Unique Gamertag Claiming

Jiamiao Zhang · Dec 1, 2021

As far as I can understand, when choosing a gamertag, it will assign 4 numbers if it is not unique. This is why when I made my account, I was assigned 4 numbers. I was told by support that there is no gamertag recycling, so if someone has ever used the original gamertag, and subsequent registrations with that tag will result in the 4 numbers. However when I looked around on these forums, there were people say that if nobody uses the tag in 5 years, it will be freed up due to some new policy or something. I used xboxgamertag.com to search up my gamertag without the 4 numbers and it shows that the name is unique. So do tags get freed up and recycled or not? I tried to "claim" the tag by trying to change my gamertag, but it doesn't let me because "You already own that gamertag, if you’re happy with it you don’t need to make any changes." Is there any way to manually change your gamertag from "_____#_ _ _ _" to "_____" without getting this error? The only way I can think up of is to change my tag away from the original and back, but since you only get 1 free change, I would have to pay money to do so. (Without the guarantee that it will work)

:)

Smwutches

I use the Xbox app or Console Companion App. You would look up the tag as if you're looking up a friend and try adding some spaces as well.

Smwutches

Tags do get freed up, but that just recently started so it's possible the tag you're wanting is still in use on the servers.

Checking for tags through that website is not always accurate. The system doesn't see things like spaces as making a gamertag unique. So you could be looking up "gamertag" and it says it's not in use, while it's actually in use as "gamer tag".

In your scenario about changing to the same tag without the numbers, if you are the only one with the tag, you would have to change your tag to something else and then back to the original tag, so yes, you would have to pay to do so.

Smwutches

You would have to try contacting support to see if they can do anything. http://support.xbox.com/contact-us

Harrisameen

So I has hacked and I didn't know because I was on holiday and they changed my name now I have to pay $10 and my dad won't let me so can any one help me please.

Jiamiao Zhang

I checked, and the tag is indeed available, however I will have to pay for 2 name changes unless I want to make a new account.

Unique Gamertag Claiming