I have to abandon my XBox Live account.

My XBox 360 went Red Ring of Death. I then discovered that the Windows Live ID associated with it was no longer valid. Near as I can tell, what happened is that my Windows Live ID went dormant, and was then deleted, because I never, ever log in to Windows Live.

Unfortunately, when the console came back, it refused to let me into my profile, since it was a new machine (they completely replaced the defective one), and it wanted the email and password. Which didn't exist anymore.

I've been on the phone 4 times with Microsoft trying to remedy this, but they refuse to verify my identity. My name, address, phone number, etc. presumably match, but the "secret question" doesn't, despite, being something I do know, and neither did matching last 4 digits of the only credit card I've used with the account. I've gone round and round with them, and they claim there is nothing they can do. From a purely common sense point of view it's easy to verify; my Gamertag was my actual name, and I'm in the Boston phone book. However, common sense does not apply at Microsoft.

I thought: what happens when someone has their account stolen? After all, once someone has your account information, they can change the Windows Live ID, password, and secret question. So I searched on that, and mostly I got stories about about how people never, ever got their accounts back.

So, I'm out my Gold account, 800 points ($10), and 4 games that I purchased from the Live marketplace, which it now treats as demos. And, oh, all my saved games. Including my Mass Effect save games, so no carrying that over to ME3 when I get around to it. And my name.

Maybe DennyA can do something about it!

Or at least, point you in the right direction.

I've gone through denial that a solution was impossible, anger that they've locked me out of my own account on my own console, bargaining with customer support, depression that it's all gone, and I've pretty much worked my way to acceptance now.

I didn't think those accounts ever went inactive. I have hotmail/live accounts that I literally only touch to update expired live subscriptions and they're still there, waiting patiently. I hope that's not a new policy, because I don't use them for anything else either.

If you read the link, apparently they do. Or did. I set my account up 5 years ago, so it could be an old problem. I really don't know, all I know is that the email vanished, and the Microsoft customer support techs keep insisting that I must be using an email I don't remember - never mind that until I switched to gmail last year, I had the same email address since 1999.

I remember these account expiry issues had come up before, and I'm surprised they haven't done anything to improve it since. An account that's still actively used for gaming shouldn't expire just because you didn't use it with any other Live services in that time.

(Just checked my own account and was relieved to discover it's still valid, after realizing that I'd stopped using it for MSN Messenger and xbox.com in the wake of the hacking reports.)

Accounts did expire at one point - as far as I know they shouldn't anymore. It's likely your account was removed during this time. You're also likely talking to agents that are unfamiliar with the previous system issues. Since DennyA actually works for Xbox I'll let him try and field this one, my buddy that was over there has moved on to a different role so I don't have much pull anymore, unfortunately. If Denny doesn't show in a day or two I'll see what I can do.

Is Major Nelson still fielding requests for help with weird issues? You might try that.

Also to be clear, it was only some accounts that would expire out, depending on some odd factors that i won't get into :p

Doesn't one of the Jasons work for Windows Live?

Thats terrible. I play most big releases on PC, so my XBLA library is more valuable to me that my (small) Xbox disk library. If this happened to me my Xbox would effectively be useless.

Steal your account back.

Specifically:

That's from one of the "How to steal Xbox Live Accounts" websites.

Gus_Smedstad, pm me your gamertag and I'll see what I can do. Well what my buddy who worked for Xbox Live can do for me :)

With Guido Jones's help, I was able to retrieve my account. It had not expired, despite my belief - it was an account I did not recall creating or linking to my gamer tag. I need to do something about the verification information, but mostly I expect including that email in my Password Safe database should avoid a repeat.

Happy to help. As a public service announcement to others: make sure to have the information on your Xbox Live account up to date so if you do ever have to call support to attempt to recover it you will be able to. Support is positively draconian on what information they can give out due to previous attempts at social engineering.

There was almost no information associated with this account, since I originally created it via the xbox menus in 2006, and they didn't ask you for anything beyond email and desired password. For example, when I finally got into the account management, there was no associated phone number.

I have the same issue, i created a window live id but didnt use it. now i cant use my xbox live membership card i brought. Guido Jones, can you please help me?

I'd suggest following up with xbox live support - that is actually an issue they're familiar with.

Attention Random people of the internet: I cannot help you with your Xbox Live account problems. I offered help here on specific technical scenario to people I've known and talked to since 2003. If you're having a problem with Xbox Live, please contact Xbox support at http://support.xbox.com

You need to have a custom version of this shirt made up...

Aww, for a moment I thought Gus_Smedstad was back, but then I checked the date stamp...

Didn't know he was gone! He was active on December 6th, but hasn't posted since September. Huh.

I have that shirt :)

And sorry to bump, I've just gotten a couple of pms from 0 post people recently asking for help

Toss 'em a ball of yarn and I'll rough 'em up a bit for ya.

(Secretly I'm curious to find out what happens the first time I log back into Live from an Xbox, should I pick one up again.)