how do i change my gamertag back to my randomly generated one?

Hi Jay, my name is Rodrigo. I'm an Independent Advisor and a member of the Microsoft community and I'd love to assist you today.

The Gamertag policies were updated a few years ago, please take a look here for more information: https://news.xbox.com/2019/06/10/express-yourself-with-new-gamertag-features/

Your old Gamertag "GoldBarrelOwl29" had 15 charcaters, it is not supported anymore.

As for the numbers, this is normal, the new system was designed to be like that.

According to the new Gamer Tag FAQ, this was done to secure the digits for the suffix if needed:

"We require at least 3 characters to auto-assign you a suffix and make sure that everybody has an equal chance to have a name they can be proud of.

Many older games allowed 16 characters for displaying gamertags.

We reserve three of those characters for the suffix and one for the # symbol, leaving 12 characters for Gamertags."

I hope this helps.

Source:

https://support.xbox.com/help/account-profile/profile/gamertag-update-faq

EchoxWindwaker doesn't sound like one of the randomly generated ones.

Newer accounts allow you to put in a gamertag to begin with, but don't grant the name change. Older accounts, with a randomly generated gamertag, get a free name change.

It says I have to pay the fee but I have never changed my gamertag before. I made the account years ago and now I find it embarrassing. Please help!

You only get the free name change if you didnt pick your gamertag when creating your account and were given a randomly generated one.

The gamertag you currently have is not a randomly generated one meaning you picked your gamertag at account creation. This counts as your free gamertag change. Any future gamertag changes will cost money.

You've already used your free gamertag change.

When you first start your account you are given a randomly generated gamertag which you can change to a personal one for free.

If you were charged Microsoft points 7 or 8 years ago then you had already used your free change back then.

You are incorrect. Back then there were NOT any free gamertag changes. I was never given a free gamertag change. All you need to do is check my account and you'll see.

A free gamertag change is only available if you were given a randomly generated tag when you created your account and are changing that tag for the first time. I'm not sure how you were given that tag, but it is not one of the randomly generated ones Microsoft
gives so you would need to pay to change it.