail/google/Google play services account. Daily I will get an "account action required" notification, with no option to sign back in. Clicking the notification leads to a "checking info" popup that disappears after a few seconds, with no result. The only way to access emails etc. again is to remove the account, and add it again - it'll then work fine, for a day or so.

The account is "managed" by my work (it's a work email address) but I have control over all/most settings, and the account worked absolutely fine on a recent iPhone.

I have my personal gmail account attached with no issues.

Any ideas?

 

[Rukbat]

There's a scam of some sort that's going around in email that says that unless you verify your Google account, it's going to be terminated. All answering it does is give the scammers verification that your account is currently active. (A list of verified addresses sells for a lot more than a list of unverified addresses.) Google is not currently asking people to verify addresses. About the worst you'll get (I've been getting it a little because I just got a new phone) is a notice that some device just signed into your account. If you know your new device signed into your account you can ignore it. (If you've been using the same phone for a year and you get that, go to the Google Dashboard and secure your account.) But don't answer any "requests for verification". Google isn't doing that.

 

[neimanj]

I'm having the exact same issue. Unfortunately, Rukbat didn't read your issue properly and therefore provided no assistance. To summarize, the issue is this:

1. G Suite account is added to Android phone.
2. All functions work fine for some period of time.
3. Eventually, some sync portion of the account errors out, resulting in a notification from Google Play Services that "Account Action (is) Required."
4. When pressing the notification, an overly saying "Checking info..." pops up for a second or so, then immediately disappears with no change.

I had this happen start to happen after first adding the new work account to my phone a few days ago (no Google Apps would sync, such as Docs or Sheets). I removed the work account, restarted my phone, and then added the account again, which resolved the problem for approximately a day. Now, Contacts will no longer sync and I'm stuck with the notification again.

 

[Debbie Rowe]

I am having the same issue. Did you get it fixed?

 

[somerandomchick]

I'm also having this same exact issue, with only my work account. I've been signed into Google with three accounts - my everyday account, my professional account, and my work account that's managed by my employer. I used all 3 accounts on my last phone (Google Pixel) for years without an issue. I got a Note 9 about a month ago and didn't have a problem until yesterday. Now I can't read my work emails and I have a persistent alert notification from 'Google Play services' that says "Account Action Required" with that email address listed. When I click on this notification, a box pops up for a fraction of a second and then disappears. Clicking on my task manager shows that there's an open instance of Google Play services, but whenever I tap on that it just disappears again (but it still shows up in the task manager.)

When I go into the Gmail app, I can't access my work email at all but my other two accounts show up as they always have.

I've reset my phone twice & made sure I don't have any updates pending, that didn't help at all. I also removed the work account and added it back in, this helped for a little while but the issue came back.

Please help!

 

[ferd2000]

Same thing happened to me and my wife this morning.

In her case, when pressing the notification, it advised to change the screen lock options to a more secure setting, as per "company policies" (we have G Suite to sync everything in our family across devices, phones, tablets, PCs with Outlook). She had her screen lock options set at "swipe". We did the change and the notification has so far stayed away.

I also got the notification and started to search for a solution, as I also got the annoying "Checking Info..." and then nothing. Then it occurred to me, I had my screen with a pattern, so I changed it to swipe, clicked on the message, told me to improve the screen lock, set the pattern back on again, and the notification is gone. I restarted the phone to check, and so far it's working.

Good luck!

 

[Nmapster]

I experienced this same problem today and the great responses here helped me connect the dots and fix it! I am using Android 9 Pie on Pixel 2 XL and the only account I had configured (and the one it was complaining about) was my "G Suite" one. Since I'm self-employed and pay for G Suite myself, I'm also the G Suite Administrator for my "Organization". So I logged into the admin page and disabled Mobile Management, and that resolved the issue! Google sent me an email in September that they would start rolling out Mobile Management on October 16. Too bad they apparently didn't test it well! Anyway, here are the instructions for turning it back off:

1) (you must be org administrator) Log into admin console: https://admin.google.com
2) Click Device Management > Setup > Mobile Management
3) Click the slider to disable Mobile Management
4) Click Save

Then I rebooted my phone and all is well! If you aren't an org admin, you might have to ask your admin to do this. Or maybe try the trick that ferd2000 posted.

 

[anon(7771141)]

I experienced this same problem today and the great responses here helped me connect the dots and fix it! I am using Android 9 Pie on Pixel 2 XL and the only account I had configured (and the one it was complaining about) was my "G Suite" one. Since I'm self-employed and pay for G Suite myself, I'm also the G Suite Administrator for my "Organization". So I logged into the admin page and disabled Mobile Management, and that resolved the issue! Google sent me an email in September that they would start rolling out Mobile Management on October 16. Too bad they apparently didn't test it well! Anyway, here are the instructions for turning it back off:

1) (you must be org administrator) Log into admin console: https://admin.google.com
2) Click Device Management > Setup > Mobile Management
3) Click the slider to disable Mobile Management
4) Click Save

Then I rebooted my phone and all is well! If you aren't an org admin, you might have to ask your admin to do this. Or maybe try the trick that ferd2000 posted.

This worked PERFECTLY! Thank you so much! I wonder why this only became an issue a couple of days ago, when I've had mobile management on all this time