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View Full Version : How to use an existing gamertag for a different account



ProgrammingAce
10-15-2008, 05:58 AM
Here was my issue, i had an xbox live account from the xbox1 days called "programmingace" when i switched to the 360, i chose a new name because i didn't want to keep typing something that long so i picked "progace". Eventually i got sick of people asking what my new tag meant, so i wanted programmingace back. I really didn't want to loose all of my save files though.

Since microsoft can't/won't delete an existing account, i couldn't rename "progace" to "programmingace". Or so i thought...

I mentioned the issue to one of the engineers, and he told me of a workaround so i could rename my profile. It costs $20, but it's the only way. Here's what you do:

You have 2 accounts, one with the name you want and one with all your saves and gamescore. We'll call the first one "A" and the second "B".

Recover account A to your console. From the dashboard, highlight your gamertag, hit A. Go to Edit Gamertag. Rename your account to something else (just add a 1 to the end or something), this will cost 800 points. This frees up the name in the database. Xbox Live now thinks the original name is free. Follow the rest of the steps quickly before someone else takes your name.

Sign in with account B. Go to the system blade and select memory, then gamertags. Delete account A (you only need to delete the profile, not the associated files). Follow the steps above to rename account B to what account A originally was.

And that is how you steal the gamertag from an active account.

If anybody needs me, you can find me on xbl as ProgrammingAce.

Darren870
10-15-2008, 07:06 AM
Wish I could do that with my original gamer tag. To bad I forgot to renew once and they canceled the account. Once the account is canceled it can no longer be used.

carlcarlson
10-15-2008, 08:20 AM
That's not the only way. They tried to tell me that same scenario when I first got on Live but I refused to pay the money. I can't remember exactly what I ended up doing, but it was similar to what you did. Both me and my friend did it and it worked.

heybtbm
10-15-2008, 10:29 AM
That's pretty cool. Considering how strict MS is, I'm surprised it works.

Cryomancer
10-15-2008, 12:24 PM
Wish I could do that with my original gamer tag. To bad I forgot to renew once and they canceled the account. Once the account is canceled it can no longer be used.

Same here. Gotta love being punished for deciding I was done playing PSO on xbox like 5 years ago.

ProgrammingAce
10-15-2008, 01:27 PM
Saddly, if you canceled an xbox live account that was only used on an Xbox1 there is no way to recover it and the gamertag is locked for being "in use". I hope someday they'll go through and clean out all the dead accounts...

carlcarlson
10-15-2008, 01:29 PM
Yeah, it's crazy what names are already in use. I tried it be "howdy howdy" and about ten variations on that and they were all taken. I never imagined that would be taken.