Sharing Xbox Live Gold membership - A similar but different question - please read

Hi Sasnuke,

I've read over the thread and with the help from Arminator and everyone else on the thread, it seems like you've got it down on what you need to to do make sure User A and B are both happy and can play online together. I would also just like to point out
that if User C ever does want to play online with the other Users, then User C would need to subscribe to Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to join party chats and play multiplayer. I'm sure you are aware of that but I just wanted to make sure in case
User C also wants to join in with User A or B.

Please let us know if the setup was successful or if you have any other questions!

[...]I think Microsoft makes this harder than it needs to be, in turn making me make it harder than it needs to be. [...]

Well, the thing is, that most people make the mistake of thinking you share to other people. This Home Console setting is actually intended, so that a family with a console can play everyone else's game on the family's "Home Console".

It's a compromise between publishers not wanting their games to be played by multiple people at the same time, and not giving digital buyers a disadvantage over disc-buyers that can easily let other family members play from that disc. Because with that Home
Console sharing and the owner being able to unlock that game through his account on any console, you basically get two copies of a game for the price of one.

Unfortunately, a lot of blogs and websites describe the "Home Console" as "game sharing", and people think they can share their games to other people, while in fact they can only share to a specific console.

As long as you can understand that difference, the rest is actually quite easy.

[...]

#1. Xbox A should be set as the Home Xbox for User B (non Gold member) as this is the console that User A (Gold member) uses all the time.

#2. Xbox B should be set as the Home Xbox for User A (Gold member) as this is the console that User B (non Gold member) uses all the time.

#3. Xbox C should be set as the Home Xbox for User C (non Gold member) as this is the console that User C uses all the time.

I realize the above looks like a dogs dinner of an explanation, but can someone confirm if I have this correct based on lines #1, #2, and #3 above...

You understood it and what I read, this seems about right.

The most important part seems to be Players A and B, and their consoles A and B.

With #1 You're right, that console B needs to be Home Console of User A, as B wishes to play online multiplayer and A's games on his B console.

The other two are optional, but correct.

Only if B has games that A wishes to play on his console A while B is not around, you need to set Console A as B's Home Console.

If no one else needs to play C's games, you don't have to set any Home Console for C, as the first console that C signs in on, automatically beomes C's Home Console.

As long as C is connected online, they always have access to their own games and memberships, no matter on which console they play.

If however, C wishes to play disconnected from the internet (completely offline), they can only do that on a "Home Console".

Thanks for the simplified response Sly.

I think in your first few sentences you addressed that my scenario #1 is doable.

As for game sharing, I really only need Xbox A & B to game share.

Xbox C, that is mine, I really don't care if it game shares or not...it could never game share and I wouldn't care.

Right now Xbox C is the Home Xbox for user A...which is likely not a good idea.

I think I have 2 or 3 switches left on user A's account...so really I should put it back to Xbox A or B as the Home Xbox.

Correct. Set the home xbox as the one with the gold account (user A) uses the least. since Users B + C don't have gold. If they log into that console they can play user A content and be online without A having to be logged in. User A can use any console
and can play the games + have gold, so if there is a machine User A uses that rarely B + C touch, never set that as home.

Only possible scenario:

One Xbox must be set as your home box. On that console, any other account can share your games and subscriptions. On the other two consoles only your account can have live, so you must log in with your account on both other consoles. But subscription can't
be shared with other accounts logged in on those consoles. You can have only one home box console. And you can play only one game at the same time on any of the consoles. The only solution is to buy a second Live for your kids to share on the second
console. In that case One of their accounts must be set as a home box. And third is Live for every box with its own account.

Thank you for your kindness and I hope I was gentle. My greetings to the big Xbox family!

Hi Sasnuke

Welcome to the Xbox forums! I'd be happy to help answer your questions for you and explain how sharing works.

Overall, it's best to understand that the Xbox Live Gold membership is not tied down to any specific console but instead, it is the account that authenticates ownership of the subscription and therefore the account which is paying for the subscription can
play online on any console that they log into regardless which console is the "Home" Xbox. Scenario 1 would only work if the user which is paying for the subscription is actively signed in alongside any other account which is playing on that console. In any
case, I would always recommend a login passkey to avoid any unwanted sign-ins to an account.

Scenario 2 would only work with two specific consoles since the Home Xbox designation is only limited to 5 switches per year, therefore the 3rd console would not be able to be online with any of the other 2 consoles since the 3rd console would not be set
as the home Xbox of the account which is paying for the subscription. So you can have two consoles benefitting from Xbox Live Gold features concurrently but you cannot switch between all 3 freely. I would recommend setting the sharing up for the two most used
consoles since the membership is associated with the Microsoft account which purchased it and not the console it was first used on, in this case, your example of Xbox A. this is, of course, assuming the account which is paying for the subscription would be
one of the accounts signed in and playing. This is because the account can only share to 1 console.

Any other questions you may have should be answered from the following support article: https://beta.support.xbox.com/help/hardware-network/console/my-home-xbox