Droid MAXX: Account action Required popping up after 4.4 update

[doogald]

The same thing happened to me, for the first time in the two months that I've had KitKat, over the weekend. It happened to all five of my Google accounts, and the Motorola ID thing, which I had just set up a few days before - and it happened when I was in a restaurant and, from the battery history screen, I had no mobile service. (I didn't look at my phone until I got home from the restaurant.)

Since it never happened before I did the Motorola ID thing, I first had to reenter the passwords for all of those Google accounts (retrying did not work) and then I unlinked the Motorola ID from the phone.

So, that was:

settings->security & screen lock->Device administrators and turned off "Motorola Device Policy". Next, settings->Motorola Device ID, tap the three dot menu control on the top right, and choose "unlink account".

It might not hurt to restart the phone, too.

 

[William Hunt]

I've had my Moto Droid Maxx for about a week now and my wife got the Moto X the same day. We both upgraded to 4.4 soon after getting them activated and we both started receiving the very annoying prompt as well. We only get it when connected over WiFi though. If I'm on Mobile Data I don't it at all, when I get home I get it about every few hours or so.
No idea why this is happening, but I'm glad this is something that others have noticed too because I was thinking it was just my ISP (Satalite Internet, don't even get me started on the problems...) so hopefully it will be addressed in a future OTA.

 

[revtech]

The only time I get it is when I go to this school that has no cell coverage but has open wifi which is locked down so the kids cant access some sites . . this is the only time it happens to me so my guess is that I go there, my phone automatically connects to the free wifi, it tries to do various updates or syncs, its not allowed because of the restrictions, and when I reach a place on the way home where there is cell service I start getting all these messages.

That may make absolutely no sense, but it happens to me alot, but only whn I go to my sons BBall games at this school. . . . fwiw

 

[jarrardx3]

I have been having the same problem for a while.

I contacted Moto and ended up with their level 2 support who basically said "man, that sucks bro". I tried turning off 2 step verification, changed my password, unlink/relink my Moto ID, resetting between attempts, nothing seems to work. I am about ready to wipe the phone but I don't believe that will make a difference. The only suggestion level 2 support had was "make a new google account for your phone".... uh.... are you kidding me? I've been using this account for android and apps since the day 1 release of the original Moto Droid.... Even if I ignored the inconvenience of not sycning with all of my google services this has to be a joke with all the $$$ I've spent on apps.

 

[doogald]

I have been having the same problem for a while.

I contacted Moto and ended up with their level 2 support who basically said "man, that sucks bro". I tried turning off 2 step verification, changed my password, unlink/relink my Moto ID....

Try what I did - unlink the Motorola ID and never relink it, and turn off that Administrator setting. (See my post http://forums.androidcentral.com/mo...-popping-up-after-4-4-update.html#post3474467 ) It would be interesting to see if that helps.

I don't know if that will change anything, but I never had the error message until a few days ago, which was about four days after I linked my account to Motorola ID. I haven't seen it since.

 

[jarrardx3]

Thanks doogald... I unlinked and removed all motorola based admin for now... we'll see how that goes!

 

[TipTheScales]

I've been having the same problem and did a factory reset, which didn't work.

I noticed that Hangouts was triggering the account action alerts, so I disabled Hangouts, and it still happened.

So after the factory reset, I updated Google Play Services to the latest version, which triggered the account action alerts when I updated it.

So, uninstall all the updates to Google Play Services and do not re-upgrade them. You won't be able to use Google Now and you will have an alert telling you to update, but you won't have to re-login every 20 minutes (which is annoying with 2-Step).

 

[zyntin]

So, uninstall all the updates to Google Play Services and do not re-upgrade them. You won't be able to use Google Now and you will have an alert telling you to update, but you won't have to re-login every 20 minutes (which is annoying with 2-Step).

I have a Droid MAXX with 2-step and kit-kat

I have done exactly what you posted and it still popped up today on me.

 

[Clinton Overton]

Yeah, What is the deal with this?
I this happened to me at the beginning of the year. It stopped, but now it is happening again. It is very annoying. I have multiple accounts on my phone, and I have to do it for both accounts every day. I would think since Google actually owned the company that made my phone, that things like this would not happen.

 

[phathands]

Yeah, What is the deal with this?
I this happened to me at the beginning of the year. It stopped, but now it is happening again. It is very annoying. I have multiple accounts on my phone, and I have to do it for both accounts every day. I would think since Google actually owned the company that made my phone, that things like this would not happen.

Google explicitly neglected Moto and treated it like an ugly step child. Unfortunate but true.

please back away from the screen

 

[doogald]

Yeah, What is the deal with this?
I this happened to me at the beginning of the year. It stopped, but now it is happening again. It is very annoying. I have multiple accounts on my phone, and I have to do it for both accounts every day. I would think since Google actually owned the company that made my phone, that things like this would not happen.

This has only happened to me once (and, like you, I had four accounts on the phone - very, very annoying) and it happened only when I was in a place where I had no cell signal. I think that a sync started but then was unable to complete. It must be some sort of bug (I hope).

If you see (in settings / battery, tap the graph to see history details) that this happened when you had no signal (mobile network signal is red), then maybe that's it. If you can figure out where this might be happening, you could turn off data sync when you know you will be in such a place (settings / data usage, tap the menu, uncheck "auto-sync data", or put the Power Control widget on a home screen and tap the icon that looks like a circle).

Again, I hope that this is a bug that will be fixed with an update.

 

[deidreinorbit]

I am getting ceaseless pop-ups "Couldn't sign in - You typed incorrect password..." I tried your solution of going to settings>Device Administrators and deactivating Motorola Device Policy. Then Settings> Motorola Device ID>Unlink account. But "Unlink Account" is grayed out (not active).

 

[doogald]

I am getting ceaseless pop-ups "Couldn't sign in - You typed incorrect password..." I tried your solution of going to settings>Device Administrators and deactivating Motorola Device Policy. Then Settings> Motorola Device ID>Unlink account. But "Unlink Account" is grayed out (not active).

Well, I was hoping that was it. But, if you read through the rest of the thread, I guess not. Good news for me: I still haven't had that error since.

BTW, you might have wanted to do those two things in reverse. Unlink the account, then deactivate the device policy. But, again, it sounds like that's not the issue. The issue may be that a Google account begins a sync but then cannot continue because a data connection is lost. In my case, I only saw this that one time, when I was in a restaurant with no signal (which I found out afterward by going into settings / battery, tapping the graph at the top, and looking at the mobile signal bar graph, which had a solid bar of red, which means no signal, for the two hours I was at the restaurant.) Obviously, this is a bug of some sort.

 

[mktrem]

Has a resolution to this been determined? I just got KitKat and am getting this pop...
I tried the suggestions in this thread and it stopped for a day or so, but now it's back.
The upgrade came while on Global data roaming (temporary assignment in Germany).
I'll be here 3 more weeks.... Could it be the difference in the location/data plan causing it?
I'd welcome suggestions....

 

[doogald]

Has a resolution to this been determined? I just got KitKat and am getting this pop...
I tried the suggestions in this thread and it stopped for a day or so, but now it's back.
The upgrade came while on Global data roaming (temporary assignment in Germany).
I'll be here 3 more weeks.... Could it be the difference in the location/data plan causing it?
I'd welcome suggestions....

Not yet. There doesn't seem to be any resolution short of putting the phone in airplane mode when you know that you'll be in an area with no mobile data signal. From all that I've seen, some people have this problem when the phone has no mobile data signal. It still hasn't happened again to me, but others have tried the unlink of the Motorola Device ID and that didn't help them.

I'm hoping that the next OTA fixes this. The Moto X with 4.4.2 does not have this problem. It'd be interesting to see if the RAZR HD with 4.4.2 has some people reporting a problem. If not, maybe it's just a 4.4 issue.

 

[doogald]

For anybody still having this problem. Motorola is looking for people to send them logs when it happens. See https://forums.motorola.com/comment/783916

Hey gang, it's time for you to help me, so I can help you! *muppetflail*

Our engineers would like some logs to see what is happening.
Please go to Settings > About Phone > Tap on build number 7-10 times until it activates Developer Mode
Then go to back to Settings Screen and find Developer Options and enable USB Debugging and Enable Power Menu Debug reports.
Then replicate situation where the authentication issue occurs
Then press the Power button to simulate turning the phone off.
Choose option in Power Off menu for Bug report
Click Report
The phone will start to collect the logs. It will vibrate to confirm the logs are started
When logs are complete a notification will appear in the status bar. It will be 4 vertical lines.
Expose the Status bar and select "Bug report captured".
Choose your email account
You'll see bugreport and a date code in the subject line. Add "Google Authentication Issue on Maxx/Ultra" to the beginning of the subject.
Send the email to supportforums@motorola.com and address it to Wendy.
We'll get it to our engineers for review.
Thanks! =)

EDIT: Please also put your location at the time the event occurs if you think of it so we can understand what kind of network coverage you are in at the time.

See also: https://forums.motorola.com/comment/784119

Hi there. We're aware of what is happening that is causing the Google Authentication to appear when you get in low coverage area. We're working on a fix and anticipate it will be resolved in the next update.

Mark
Forums Manager

 

[mkocsis]

Happened to me today; I will do my best to reproduce next time I go to ski - in 4 months.

I'm glad this describes my issue - Whenever I go to Arapahoe Basin ski resort, the phone reverts to this mode (Verizon service is spotty there), and notifies me every 20 minutes that my account needs to be activated. Phone is unusable, and the correct password can't be entered even when on Wifi. Worst yet, Chrome will not work without this account apparently, which is completely insane. When I was back to the real world, I couldn't enter my password because it would "try" every 20 seconds; it takes me longer to type out my password than 20 seconds, so it continuously attempted partial passwords. I wish there was a battery to pull.

I can't reproduce it currently because the described location has just enough 3G for everything to work fine. When the parking lot fills up, however, service must degrade just enough to trigger roaming/no service.

Makes me want to RMA the phone.

 

[Michael Turley]

I did call Verizon twice in the same day after the first call did not fix it. After several unsuccessful troubleshooting steps and techniques, the customer service rep suggested it was a device problem and that I return to the US (so I wasn't on global roaming anymore) and have the device hard reset. Obviously, that would not have been a fix.

 

[doogald]

I did call Verizon twice in the same day after the first call did not fix it. After several unsuccessful troubleshooting steps and techniques, the customer service rep suggested it was a device problem and that I return to the US (so I wasn't on global roaming anymore) and have the device hard reset. Obviously, that would not have been a fix.

Well, we know it's an error in the os that will be fixed with the next OTA so saving yourself a trip and a hard reset was a good plan.

 

[alaricthompson]

Also happening on my HTC one with Vodafone in the UK. Triggered by Google tracks. Only happens overnight while phone is trying to update.