Game/Account Mismatch = I'm Locked Out

Kr0ozin · Nov 19, 2021

I spent over three hours on the phone with support today, and they weren't any help at all, so I'm really hoping someone here might be able to help so I don't lose access to my account. The series of events is a bit confusing, so I'll try to be as clear and concise as possible.

My main Xbox account (I'll refer to it as main from now on) was made with an old work email address years ago (dumb, I know)

After leaving that job I made a new account with my personal email (I'll refer to this one as alt from now on), but then realized I couldn't transfer over everything, so I kept using the old one

Last night, I saw Xbox was allowing Gamer Tag changes, so I tried to change mine from to Kroozin. What I didn't realize is that would add a bunch of numbers to my name in Sea of Thieves

So, I sucked it up and paid the $10 to change it back to

Shortly after, I decided to finally fix the email issue

I went into the alt account, added a different email address, and removed my personal email address

I went into the main account, and added my personal email to it

Then, I went to log into my main account using my personal email

I was able to log into the Xbox app, but when I try to play Sea of Thieves, it tells me my account doesn't have the game, and I have to log into the Microsoft Store

When I try to log into the Microsoft store, I was getting an error with no explanation or code, just "Try again later".

After a couple hours with support and reinstalling the Store 3-4 times, I'm now able to log into the store.

The store says I have Sea of Thieves on my account, but I get the same error every time I try to launch the game.

That's about as much detail as I can think of, but if more information of some sort would help, I'd be happy to provide it. Xbox support essentially threw up their hands and gave up, so I'm praying someone here can help me so I don't lose thousands of hours of progress!

Thanks in advance for any advice!

:)

Francia J.

Hi, I hope you're doing great out there despite the issue that you're experiencing. I am an Independent advisor and I am here to help you in regards to your concern.

I am happy that it’s working now. Stay healthy and safe! Thank you for sharing the solution here.

Kr0ozin

Welp, update #2, I got it working!

The solution, in case anyone runs into this issue again, was to remove the old/duplicate account from the Windows setting, as described here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-do-i-remove-an-account-from-microsoft-store/7b8f44aa-d9db-426b-8f84-90d1440d1ff8

Kr0ozin

Update: I found an old laptop that was still logged into the main account with the old, removed email address. Sea of Thieves launches without issue, pretty much confirming something is wrong with the email swap.

However, it now won't let me re-add the old email address, saying "You can't add a school or work email". Any advice?

Edit: One more thing. When I try to log into the Microsoft store, it offers two accounts, both with the same (my personal) email address. The first one gives me the error "We encountered an error. Please try signing in again later." while also offering to email a code to the email address that I removed. The other logs in successfully, but the game still won't launch.

ngocphi

german account + austria physical location = region mismatch therefore region lock

austrian account + austrian location = download

ngocphi

Because support does not know which games are region locked

From other posts it is region locked because they get the mismatched regions

FYI for the best experience with xbox live your account region must match your actual region

Game/Account Mismatch = I'm Locked Out