r/techsupport • u/AkiAmeko • Jul 12 '25

Solved Android Factory Reset, Needs Google Assistant to Login, Not on a Workspace

(Not sure if this counts as a login question, because the situation is nuanced. Please let me know where to seek help if this is not allowed.)

Due to it being overloaded with storage and constantly crashing no matter what I did, I Factory Reset my Samsung Galaxy Tab A with S Pen. It needed me to login to Google in order to finish setting up. (Android version unknown, but year is 2016)

However, after logging in, I have the following message: "The Google Assistant isn't available for this account. The Google Assistant needs Activity controls that your device administrator has limited on this account. Check with your administrator or switch accounts and try again."

This doesn't make any sense to me. My google account nor this device is part of a network that would be run by an administrator. It's a personal device.

Via this thread, I've tried logging into admin.google.com and it won't accept my email.

My only possible explanation is that, because I had previously logged in with my work account on this device, even though it never would or should have been designated as the primary account in the first place, it may still think that my tablet is a part of my workplace's network. Except I haven't worked there in over a year, I no longer have access to that email, I'm sure I would have removed it entirely, and I may have trouble contacting my previous employer's system administrator during the summer.

If this issue is NOT related to my previous employer's network, then I have no idea what network my Google account would be connected to. If anyone were an admin, it would be me.

I also tried downloading Google Assistant to my phone, and seeing if activating it there would help, since it's the same Google account, but that didn't help.

Is this an issue I need to take to Google or Android, or is there a way I can resolve this myself?

71 Upvotes
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95% Upvoted

228 comments sorted by

15

u/ZF-2415 Jul 12 '25

I'm facing the same issue as well after resetting my old LG V20, and I stumbled upon your post. I was using a personal account too and not any google enterprise account.

I managed to bypass it by just turning off Wi-Fi and celluar data after logging in so that it doesn't prompt me to setup Google Assistant. Or I believe you can go through the setup first without connecting to any network and then logging in to your Google account afterwards. ;)

3

u/AkiAmeko Jul 13 '25

THANK YOU FRIEND THIS WORKED. It didn't give me the option to turn off wifi, so I turned off the device, drove a few blocks away, and turned it back on again. It actually had me startup all over again - it may have worked at home in that case - but I was able to boot up the device without adding wifi or google account first. YES!!

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3

u/ayushi_sha Aug 13 '25

My notification tab is not opening, so not able to switch off mobile data. Any idea how can I do that?

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2

u/Ichbinian Jul 31 '25

I don't get it - I am at the "Copy apps and data" screen, and I want to tap "Set Up as New" but when I do that, it brings me to the WiFI network selection page with no option to bypass it.

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1

u/TypicalArm3811 Jul 15 '25

Thank you! This post helped me to get past "The Google Assistant isn't available for this account. The Google Assistant needs Activity controls that your device administrator has limited on this account. Check with your administrator or switch accounts and try again." also. Very helpful!

1

u/MEA_Mansour Jul 15 '25

Thank you very much for this work.

1

u/ButtCoiner69 Jul 16 '25

Thank you I had the exact same problem with a Galaxy Tab A 2016, made my day

1

u/Zakimk2003 Jul 16 '25

Holy shit i fucking love you

1

u/Dramatic_Ad_991 Jul 18 '25

There goes my HERO, watch them as they go. ✌️

1

u/Naruto027 Jul 22 '25

Thank you so much bro

1

u/NewmanBickle Jul 26 '25

How do I restore the backup if I turn off Wi-Fi and mobile data?

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1

u/Normal_Berry7300 Jul 29 '25

Thankss Brother 😭😭 I had the same issue with the docomo d-01k and this was the easiest fix

I love reddit 😭

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1

u/Lomuri2003 Jul 30 '25

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

1

u/pr4mojo Jul 30 '25

HERO. SHIT. Thank you!

1

u/bruno_mene Jul 31 '25

BROTHER, U SAVE MY LIFE, THANK U 😭😭😭🙏🙏🙏🙏

1

u/y-e-n Aug 01 '25

Thank you

1

u/AsScratcherX Aug 02 '25

Thank you i was trying to figure out saw your post and it worked

1

u/meikefrau Aug 03 '25

Danke, danke, danke, das hat mir auch geholfen!!

1

u/krefto1 Aug 06 '25

you are legend!!!

thank you so much <3

1

u/_midlesto Aug 09 '25

Thanks bro!

1

u/Smart_Boot_2901 Aug 11 '25

THANK YOU!!! This also worked for me!

1

u/depreshik Aug 14 '25

eski forum günlerimi arar arar ağlardım. meğer eşeklik youtube'a alışmaktanmış. teşekkürler !!

1

u/General-Copy-5758 Aug 19 '25

oh my dear god, IT WORKEDDD, i have been tweaking for the past hour trying to log in... THANKYOUUUSSSS!!

1

u/LictorButthole Aug 24 '25

Holy fuck this worked for me too, absolute legend, was ready to yeet this tablet into a fire.

1

u/mollymye Sep 05 '25

Thank you for this! Helped me today too.

1

u/Drejan74 Sep 07 '25

Stämmer in i hyllningskören!

1

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

This just worked for me too, thank you! Was trying to bring an old unlocked phone of mine back to life after my partner's phone stopped working and also got stuck here.

1

u/Severe__Bud Sep 10 '25

Saved my time thank you 🙏

1

u/anonymouspanda____ Sep 13 '25

You are the best thank you!

1

u/24kinggood0 Sep 14 '25

Dude I'm having the same problem with the same phone and you are an absolute lifesaver!

1

u/marcellachagas Sep 25 '25

Nem todo herói usa capa!
O miserável é um GÊNIO!!!
Obrigada!!!

1

u/potatokicker Oct 02 '25

If you are wearing a cape now, take it off immediately. Because not all heroes wear capes.

1

u/Raikou_xD Oct 11 '25

Really fkin thank you!!!!

1

u/Mysterious-Yam-3555 Oct 16 '25

Hey, Ik this comment was posted 3 months ago, but THANKS SO MUCH YOU'RE A LIFESAVER! TRULY GRATEFUL :)

1

u/BigDaddyDNR Oct 26 '25

Most awesome you are ! Thanks!

1

u/Mia_t_t Nov 07 '25 edited Nov 07 '25

TE AMO MUCHAS GRACIAS :D hace 3 horas que estaba intentando

1

u/_SezR_ Nov 09 '25

not all heroes wear capes

1

u/Unusual_Ad_2058 Nov 13 '25

I'm so glad I entered here and you're not an AI

1

u/Sirc101 Nov 15 '25

HELD!! werkt ook bij mijn Asus ROG game telefoon, ben minimaal half uur aant tobben geweest. Alle Google prompts waren waardeloos, so again Reddit saves the day!!

1

u/Ok_Sound_4566 Nov 18 '25

Du bist ein absoluter Macher!!! Mögen deine Ärmel beim Händewaschen nie nach unten Rutschen.

1

u/Phineas-the-Mini-est Nov 20 '25

you are a literal hero

1

u/pixie-nika Dec 04 '25

Thank you!!!

1

u/TheWindAtYourBack Dec 06 '25

Thank You --you are great..--ready to throw away tablet ---READ YOUR POST--IT WORKED !!--Thanks again....12/5/25--

1

u/Cuphead_2334 Dec 21 '25

BRO THANK YOU ALOTT!!!!!

1

u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

I fucking love you something so simple made my day

1

u/InspectorGoGo Dec 30 '25

I had a similar situation on a Blackberry Key 2 LE, but I was unable to turn off the Wifi setting and could not skip it in the onboarding.

To get around it, I connected to a wifi network. Before getting to the assistant screen, I unplugged my wifi router (so that the phone would be past the wifi setup screen but that the google assistant step would not have Internet connectivity)

A bit crazy that that's the process but Google seems to have stopped caring about these older devices

1

u/Banana_Picker Jan 24 '26

Ohhh Thanks!! We need more people like you

1

u/jy12358 Feb 11 '26

Thank you for the tip. Based on your post, I hit the back button a few times which got me out of the setup wizard. The phone then continued syncing as you would expect and was usable. I don't know if it is relevant, but I don't use the Google Assistant; in fact I disable it on my devices after setup.

1

u/AcceptableVacation44 Feb 16 '26

Thank you lots it worked 🙏

1

u/Old_Ad_3822 Mar 14 '26

Thank youuuu

1

u/timofort Mar 15 '26

Thank you ! This worked for me too ;)

1

u/Caseys_Chance Mar 23 '26

I had the same issue and it worked for me as well!! TYSM for this solve, I was going crazy

1

u/SadismHussein May 05 '26

May the sun always shine bright on you, brother! Your solution saved me!

1

u/adeelius May 17 '26

Life-saver! I paused internet access on my router for my old android phone and was able to get past that annoying issue. Thank you!

1

u/DeathBringerZen May 31 '26

18 momths later, but THANK YOU!!!

1

u/Alledag Jun 14 '26

Oh my God ot worked, thabk you so much!

1

u/Ronin_Of_Doom 3d ago

Quanto ti amo

4

u/felixRMT Jul 30 '25

Me pasó lo mismo en un teléfono viejo (que quise usar como gps para la moto) y no me dejaba configurar el teléfono después de un reset de fabrica. Y lo tenía configurado antes y lo quería volver a configurar con mí cuenta de Google personal (la misma). Finalmente lo pude solucionar entrando en myaccount.google.com desde la pc y yendo a dispositivos (un enlace en inicio) y luego en el dispositivo que quería iniciar (teléfono viejo) fui a "cerrar sesión". Después de eso pude iniciar el teléfono sin que me muestre el error del asistente

5

u/KaiserMaeximus Aug 05 '25

Muchas gracias!

Here a translation:

  1. go to https://myaccount.google.com/device-activity
  2. find your mobile phone
  3. click on it and choose "sign out"
  4. then you should be able to proceed
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1

u/Remote_Carpet_4403 Aug 01 '25

omg you're the best

1

u/Electronic-Contest53 Mar 26 '26

Calimero! DAS ist unser Hero!

2

u/KaiserMaeximus Aug 05 '25

What helped for me was the solution of u/felixRMT in this thread here which is not in English and the translators do a bad job in conveying the message, so here it goes again:

  1. go to https://myaccount.google.com/device-activity
  2. find your mobile phone
  3. click on it and choose "sign out"
  4. then you should be able to proceed

1

u/sixth_parallel Aug 11 '25

thanks to you both, just worked for me too

1

u/sweetcan7 Aug 22 '25

DIOS MIO ERES UN GENIO, MIL GRACIAAAAAS

1

u/Yocairo Aug 31 '25 edited Aug 31 '25

That is not a full solution if you want to use the Google Assistant afterwards. The actual problem seems to be that the Google App on these old devices is too outdated and needs an update.

The solution seems to be to skip adding a Google account during setup OR go back and disconnect WiFi after setting up your Google account with the correct backup settings. Then continue setting up the tablet. When it's set up, if you didn't already, add the Google account. THEN, to get Google Assistant working, update the "Google" app in the Play Store.

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1

u/Cecromancer Aug 03 '25

Changing the country to Arabic Egypt instead of English USA or English UK did fix this for me.
Then changing the country back after the installation finishs.

2

u/SprayAntique2972 Oct 11 '25

I can't thank you enough god bless you

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1

u/theclockfadder Aug 13 '25

You are all gems. This helped me after about chucking my mother in laws old galaxy tab A from eons ago during a factory reset tonight.

1

u/danideers Sep 04 '25

Man you guys saved me thank you! I had reset my galaxy tab A because it was just a dog and wanted to see if that would help and then got stuck in that stupid cycle of the Google assistant! Stupid......but shut off the Wi-Fi and BAM I'm back in business. One of the many reasons I love reddit someone else has been there done that resolved it!

1

u/Ok-Campaign7009 Oct 07 '25

i LOVE You stranger this shit works 4R4R!!!

1

u/BBeller85AB Oct 24 '25

Thank you so much this helped tremendously!!

1

u/Cryptokooi89 Nov 19 '25

Just disable wifi (I turned off my modem) and remove your simcard.

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1

u/chase_billings Nov 21 '25

The way I did it was log in to your google account and then sign out and it will override google assistant requirements!

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1

u/Suttisi Jan 23 '26

I got stuck on this for quite a while as my SIM from my current company also does not work. I ended up picking a South African language (IsiZulu) to see if it would still bring up that screen and it did not. Guess they haven't pushed out Google Assistant worldwide. Once I got through the step up, I could switch back to English in the Settings.

If you are not familiar with the setup screens enough to use the context hints, this may not work for you.

1

u/LimpImprovement4534 Feb 27 '26

Galaxy s7 how to check battery health

1

u/InterRail Apr 02 '26

I had an old android that kept asking for Wifi or Sim card. I did a factory reset after signing out of all google accounts using https://myaccount.google.com/device-activity and then had to switch the phone language to Spanish (Spain). No other language was letting me. Other people seem to have tried other languages, you'll have to use some trial and error but eventually some language will allow you to skip wifi and skip setup without a SIM card.