"It looks like someone else is using your account"

I have had my Xbox account setup with my work email and phone number ever since i have had an Xbox. I have recently changed jobs so updated my phone number and email address which is linked to my account to my new email and phone number.

[...]due to critical safety information being changed on my account (me updating my email and phone number) and i needed to wait 30 days until my new email and phone number would be accepted. Only then would i be able to log into my account.

Has anyone else had this?

[...]

I'm locked out of my account. Turns out Microsoft does that for you anyway. Should of just left it alone.

This only happens, if you didn't have security info on your account (i.e. a phone number or secondary email), or don't have access to the existing security info to confirm ownership or the change of security info.

If Microsoft were able to send you the verification code for the change to a working email or phone number that was present on the account before you changed emails and phone numbers, then the change would have been done immediately after you could confirm
the code.

For security reasons, if *all* your security proofs are changed, and the old ones aren't confirmed, Microsoft will stall this change for 30 days. Just imagine the following scenario: A hacker got access to your Microsoft Account, but does not have access
to your phone or secondary email. They add their own phone and email, to be able to recover your account eventually.

You will get a message to your email informing you of the change. Unless you confirm that change, the hacker is still unable to use his own security information to completely take over your account.

Since you might be on vacation or other reasons prevent you from immediately reacting on that change, the 30 day waiting period is there to hinder account hijacking. So you'll get a full month of time to act against a hacker taking over your account.

Since this is all automatic, the only way the computer system can differentiate you from a hacker is by confirming your old security info. Also, in the past the support agents were (ab-)used by account hijackers that wanted to speed up the take over, so
the support can't help you speeding up the change, otherwise they might also be helping a hacker to hijack your account.

So for future changes: Make sure that you still have access to your "old" security information,
before you add new security info. That way your changes will be immediate.

Additionally, I'd recommend you enable Two Step Verification and set up the free Authenticator App on your smartphone.

That way you have a third way to authenticate yourself to the service and make security changes on your account more immediate.

You can set up and change the Two Step Verification setting at
https://account.live.com/Proofs/Manage

I've changed my email address and phone number without being locked out from my account. Maybe it is the way you did it, IIRC, I added my new contact info and verified them before removing the old ones. Have you tried going to the web site to check and/or
change your settings there?

https://account.microsoft.com/account/manage-my-account

Good luck!

You always have the possibility to change your account data like the email address associated with it or the phone number. For more info: https://support.xbox.com/en-US/my-a...nt/change-email-sign-in-for-microsoft-account

So I suggest you to contact xbox support and sort this issue out: http://support.xbox.com/contact-us

It maybe glitch in the system, did you look at recent login activity, there you may find out if your account has been breached. Make sure to make your password extremely hard to figure and add secruity proofs to avoid problems with your mircsoft account.
Just go to my account and sercure your account or you can go to account management to do it on your xbox or website. Good luck.

Hi there.

Only methods stated in the account recovery are sufficient enough to re-gain access to the account for security reasons.

If you don't have the information requested, it will be extremely hard to regain access to the account. You can attempt to speak to Microsoft Support, but they may not authorise it without this information.

I am very sorry to hear that you're having this problem, and I hope it can be resolved.

Happy Gaming!

UN Clan Control

Xbox Community Ambassador

Enforcement United

Surely there has got to be some alternative means to verifying my account. I have spent so much money on Xbox purchases. It will be absolutely unacceptable if Microsoft causes me to lose all of that money because I am unable to answer a 10 year old security
question and provide sufficient enough information for an automated computer system to allow me to proceed in the process.



There will be no happy gaming here if this cannot be resolved.