Friend is online chatting and inviting me to games but APPEARS offline in friends list?

I have the same issue as yours.

I never make it appear offline.

Just suddenly, I become offline while I were playing games and party with friends. In this time, I can't get any invite message if they saw me offline.

But I can invite them.

They said they saw me was playing a game some minutes ago. They saw it from the friends lists.

instead of using the in-game invitation option try inviting from your (his) Xbox friends list.

1 other possibility that could be preventing invitations is that on your Profile you are appearing as Offline.

Same issue. Notification when i log in says I have friends online...which they are, but the appear offline in mt friends list and in games. I can only join a game when they invite me because according to my xbox they are offline! I have checked all my settings,
everything is right....as there are a few of us that this has happened to around about the same time, i'm guessing it's a MS issue??

Yes, entire friends system appears to have gone offline to include party chat and even in game chat due to the entire list showing all users offline.

Hi ,

Let's try to isolate this issue so that we could figure out as to why you and your friends show offline on the Xbox app and Sea of Thieves. It is possible that both of you appear offline in the game because of a network issue. When you checked the network
connection on the Xbox app, can you tell us the NAT type and Server connectivity it shown? Also, have you tried connecting your computers on another network?

In the meantime, let's try to reset the Xbox app by performing the following steps below:

1. Press the Windows key on your keyboard, and then click the Settings icon.
2. Select System, and then select Apps & features.
3. Find the game, and then click on Advanced options.
4. Click Reset.
5. Restart your computer for the changes to take effect

We look forward to our reply.

Checked on both PCs.

NAT Type: Open

Server Connectivity: Connected

I did a reset of the XBox App and Sea of Thieves, restarted the PCs: Same result.

Further, I tried to connect via another network. I used my mobile phone and established an internet connection via USB tethering. NAT Type switches to "Strict" then and the problem persists.

Let me please explain the sympthomes a bit more in detail as they are pretty confusing:

Within the XBox App you have (at least) four instances, where you can see the status of people.

1. Friend List

2. Profiles

3. Party List

4. Invite List (where you can choose to invite to "party" or "game")

Sometimes I see a few people "online" in my friend list or if I click on their profile or if they are in my party. It feels random, as I did not change anything for this to happen.

But:

- Stati in Friend List in my Xbox App was never synchron with the Friend List on the Xbox Website (i.e. on Website: 5 friends online with detailed status; in App: 2 friends online).

- What I see in the Friend List does no match the Profiles. I can see some people in Friend List online, but if I click on their Profile, they appear offline.

- People that where "online" just a second ago, appear "offline" after they joined my party

- Lastly: The Invite List. I never ever saw anybody in that list with any other status than "offline". Sometimes this list is completely empty, sometimes I can see all my friends there, but "offline". I can select an offline friend and click on "(invite to)
party" and they receive the invite and can join. But the "(invite to) game" button remains grayed out, so you can not invite to game. The same Invite List also opens within the game, when you are in the match making screen. There I see everybody "offline"
as well, but you can still send the game invite and they can join. Unfortunatly, once the game/match is started, you can not open this list anymore, but you have to rely on the Invite List in the Xbox App, which has the grayed out buttons.

If I click on "Refresh" in the Xbox App is usually results in a Friend List with everybody "offline", also there are people online (seen on Website). If I click on "Refresh" a second time, I get the error message "Could not display friends now. Please refresh."
almost all the time.