Again: Gamertag remains active after 5 years of inactivity

Matheus Willder · Aug 1, 2020

Earlier today I asked a question here:
Gamertag remains active after 5 years of inactivity and I got an answer was marked as an answer and the topic was locked, but it does not answer the question.

I know there are serious moderators here. Please see the topic that has been locked and please reopen it or reply here. As I said there, the main question is: Why is the gamertag still active even after so long since the account has been closed?

Sorry to create another topic with the same question, but the other one was locked without me even seeing the answer and I don't want to leave here without a satisfactory answer.

:)

Smwutches

Please refrain from creating duplicate threads.

No one here can say exactly why it hasn't been released. The 5 year policy you mentioned in your previous thread started in 2016 (which means the 5 years would be 2021) and was changed on August 20, 2019 to 2 years if the person does not sign into their
Microsoft account within 2 years (still 2021). So if the system is going to free it up based on the terms of service, it won't be freed up until next year, but as stated in your original post, it would not be possible to change your tag to that one anymore
since it is over 12 characters.

HomegrownSilky

You wouldn't be able to use that as a gamertag anymore because it exceeds the new 12 character limit for gamertags.

killerkaesar

Xbox accounts that remain inactive after 5 years are not recoverable, if there is not activity in that time the account will be deleted

killerkaesar

Xbox accounts that remain inactive after 5 years are not recoverable, if there is not activity in that time the account will be deleted

Also there is no way to combine the achievements of both accounts.

bowski477

Unfortunately you cannot request the gamertag if it is already in use. However the user is required to sign in once every 5 years for the account to remain active. If they do not it may become available in the future. Remember that there are other MS services
that use MS accounts and gamertags. So just because it's not active on Xbox does not mean it is inactive.

Again: Gamertag remains active after 5 years of inactivity