Whether you want to change your gamertag or if you want to start a new gaming journey, you’ve come to the right place. Deleting your Xbox account from Microsoft is not as straightforward as it sounds. A lot of people face a problem when they want to remove their Xbox profile from their Microsoft account, which is that they must delete their whole Microsoft account to make it possible.
Don’t worry. We will guide you on exactly how you can do that, step by step, here in this tutorial. We will also share what happens after you permanently delete your Xbox account and how to get it back if you change your mind. Once you are through with this tutorial, you; ’ll be able to delete or recover your Xbox account easily, sitting on your PC. Here’s how to delete an Xbox account from Microsoft with a PC.
Why Can’t You Keep Your Microsoft Account and Delete Your Xbox Profile?
It is not uncommon for people to wish to remove their Xbox account and keep their Microsoft account. You’ll find many people have brought up this issue in online forums. However, Xbox, along with other Microsoft-owned services like Skype or Office 365, are an integral part of your Microsoft account. While it was once possible to unlink your Skype or similar accounts from your Microsoft profile, it no longer is. If you want to delete your Xbox profile, you will have to delete the entire Microsoft account associated with it. Here are the reasons why you can’t keep your Microsoft account after removing your Xbox account.
They Aren’t Separate Things
Unlike Skype, your Xbox account and your Microsoft account are not separate entities. You need your Microsoft account to sign into your Xbox. Once you sign in using your Microsoft account, the Xbox account you created becomes part of your Microsoft account. They cannot be unlinked. You cannot transfer one Xbox profile between several Microsoft accounts or vice versa because they are the same thing.
Prevent Security Problems
If you could delete or unlink your Xbox profile from your Microsoft profile, then you would lose all your purchases and gaming data. That would be devastating if you did it by accident or if someone hacked your account and deleted it maliciously. To prevent this, you cannot delete your Xbox account without deleting the entire Microsoft account related to it. To do that, you have to verify your identity and confirm your Microsoft password so no one who found your account open could delete anything without your consent.
Make You Use Your Account for Longer
Microsoft recognized that by linking your accounts this way, you end up using your Microsoft account for longer. If you delete your Microsoft account, you delete your Skype, Xbox, and Microsoft accessories and all the data related to it. This keeps you using a single account for much longer. This has become a problem for people who wish to remove their Xbox account from their Microsoft account and keep their Microsoft account intact. If you become wise to this, you can easily make a burner Microsoft account for your Xbox and delete it without any issues.
How to Delete Your Xbox Account
If you want to delete your Xbox account, you’ll have to delete your Microsoft account to do so. Fortunately, Microsoft accounts are easy to make, so you can just make a new one. Here’s how to delete an Xbox profile from Microsoft account on pc:
Log into Microsoft Account
First things first, you’ll have to go to microsoft.com and log into the Microsoft account related to the Xbox account you desire to delete. You can sign in using your email, skype, or phone. You will need to remember your password. Alternatively, you can log in using a security key if you have enabled one for your account. If you have forgotten your password, you can click “Forgot My Password,” and if you forgot your username, you can click “Log in Options” and then click “Forgot my Username.”
My Info
Now that you are logged into your Microsoft account, you’ll need to click on the tab named “Your Info.” You should find this tab on the top bar on the webpage next to “Privacy.” the Your Info tab has information about your profile, like your date of birth, name, region, profile picture, and email address. Here is where you can change your profile or get help from Microsoft regarding your account. Once on the page, scroll down to the end.
How to Close Your Account
Once you scroll down to the end of the Your Info page, you should be able to see a section named “Help with Microsoft account.” In this section, you’ll see different options or tasks like “How to close my account,” or “Change Email for Microsoft account.” You want to click on the option marked “How to close my account.” If you cannot see that option, then click the" Get help with your Microsoft account" option. Once you are on that page, you can type “how to close my account” into the convenient search bar and easily find the option. Once found, click that option.
Ready to close
Once you click on “how to close my account,” You are taken to a page where Microsoft helps you ensure that your account is ready to be closed. On this page, Microsoft lets you know the consequences of closing your account, such as losing your health data or remaining account balances. On this page, you’ll find links to help cancel your active subscriptions, download your health data in HealthVault, delete any Azure Active Directories, check your remaining Skype credit, and set up an automatic email reply for your Outlook mailbox. Read this page carefully and decide if you are ready to delete your Xbox account and its associated Microsoft account.
Click Next
Once you have checked your remaining balance or credits, canceled your subscriptions, and added an automatic email reply for your Outlook email, or if you wish to proceed without taking any of these extra steps, click the “Next” button at the bottom of the webpage. By clicking next, you will be taken to the page where you can delete your Xbox account by deleting the Microsoft account related to it.
Check the Boxes
Now that you are finally on the page where you can delete your account, Microsoft wants to remind you of what you’re losing. You will see a list of services and privileges you can no longer access. Ensure that you are informed of this decision; you’ll have to check all the boxes as you read them. They tell you things like you will not have access to your data stored on the account, services that need this account for signing in, skype, Xbox, OneDrive, Outlook, etc. You will also lose all music, games, and purchases made through this account and some additional functionality. You have to check all the boxes proving to Microsoft you know what you’re getting yourself into. You can always create a new Microsoft account to access all these things again from scratch.
Give a Reason
Microsoft wants to understand why a user would no longer want their Microsoft account. You can tell Microsoft and Xbox why you are deleting your account. This helps them understand what causes accounts to close. You need to click on select a reason and choose one of the provided reasons. There are negative reasons like “This account was hacked,” or neutral reasons like “I have another account and don’t need this one.” You should choose the reason that applies to your situation the closest. Click the chosen reason before proceeding.
Mark Account For Closure
Now that you understand what happens when you delete your Microsoft account and select your reason, you can finally click the “Mark account for closure” button at the bottom of the page. This will mark your account for permanent deletion after sixty days. Now you have deleted your Xbox account but not permanently, yet. You will now see the date on which your account will be permanently deleted.
Permanent Deletion
You can still change your mind. If you log into your Microsoft account like normal within sixty days of marking your account for closure, you can recover your account. To delete your account permanently, you must never log in to your account again. By not logging into your account for the next sixty days, you will allow it to become permanently deleted. If you log in after that, Microsoft will no longer recognize your information related to any account.
What Happens After You Delete Your Xbox Account
After you delete your Xbox account, you will lose any progress made in all the games you played and other data, including all your achievements. However, the games in your Xbox and downloaded data will remain unless you uninstall them. Here is a closer look at exactly what happens:
- You lose all your game progress
- You lose all your in-game currency
- You lose all your subscriptions and third-party services attached to the Xbox account
- You lose all your DLCs, and aesthetic game purchases disappear
That is why if you wish to delete your Xbox account from your Microsoft account so you have a separate account for gaming and a separate one for personal use, you don’t need to delete it. You can create a new Microsoft account and add all your personal information there and keep the one you have signed in your Xbox just for gaming.
If you do delete your account and your console is set up as your home Xbox, you should be able to play your games on another account, but you will not have any of your account-specific information, such as your skins or in-game currencies. However, since you are playing with a different account, you can get these things again from scratch.
If you are deleting your Xbox account before selling it, remember to create your buyer’s Xbox profile first and then designate it as your home Xbox so that they can play all the games downloaded to your Xbox without needing to touch your Microsoft account.
How to Reopen your Closed Microsoft account
What happens if you change your mind and want your Xbox account back? Well, you have sixty days to think about it and decide. After sixty days of deleting your Microsoft account, your account will be permanently deleted, and you can’t get it back. Once you reopen your account, you will have access to all paid-for subscriptions or purchases, but you cannot get a refund for anything that expired while you deleted your account. Here’s how to reopen your Microsoft account within sixty days of deletion:
Open Microsoft.com
If you want your Xbox account back, you’ll need to reinstate your entire Microsoft account. To do that, you will need to get on microsoft.com. Type microsoft.com into the address bar of the web browser you are using, and it should take you to microsoft.com. Alternatively, you can click here.
Click Sign In
Now that you are on the home page of Microsoft.com, you need to click on the circular icon on the top right. If you are already logged into another Microsoft account, you need to log out first. Otherwise, you can just continue to use the information, as in the email address and password, from the account you recently deleted. If you forgot your password, you can recover it using your email. If you remember all your information, everything should go smoothly.
Confirm Reopen Account
Microsoft will be wondering what happened because your account was marked for closure. It will tell you that you are attempting to log into an account that will be deleted soon, and by logging in, you cancel the deletion. Then they ask you if you’re sure that you want to reopen this account. This is where you click on “Reopen Account.”
Help Protect Your Account
Now that you are opening an account marked for closure, you need to take a few extra steps while logging in to prove to Microsoft that it’s you. They will ask you to send them a code to confirm it is you. There are several ways you can get the code. One is to get it emailed to you. They will ask you to complete the email address they have shown a part of and then click “send code.” If the email account you entered matches the one on your account, they will send you a code. You can go check your email to see the code. If you didn’t receive a code, you can try an alternative method by clicking" Use a different verification option."
Use the Code
Now that you have received the code through your email or any alternative method, you need to type it into the box where it tells you to. Once you have typed in the code, making sure it’s correct by tallying it from where you received it, you can click “Next.” Now you will see a message letting you know that this account is no longer marked for closure, and everything should be as you left it. Now when you log into your Xbox account on your Xbox, everything should be as it was the day you deleted your account. All your games and single-player data should be right there, including your progress, skins, and achievements.
Conclusion
When you want to delete your Xbox account from your Microsoft account, you learn that there’s no way to unlink the two. That’s because with the way Microsoft sets things up, both the Xbox account and the Microsoft account are the same thing. You cannot have one without the other. That means to delete your Xbox account; you need to delete your whole Microsoft account.
That is upsetting for people who wish to keep their Microsoft account but delete their Xbox account. What you can do in this situation is to create a new Microsoft account and add all the information that is in your account, except don’t use it to log into your Xbox. Now when you delete the Microsoft account related to the Xbox account you wish to delete, you’ll have another account waiting for you that looks just like the original, so it’s like you deleted your Xbox account from Microsoft.
Alternatively, if you are yet to start using your Xbox and are reading for future reference, you can make a throw-away or burner Microsoft account just to use for your Xbox. You could delete this account at any time with no consequences to the account you are currently using. It is unlikely that Microsoft would change this in the future because this is just how using your Xbox works.
