Android picasa upload “Failed to retrieve account information”

Well that was annoying. I decided to upload my pictures to picasa direct from my phone, only to find that I couldn’t due to a braindead bug. Basically, the upload fails if you have more than one sync account using the same email address that you use for google sync. Why would any normal person use multiple email addresses for facebook, twitter, dropbox etc.?

The solution lies in a nice little feature of gmail – you can use the + symbol to make an alias. For example, if your address is crappydev@gmail.com you can also use crappydev+bug@gmail.com. You can even use c.r.a.p.p.y.d.e.v@gmail.com and the email will still come to you.

With this in mind, change your primary address on any other sync accounts, eg. crappydev+fb@gmail.com for facebook. Bear in mind that for facebook you will need to set a completely different address, then remove your old gmail address and add the new one.

After you’ve changed the primary email address you will need to remove the sync accounts on android and add them again. Just open up facebook and login, same with dropbox and twitter.

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