It may so happen that you have bought a new Xbox Console or accidentally deleted your profile, which means that all your game data, score, profile picture, badges are missing. At these times, you might get into a panic that though all your profile is on the Xbox Live Online Account, but how do you get it on the console. The excellent news is Xbox has a recovery system in place to Recover Xbox Gamertag online and offline. The method differs between the Xbox One and Xbox 360. If you are still using Xbox 360, please check it accordingly.
How to Recover Xbox Gamertag Online and Offline on Xbox One
While Xbox One offers an option to create an offline profile, the option is not available anymore. Any profile you create on Xbox One should be connected with a Microsoft account. That said, if you have forgotten your Gamertag and want to recover it, the only way is to use the same Microsoft account. You can finger out the Gamertag either from the Xbox Website or on Console or Windows 10 computer.
While you can use any of the methods, you should know the email and password for that Microsoft account.
Using Xbox Website
- Go to Xbox.com and sign in with the Microsoft account
- Click on the profile picture on the top right.
- You should see your Xbox Gamertag on top of your email id.
- To manage further, you can click on the Xbox Profile link. It will display only Xbox-related content.
Using the Xbox One Console
- Press the Guide button to open the mini-guide on Xbox
- Navigate to the extreme right, and click on the profile icon.
- Right under that, you should have all the profiles available on the console.
- Click on it to sign in, and all data related to your profile should be available.
- If you cannot see your profile, click on the Sign-in option, and use the Microsoft account.
- Once you are signed in, Xbox One will download all Gamertag-related content.
Using Windows 10 PC
If you use the Xbox account on Windows 10 PC to play games, you need to use the Xbox App. As soon as you launch it, it will use the Microsoft account of that Windows account and sign in. Click on the hamburger menu on the top left, and it will reveal your Xbox Gamertag. If you are using a local account in Windows 10, you need to connect to a Microsoft account or use an account when prompted by the Xbox App.
How to Recover Xbox Gamertag Online and Offline on Xbox 360
- Recovering an Xbox Gamer Tag, which is associated with an online Xbox Live Account.
- Recovering a profile created on Xbox and never connected online.
1] Recovering Xbox Gamertag Online
- Press the Xbox button to open the Xbox Guide Menu, and then sign out of your profile.
- Then press the blue X button on your controller. It will sign you out if any profile is currently signed in.
- Then you will see a new menu option that says Recover Gamer Tag. It is available right under the Create Profile Menu.
- Make sure you are connected to the Internet.
- Next, you will be asked to sign in to your Xbox Profile using your account credentials.
- Once validated, you should see the message ” Downloading Profile. Please Wait”.
- Depending on how much data your profile has, which again depends on the number of games played, it might take some time, which can be between 10 Minutes to sometimes 30 minutes.
- Once Recovery is complete, You should see your Gamertag with a message “The account has been recovered to the console; you can now use it to sign in to Xbox Live.”
2] Recover Xbox Gamertag using Offline Xbox Profile
It is possible to take a backup on a USB drive or any storage by moving it. To bring it back to your console :
- Plugin in your storage device to Xbox console
- Go to System Settings > Memory Unit and choose the one you have plugged in.
- Get inside it and select the Gamer Profile Folders.
- Select the profile you want to move to and then move from the next option.
- Then you will need to select the drive where you want to move. Once done, you should be able to load your profile from that storage drive.
Warning:
- Make sure you do not turn off your console; else, this will fail, and you might have to start again.
- It is possible that if your storage device is new and has never been used before, Xbox will format it to make it compatible with Xbox File System.
We hope the steps were easy to understand, and you were able to recover your Xbox Gamertag if you lost it.
How do I recover my Xbox Gamertag without email?
You cannot. Xbox Gamertag is always associated with a Microsoft Account which cannot be created without an email id. At one time, there was a point where you can use Gamertag to recover the account, but not anymore.
Can you look up Xbox Gamertags?
Yes, you can. Go to Change Xbox Gamertag and signing with your Xbox Account. It will then give you an input box to type the Gamertag and check for its availability.
How do you find your Xbox Live ID?
On your Xbox Console, go to Settings > System > Console info. Xbox Live Device ID and Console ID, along with others, will be listed.
Is Xbox Gamertags free now?
The first Xbox Gamertag is free. After that, every change is charged $10
How to recover your Xbox account if you don’t remember the password to your account but you know the email to the account
Xbox account is same as Microsoft account i.e. the email. You can reset from the official link https://account.live.com/password/reset
Hello, can you give me the steps to recover my son’s gamertag for Xbox one S please?
It’s going to be the same.
Hi, I did a factory reset (but keeping all apps etc) and when we sign in, we can’t find the original info/gamertag. How can I check which email address I used to sign up with originally? Thanks
That would be difficult to figure out. Do you have a PC? or Can you check with the browser if there is a Microsoft Account or Email id there?
How can I get into my account if they won’t let me verify myself since I no longer have the console to provide them the xbox live id?
I had the same problem. I used a program called “Xbox 360 Backup and Restore” to back up my gamertag and it worked great.
This guide was super helpful! I never realized I could recover my Xbox Gamertag offline too. The step-by-step instructions made it so easy to follow. Thanks for sharing!