What happened to my Windows Live gamertag?


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A few months ago I was playing GTA:IV on PC - this, along with several other games I own demands that I log in to Games For Windows Live and it then records achievements etc.

My problem is, I've not played GTA:IV or those other games for a few months, but I want to start playing them again. When I try to login to my Games For Windows account using the only Windows Live ID I have, it tells me there's no gamertag associated. When I try to sign up again for my gamertag, it tells me it's taken (by me, obviously!)

My question is, is there a way for me to re-link my gamertag with my Windows Live ID? I don't care about losing the achievements particularly on this occasion, but it seems pretty sloppy of Microsoft if every time I don't play one of their GfW games on a regular basis, I lose my entire GfW profile and gamertag noexpression.gif

Any help much appreciated!

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Yeah, this happened to me as well. I was a beta tester for Xbox Live on the original Xbox, but I let my account lapse during the upgrade to a 360. I believe that after 6 months of inactivity, gamertags expire. I fought with Microsoft for a few weeks back and forth through e-mail, but they insisted there's nothing you can do. Sorry.

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So your gamertag still exists? As in you can find it on xbox.com...

I always though that if your email expired you could just assign your gamertag to a new one.

Ok, yeah it seems like you can't which is pretty bad....

http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/02/19/windows-live-id-s-and-gamertags.aspx?PageIndex=4

Edited by mad_onion
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So your gamertag still exists? As in you can find it on xbox.com...

I always though that if your email expired you could just assign your gamertag to a new one.

The gamertag still exists because when I go to sign up for Games for Windows again using my Live ID, it informs me the gamertag is already taken when I press 'check availability'.

My email/Windows Live ID hasn't expired - I still use it regularly for email/WL Messenger etc - I just haven't used the gamertag for a few months because I've not played any Games for Windows games in that time.

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Happened to my sister on Xbox Live (which is the same thing, as XBL and GFWL are linked) she didn't used her account for 6+ months and it didn't work anymore. Nothing you can do about it, you'll need to create another Gamertag, sorry (I suspect MS did this on purpose to stop people squatting on Gamertags).

EDIT: I just remembered, try recovering the Gamertag that might work (you'll need to associate it to another email address though).

Edited by Xerxes
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EDIT: I just remembered, try recovering the Gamertag that might work (you'll need to associate it to another email address though).

Any idea how to do that, Xerxes? I see XB360 owners can do it using a function on the console itself, but I don't own an XB360 laugh.gif

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Any idea how to do that, Xerxes? I see XB360 owners can do it using a function on the console itself, but I don't own an XB360 laugh.gif

When you sign into GFWL on your PC there should be a option somewhere that says "Recover Gamertag" on the sign in window, I'm not home right now so can't check but start there if you haven't already.

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