Should I reset my phone and how do I back up my phone's data?

Question

I've got a new Telstra Smart-Touch Next Generation and I logged on to my G-mail account so I could use the calender and other apps. After a while I realised that my credit was being eaten up bit by bit, a few cents an hour I think. I thought it must be my G-mail and I tried to log out but didn't know how. So, I went to my G-mail account on my Mac and deleted it. Now my phone says that I've entered an incorrect password and wants me to type it in, and most importantly my credit is still being used up and I don't know what to do. I was thinking that maybe I should reset my phone but I don't want to lose my contacts, messages and apps.

Should I reset my phone? Can I backup my phone's data beforehand if I do this?

Answer 1

If the account is the one you used to set up the phone, then you probably will have to do a factory reset to remove it. There is a similar question related to this here, and there is a question regarding how to backup your phone here. If it is not the one you used when setting up the phone, then you can try going into Settings->Accounts and Sync and tapping on the account. There will be a Remove Account button on the bottom of the screen that you can use to try to delete the account from your device.

That being said, you might not really need to do a factory reset if you're just trying to avoid the data charges that you're incurring from your Gmail account. Instead, try going into Settings->Accounts and Sync and unchecking the options Enable Background Data and Auto-sync. If you want to be absolutely sure that you aren't using up data when you don't want to, then you could also go into Settings->Wireless and Networks->Mobile Networks (or somewhere similar if your settings are not exactly the same) and uncheck the option for mobile data. You would then simply need to turn it back on anytime you want to access the Internet.

Answer 2

In addition to what eldarerathis said, you can go into Settings -> Accounts and sync and just turn off syncing for your Gmail account. I would suspect, however, that other apps are using data since Gmail shouldn't be using anything after you closed the account. In that case you should turn off sync as eldarerathis said or perhaps uninstall the troublesome apps. An app like My Data Manager can help you figure out who the culprits are.

Answer 3

As far as backing up your phone's data, Titanium Backup is definitely the best solution I've found for carrying data between phone resets. Requires root, like most backup apps.