[anticlaus105]

I thought I was getting my xbox exchanged because it was faulty. As a result I deleted my gamertag off it but not the saved data. It seems I can keep the hard drive.

Now I can’t recover my gamertag. It says email or password invalid.

I set this up in 2006. I have tried all possible combinations of email and password I can think of to no avail. All my save data is locked to my gamertag. I set up a new gamertag but it wont let me copy the data to it.


How do I recover my orginal gamertag to my xbox? I know the gamertag name but seemingly not the other info.

Please help!

[RottenFox]

if you cant remember the password,etc then theres nothing you can do.

[Munkey Boy]

So you've forgotten your password? Can you not use the forgotten password link on Xbox.com?

[anticlaus105]

I signed up for a new windows live id. Since then checking throught old email I have found my Microsoft Passport Network for the time I set it up in may 06. At the time I used the same email address but it has still let me set up a new Windows live id using this address?!?

I take it this must be the email address I used for my gamertag.

Now its saying that I have tried to log in too many times wrongly and doesn't seem to want send me a reset password link.

If I get this window live (previously ms passport?) thingy going is it likely i will be able to recover my gamertag? Or is the gamertag set up with diff email/password or something? At the time I did go online so it should be properly registered etc but I havent played online for a long time?

[mattclarkie]

Most people would have used their hotmail account, I did.


You can phone MS and get them to reset the details, but you would first need to know the email address you used, and the secret answer for the account.

[Dinky Dragon]

Id do the above.

You could have formatted ya HDD but its too late now that you entered ya pass wrong.

[anticlaus105]

Originally Posted by Fei Long Dero

Id do the above.

You could have formatted ya HDD but its too late now that you entered ya pass wrong.

Eh? If I had formatted the HDD I wouldn't be too bothered. Now I can keep it I would like to retrieve my game save etc. I can't do this without my gamertag.

Now I have set a new windows live id up I'm hoping i hasn't somehow deleted what I had set up previously.

Whats the difference between "windows live" and "windows live id"?

I have just the window live site to change my password and now I@m signed in to windows live id? Before I was locked out when using the windows live id site to change it. This is getting confusing.

[anticlaus105]

I've got the live thing running but it says this windows live id isn't asssociated with your gamertag and quits.

Is a call to microsoft the next step?

[Dinky Dragon]

For the record, recovering your gamer tag can only be done once and it DOES NOT recover your game saves only your Gamertag (Freinds) and achievements.

Give em a call although I doubt with no information you will get far.

[GizmoTheMogwai]

Originally Posted by anticlaus105

I've got the live thing running but it says this windows live id isn't asssociated with your gamertag and quits.

Is a call to microsoft the next step?

Yep, I would say that is your only step.

[anticlaus105]

Originally Posted by Fei Long Dero

For the record, recovering your gamer tag can only be done once and it DOES NOT recover your game saves only your Gamertag (Freinds) and achievements.

Give em a call although I doubt with no information you will get far.

If I recover the gamertag wont all the linked content on my hard drive be available again tho as it is linked to this gamertag?

[mattclarkie]

Originally Posted by Fei Long Dero

For the record, recovering your gamer tag can only be done once and it DOES NOT recover your game saves only your Gamertag (Freinds) and achievements.

Give em a call although I doubt with no information you will get far.

For the record RECOVERING YOUR GAMERTAG CAN BE DONE AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT. I have done it atleast 8 times.



Forget about the whole windows live id rubbish.

You need to know the email address that you set up your gamertag with. If you don't know this you are screwed. Your gamertag is linked to the .net passport, now called LIVE ID, that you set it up with. Although you can change the email address that MS will email you on, the email address to manage your account will always be the one you setup the account with, and there is no way to change this.

If you for example setup your gamertag BOB with the email bob@hotmail.com, bob@hotmail.com is the live id that your gamertag is linked to. You can set your email address as charlie@yahoo.co.uk, but the email address that you need to recover your tag, login to Xbox.com will always be bob@hotmail.com.

[anticlaus105]

Why the hell doesn't it tell me if it's the password or email that is incorrect? Instead it says either could be wrong.

From may 05 I have a ms passport setup for the email I though my gamertag would be linked to. Now when I sign into xbox.com with this email it wants me to set up a gamertag from scratch. I can barely remember setting up my gamertag in the start, going through diff names that were already in use on the xbox console. I even remember the password I used which for some reason is different to the MS passport one. I have a feeling the ms passport thing was something I had to set up separately to the gamertag on my pc. But it’s all vauge now.

Why at the time did a big f$%k off red message not appear on screen with "warning forgetting any of this inputted data that you will most likely not need to input again for nearly 3 years will lead to complete loss of all saved games, downloaded data and achievements (admittedly not many) and may cause some hair loss”.

Maybe it’s my own fault for not making note but ebay is looking pretty tempting and the PS3 is calling to me. Oh hang on, no it’s not my fault it’s the fact that my 4th bloody xbox started red lighting me so I was going to get it swapped. Microsoft are a complete crock of s$%t.

If they can’t recover this tag for me and unlock my hd content they can shove off. I’m not going through this again when my next xbox goes belly up.

[mattclarkie]

Originally Posted by anticlaus105

Why the hell doesn't it tell me if it's the password or email that is incorrect? Instead it says either could be wrong.

Anybody involved in computing and web design will tell you that you never say that the Password is wrong or the Username/Email is wrong.

If you say the password is wrong, the attacker/hacker knows they have the correct email address, and can then brute force the password. And even worse if the attacker knows they have a valid password you have made it a hundred times easier to hack because they just need to bruteforce a username/email, which is much easier than a password.


That is why it says either the username or password is wrong, and in many cases they are both wrong. It makes hacking much, much harder.

[16 year old Mustafiz with a foul mouth]

Originally Posted by mattclarkie

Anybody involved in computing and web design will tell you that you never say that the Password is wrong or the Username/Email is wrong.

If you say the password is wrong, the attacker/hacker knows they have the correct email address, and can then brute force the password. And even worse if the attacker knows they have a valid password you have made it a hundred times easier to hack because they just need to bruteforce a username/email, which is much easier than a password.


That is why it says either the username or password is wrong, and in many cases they are both wrong. It makes hacking much, much harder.

100% true!

[m1ket]

Originally Posted by anticlaus105

Why the hell doesn't it tell me if it's the password or email that is incorrect? Instead it says either could be wrong.

From may 05 I have a ms passport setup for the email I though my gamertag would be linked to. Now when I sign into xbox.com with this email it wants me to set up a gamertag from scratch. I can barely remember setting up my gamertag in the start, going through diff names that were already in use on the xbox console. I even remember the password I used which for some reason is different to the MS passport one. I have a feeling the ms passport thing was something I had to set up separately to the gamertag on my pc. But it’s all vauge now.

Why at the time did a big f$%k off red message not appear on screen with "warning forgetting any of this inputted data that you will most likely not need to input again for nearly 3 years will lead to complete loss of all saved games, downloaded data and achievements (admittedly not many) and may cause some hair loss”.

Maybe it’s my own fault for not making note but ebay is looking pretty tempting and the PS3 is calling to me. Oh hang on, no it’s not my fault it’s the fact that my 4th bloody xbox started red lighting me so I was going to get it swapped. Microsoft are a complete crock of s$%t.

If they can’t recover this tag for me and unlock my hd content they can shove off. I’m not going through this again when my next xbox goes belly up.

if someone had hacked your account because the page told you if you had the email or password wrong you would be just as unhappy

[Dinky Dragon]

Unlucky, I know a while back Live went through and deleted unused email accounts. Ring them or quit whining and start over.

[Dinky Dragon]

Originally Posted by mattclarkie

For the record RECOVERING YOUR GAMERTAG CAN BE DONE AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT. I have done it atleast 8 times.



Forget about the whole windows live id rubbish.

You need to know the email address that you set up your gamertag with. If you don't know this you are screwed. Your gamertag is linked to the .net passport, now called LIVE ID, that you set it up with. Although you can change the email address that MS will email you on, the email address to manage your account will always be the one you setup the account with, and there is no way to change this.

If you for example setup your gamertag BOB with the email bob@hotmail.com, bob@hotmail.com is the live id that your gamertag is linked to. You can set your email address as charlie@yahoo.co.uk, but the email address that you need to recover your tag, login to Xbox.com will always be bob@hotmail.com.

Gotta wait though between each one though eh?

[mattclarkie]

Originally Posted by Fei Long Dero

Unlucky, I know a while back Live went through and deleted unused email accounts. Ring them or quit whining and start over.

When hotmail first started they expired after 30days of inactivity, they don't seem to do that anymore but it is possible that it was done a few years ago.

[mattclarkie]

Originally Posted by Fei Long Dero

Gotta wait though between each one though eh?

I've only waited about 15/30mins between recovering a tag. Not sure whether there is a daily limit or minimum time, but I have done it atleast 4times in a 24hour period while I was waiting for a MU to arrive.

[anticlaus105]

Originally Posted by Fei Long Dero

Unlucky, I know a while back Live went through and deleted unused email accounts. Ring them or quit whining and start over.

I will start over.............on PS3 HA HA HA HA HA HA (evil laugh)!!!


Nah I have emailed xbox and will will try to phone tomorrow. I'm not holdong out much hope tho.

I have a mate who's been mithering me to get a PS3 but couldn't justify it with having the xbox. If I can't recover my data then rather than start out new on xbox I may just sell it on and get a PS3 and start fresh on that.

[anticlaus105]

Called Ms.

If you don't log in on to ms passport on your pc twice a year the email is deleted from your gamertag.

She didn't say why but after confirming all my details with the gamertag (and I was correct with them all) she said the gamertag was lost and could not be relinked to the email.

I'm not sure what is happening at their end but I find that ridiculous.

Surely there must be some way. I refuse to use a console where something like this is possible. It’s like my mobile phone saying remember to make a call once a day or I switch off forever.

M$ can go screw.

[Dinky Dragon]

Originally Posted by anticlaus105

I will start over.............on PS3 HA HA HA HA HA HA (evil laugh)!!!


Nah I have emailed xbox and will will try to phone tomorrow. I'm not holdong out much hope tho.

I have a mate who's been mithering me to get a PS3 but couldn't justify it with having the xbox. If I can't recover my data then rather than start out new on xbox I may just sell it on and get a PS3 and start fresh on that.

haha good luck playing 10 games with just your friend ... lol =p

And its more like your mobile saying it will switch off if you dont use it for a year...

Good luck with your PS3 ... *smirk*

I only use my PS3 for its browser and Blu Ray and its browser sucks!

[Munkey Boy]

Answer received, closing.