Why my xbox gamertag says it is taken or unavaliable even though it is not ?

uebeasd · Jan 30, 2025

So I was trying to change my name on minecraft bedrock . Given I have 2 accounts , before you take any action in changing your xbox gamertag , you have to type the new one and check if it is avaliable or not first , and I used both accounts to check the same username , one of them says its avaliable while the other one says its unavaliable , the one that says unavaliable is the one that I want to change . Is there a reason for this , and any solution ? thank you .

:)

koo carson

I was also having a similiar theory but now its confirmed , thanks so much for the reply !

Smwutches

Give it some time and then try again only with the account you want to change. When you check to see if it's available that way, the system reserves the tag for a short time because it thinks you're about to use it. So it's reserving it for the account you're not wanting to change since you're checking it there. It frees it up again a short while after if you don't use it.

Smwutches

If the system says it's taken, then it's in use somewhere on Microsoft's services. The system doesn't see things like spaces as making a gamertag unique. So looking up "gamertag" may not show up even though it's in use as "gamer tag". The tag system is in
use on other Microsoft services as well, so even if it's not in use on an Xbox, it may be in use somewhere else.

Tarnend

it could also have been used by someone on zune or something like that as the gamertags were all linked at one point, so not sure if thats still the case.

MindOfTim

Unfortunately that means its inactive but claimed. If it stays inactive for a set amount of time I believe it becomes free to use again. I think unfortunately you will have to wait and check periodically and hopefully eventually it will be automatically
cleared for reuse

Why my xbox gamertag says it is taken or unavaliable even though it is not ?