Can you use a gamertag from an account that was deactivated by Microsoft?

Hey Liv!

Nice to meet you! I'm Darhyl, a fellow gamer. I'm sorry you are experiencing this. I am here to help.

To answer your inquiry, if the Xbox account has expired due to inactivity, there is no guarantee that the Xbox gamer tag will be available for the taking as it will most likely go to the Xbox gamer tag recycle vault.

Gamer tags in the recycle vault can't be used by gamers unless Microsoft has announced to release which happens rarely. Here's an example: https://gamerant.com/xbox-live-gamer-tag-releas...

As far as I know you cannot deactive a gamertag. What you can do is free your work email from that gamertag. I'm not sure if it will stop the emails from coming in, but it will free your email from that account/gamertag. If this doesn't stop the emails
I guess you could block MS from sending you emails.

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Steps on how to switch the email associated with the gamertag.

Hi Frankli,

Unfortunately, once an account is made they are there to stay unless you
deactivate them. The other is if it is not used within 5 years it will be deactivated. Have you bought or redeemed anything on the account you do not want to use? If not you can just remove it from the Xbox and use the one you intended to use.

Thanks,

Brad

Hi there, unfortunately there is no way to deactivate a gamertag. Once created it will pretty much stay on the Xbox Live servers until it may get recycled.

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If you would like to use you Microsoft account with your main gamertag in replacement of your gmail account you will need to follow the steps at this link to make it so:

support.xbox.com/.../switch-gamertag-to-different-microsoft-account

Per the Microsoft Terms of Service https://www.microsoft.com/servicesagreement (Section 4, A, ii) if an Xbox account is not signed in a five-year period from the current
agreement it will be deactivated.

Until that time, you will either have to find a different tag, or get one with the new number system.

Gamertags cannot be requested, and Support cannot assist in getting someone a specific gamertag. Keep in mind accounts can be used for more than just Xbox Live.