Reserving a Gamertag from an inactive account?

Madbank64131 · Aug 6, 2022

I used to have two accounts, one named Madbank6, and the other named Madbank7. I somehow lost access to my Madbank6 account, which is why I have the Madbank7 account... and about a year or two ago, I regained access to, and deleted the Madbank6 account, in order to make Madbank7 my main account, and I wanted to change my Gamertag to Madbank6, which is what I've been known by on other platforms.

Currently, my Gamertag is Madbank6#4131 ( in-game, which is a mouthful), so basically I want to get rid of the extra id numbers at the end of my name. I've been recommended to make a post about this by customer support, and they've noted that I should request to reserve my gamer tag. Apparently, Microsoft released inactive Gamertags once in 2016, so maybe that could happen again sooner or later? That being said, I would like to reserve Madbank6 as my gamer tag. It's not too big of a problem, I just want to maintain consistency if anything... If that doesn't work, or if it's too much trouble, I'd be willing to change my Gamertag back to Madbank7.

(I'm not sure if Microsoft is willing to release inactive Gamertag individually, but if they are, that'd be cool. Either way, the support was pretty helpful in explaining the whole thing)

:)

Smwutches

Unfortunately support gave you incorrect information. There is no way to reserve a gamertag (if there were, support would have been the ones to do it). And yes, there was a mass release of gamertags in 2016, but that will be the last mass release. They changed a policy with that release that if a person doesn't sign into their Xbox account within 5 years, the gamertag will be released.

Oraclea

Hi, sorry to say that a gamertag cannot be reserved.
A gamertag will get released if its corresponding Microsoft account is inactive for 5 years; however, the user of an account might still log in on other Microsoft services besides Xbox, and if that's the case, the account would not be considered inactive.

gds1972

Hi

As the gamertag is already tied to another account there is nothing that can be done to allow you to take this gamertag. If an account is inactive for a sufficient period of time (five years I believe) then Microsoft reserve the right to release the gamertag
for other gamers to select it again.

WPAK

Hi there,

as far as I know there is no way to reserve a gamertag in the case it will be released.

Also keep in mind that as another user there no way to tell if an account has been inactive or not. When people hide their activity nothing will be shown for others, which may look as someone being inactive.

Internet Expert

There is no way to reserve gamertags, as no such specific system exists. All gamertags are on a first-come, first-serve basis. If it has already been taken, you will have to choose another name.

The only way to "reserve" a gamertag is to create a new Microsoft account with that gamertag (if you plan on starting fresh), or pay the fee to change your gamertag on your existing Microsoft account.

Gamertags are released if a user does not log on to their Microsoft account for five straight years, as that is how Microsoft purges inactive accounts from their systems. Some people may not have an Xbox profile, but they still keep their Microsoft account
active through other Microsoft services (email, Office, etc). There is no way to check the remaining time (before termination) of any given account.

Reserving a Gamertag from an inactive account?