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What is the procedure to change email account which you want to use to make in-app purchase?

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I am using 2 Gmail accounts and only 1 has a credit card attached. The primary account has a credit card, the secondary does not. But my secondary account is always in the payment dialogue. The secondary account is also not the account used in Play Store app.

I found no way to change this email.

6 Answers 6

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To do so, you must install the app from the same google account from which you want to make the in-app purchase. Follow these steps,

  1. Uninstall the app on the phone.
  2. Go to the Play Store site in your web browser and find the app. Make sure you're logged into the website with the right account!
  3. Install the app through the Play Store by clicking on ‘Install’ button (and selecting your phone).
  4. Wait a minute until the app is installed on your device.
  5. Make the in-app purchase.
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  • 5
    How do we do this as a developer compiling to the phone to test purchases? Commented May 7, 2015 at 11:03
  • 1
    This doesn't work in 2021 Commented Jul 31, 2021 at 3:13
  • This seems to be the only solution left that works in September 2022. Commented Sep 4, 2022 at 5:31
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I was having the same problem, and all the other answers didn't solve the problem. However I figure a solution to solve the problem. Please note this works specifically for games, but I have a theory near the end that it will then allow you install apps with the right account.

The problem lies with what account the downloaded and installed application is associated with. To check which account it is, go to the play store, switch to the account you expect it to be in and then go to the "My Apps & Games". Then pick the secondary tab "All". If the game doesn't appear in this list, then this is the reason you are having a problem. Keep switching accounts and you will eventually find which account it is associated with.

Now let's fix which account it is associated with:

  1. First you need to uninstall the game.
  2. Then you need to remove the game from the account that it is associated with.
    • You do this by doing the same steps as above for checking, then afterwards you need to press the cross ("x") button in the top-right corner to remove it.
  3. Open (or download, install then open) the Google Play Games app.
  4. Make sure you are logged into the correct account (on both Google Play Games and Google Play Store) you want the game to be associated with by using the hamburger menu on the top-left.
  5. Find the game you want to play, and then click on the store button (normally the button would read open if it was already installed).
  6. Install as normal.
  7. Open the game and you'll see you can now make in-app purchases to the right account. :D

The steps above seem to force the play store to make sure it associates the game with the right account. I have a theory that after you have done the steps above, you can then search for a regular application and install it and it should be associated with the same account... and will then allow you to do in-app purchases too. I haven't tested this however, since I only needed it to work for games - so feel free to leave comments if my theory is correct.

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    Please upvote this answer. An apponce installed will linked with your account. Removing this link from google store library first before switching to another account.
    – boh
    Commented Sep 1, 2018 at 0:15
  • Followed every step, twice: did not work.
    – Bastes
    Commented Feb 27, 2019 at 10:19
  • Did any of the other solutions help you? How many Google accounts do you have added to your device? The sure fire way to fix it is to remove all other accounts, uninstall, reboot, reinstall, and check if in-app works. Then add the other accounts back in.
    – hazrpg
    Commented Feb 28, 2019 at 14:26
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You need to switch to the proper account in the Play Store app (you may need to add the account under Settings -> Accounts -> Add account -> Google -> Existing, if you haven't done so already.)

Tap on the "hamburger" button in the upper-left corner of the Play Store app (the shopping icon,) then tap on the down arrow next to your account to expand it, and select your other account:
tap on the arrow

You should now be able to purchase apps using the proper account.

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    That's my point. My primary account with credit card is already activated in Play Store app. And in some apps primary account is pulled (most of times), while in some secondary. I've just changed account to secondary and opened my favourite game and tried purchasing, and in-app window still pulled primary account. Can you try it on your device? I am running S5 with KitKat.
    – AnDroDroo
    Commented May 30, 2014 at 5:54
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    @androdroo Have you by any chance installed the apps that pull up the "wrong" account while logged in under that account? If so, try uninstalling them and reinstalling under the proper account.
    – Chahk
    Commented May 30, 2014 at 10:52
  • I have installed the app from APK from my sdcard. not via Play Store.
    – AnDroDroo
    Commented May 31, 2014 at 7:45
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    Doesn't work at all
    – Shehabic
    Commented Aug 4, 2014 at 22:09
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    If the app has already got associated with the wrong account, reinstalling it from the on-device Play store won't fix it. You need to use the web Play store.
    – poolie
    Commented Oct 31, 2016 at 20:13
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I am assuming that you want to switch to your secondary email account in all your apps, which means removing your primary account permanently from the phone (though you can add it later again). In KitKat, if you want to switch to your secondary email, in all of your apps, you need to remove the primary email account from phone.

Go to Settings -> Accounts -> (your primary account) Now tap on options button, and select remove account.

Reboot the phone, so that the primary account gets removed from all your accounts.

If you don't want to remove your primary account, and you want to switch to your secondary account only in Google play app, see the other answers.

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I actually tried many of these suggestions and none of them worked. I have a business account linked to my play store account so it was causing a lot of issues. If none of these suggestions work for you the only thing that fixed it for me was going into my Gmail app and removing that Gmail email address that I didn't want it defaulting to from my list of emails. I can always add the email back but it immediately solved the issue. Hope this helps someone who was having the same issues as me. 👍

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Go to Settings>Accounts&Sync>(e-mail)>Remove_Account.

This is if you do not want to re-install the game.

You can just re-add your e-mail account later.!

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