I am trying to bring back my old Android phone, Samsung Galaxy S2 9100. The replacement of replacement of the original battery died. After a bit of scouting around, found one in a neighbourhood shop.
The phone, after 3 years of hard use was full of photos and apps. I decided to start from a clean slate with a factory reset and media wipe. On reboot, I discovered I could not add my Google account. This is even after I have upgraded to 31 Jan 15 build with GApps dated 12 Apr 15. Every time I add the Google account, after the T&C page and the SMS pin, I ended up in the security settings of the Google account.
After some searching, the root cause is the 2FA.
The solution: Disable the SMS authentication.
The account addition completes. The root cause is there is in the build of the nightly. After I have upgraded to 1 May’s version, this problem went away.
Problem number two. I can sync the Contacts, Browser can access Gmail, but the Play Store simply refuse to connect. Turns out that I have Automatic Date and Time enabled. This takes the time from the LAN network and the older version of Play store did not like that.
The solution: Set date and time, clear Google Play Store and Play Services.
Thereafter, Play Store can be accessed. Again this is caused by the older build version of the nightly or GApps. After I have upgraded, the problem went away.
There you have it, that is how you revive an old Android phone. The problems are mostly caused by the implementation of old CyanogenMod based build and GApps.