Does my phone need to be active during a factory reset?

[Android Central Question]

My phone was recently deactivated do to non-payment. I still have access to WiFi and would like to know if my phone needs normal service to do this or, is WiFi sufficient? I deleted the original gmail account associated with my phone from day one and have created another that I'd like to use on the phone. Several of the phones original apps are still associating themselves with my original gmail account and those that are will not let me type in the new account info. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[belodion]

First, why did you remove, or try to remove, the original account? Was it your account?

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[Rukbat]

If the phone was deactivated, you can only use it on wifi, you can't text and you can't talk. If it was deactivated for non-payment for the phone, it's legally a stolen phone, and you're in possession of stolen property. It's not actually "your phone" until it's been paid for.

Some apps lock to the account, and you can't change it if the phone is deactivated.