"This gamertag isn't allowed" for an acceptable gamertag

Jafoolycake · May 18, 2022

I want to change my gamertag to one I had a few years ago on an old account, so I got an agent on live chat to help me get access to that old account so I could swap the gamertag out and free it up for use.

Removing the gamertag from my old account was done successfully on April 21st but I've not since been able to update my primary account to use the now freed gamertag.

Instead, each time I go to change the gamertag on https://social.xbox.com/changegamertag I get a red error of "This gamertag isn't allowed. Try a different one."

I spoke with someone on the "Microsoft Virtual Agent" chat about it and what they said was:

"Based on further checking, there are 2 options why the gamertag is not allowed: First is that the gamertag violates the Xbox Community standards and the second one is that the system detects that there is another meaning of it. We suggest you use a different one like changing the letter "O" into number zero, or the letter "E" to number 3"

However the agent did agree with me that there's nothing wrong with the username and said:

"I understand that there is no profane or anything that could break the Community standards, however that is only the possible reason why your desired gamertag is not allowed"

The gamertag I'm attempting to update my primary account to is a username that I made up myself about 13 years ago that I use for my online/gaming/streaming presence and which is unique to me.

Since the automatic filter on that site seems to reject the username, how can I get this manually reviewed? I used to have it on my old profile so surely it should be possible...

:)

Lucas Lauer

I understand you frustration, but you can try to contact Xbox Official Support and the Support Advocate will tell you the same thing:

https://support.xbox.com/contact-us/

I'm not a Microsoft or Xbox employee. I'm just a user helping other users.

Lucas Lauer

I understand you frustration, but nothing you, me or any Xbox or Microsoft employee can do about this.

Lucas Lauer

You can try to wait a few hours or some days to see if you still get that error message. Maybe it's a glitch since the gamertag was removed from your old account very recently.

But if you continue to get this error, unfortunately there's nothing you can do. There's no manual review for gamertags.

Jafoolycake

The actual username I'm trying to get for my gamertag is "" (same as my username on the forum) so I can't imagine why that wouldn't be allowed, especially as I've had it already on the previous account (where I changed it to free it up).

Surely it can't just be a case of "well that's just how it is" when, and I think you'll agree, it's clearly not an offensive username.

Lucas Lauer

Hello, Jafoolycake. Thanks for reaching out! My name is Lucas, and I'm an Independent Advisor and a Microsoft user just like you. I'll be happy to assist you today.

If the system reports the gamertag as not being allowed, there's nothing that can be done about it. Unfortunately, there's no "manual review" for a gamertag. You will need to try a different one.

You can try to talk to the Xbox Support again but the Support Advocate will probably tell you the same thing:

https://support.xbox.com/contact-us/

If you need anything else or have any other question, please let me know.

"This gamertag isn't allowed" for an acceptable gamertag