Use google drive and all the google features without a gmail email?

Big-Mac-Please

Big-Mac-Please

Big-Mac-Please

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Hello All,

Samsung s3 arrives Monday and I want to setup the google drive and all the bits google offer to sync the phone and calendar etc but I've used my own email address and hosting years.

Is it still possible to do this?

I've googled it and it seems to give a mixed answer. Some items say you can but others think you must have the gmail account now?

Thanks!
 
If you have Google Drive etc. then you already have a gmail account. Just set it up using the account & set the gmail account to never sync. You can still add your own.
 
Big-Mac-Please said:
I don't have google drive yet just working it all out.

Would my calander sync if I don't have a gmail email?
Click to expand...

A Google account includes a gmail account.

When you put the account details in to the phone it will set up everything for you, so you can either leave gmail syncing email which isn't really going to harm anything or you may be able to turn email sync off and just leave calendar on, I can't quite remember, haven't used my Desire in a while.

I would just add the account when the phone asks for it, let it set everything up for you, then disable push/automatic sync on the gmail email account & add your own email account.
 
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You need a Google account to use nearly all of the Google services (Calendar, Drive, Reader, Contacts etc).

Having an Android phone without a Google account is a bit pointless really, as you're missing out on a lot. You won't even be able to download apps.

Just create a Google account, and then add your own domain email address to the Emaill app.
 
Craig321 said:
A Google account includes a gmail account.

When you put the account details in to the phone it will set up everything for you, so you can either leave gmail syncing email which isn't really going to harm anything or you may be able to turn email sync off and just leave calendar on, I can't quite remember, haven't used my Desire in a while.

I would just add the account when the phone asks for it, let it set everything up for you, then disable push/automatic sync on the gmail email account & add your own email account.
Click to expand...

Yeah you can stop the email syncing just go to Settings > Accounts > select the account & then untick everything you don't want syncing.
 
If you have a old google account created using a hotmail/other email, it *should* still work.

I was using mine for ages till I got my Nexus and decided to switch the gmail.
 
Thanks for the info :)

I have signed up and got things working but come across an issue.

I've uploaded loads of pictures and movies from my iPhone to google drive. I've now installed google drive onto my macbook air and its not just showing me the files but downloading them??

Can it not just show me what files are in my google drive without actually downloading them all to my air as that really seems stupid to me!

Thanks!!
 
If you have the Google Drive "app" installed on a device (laptop/Macbook/PC/phone/tab) it syncs your files automatically (i.e. downloads them) allowing you to access them in a standard file explorer view.

If you don't want this, and you just want to "view" them, then access Drive through a browser and not through the application.

On a side note, you could consider Google Apps for Business and transferring your domain over. That way everything syncs without your domain/mailbox changing and it runs all through Google apps.
 
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