Re: Microsoft account linked to Deleted EA account

@dcourtwreck 

We can't unlink a gamertag without verifying ownership because it's very damaging. You lose all content and progress for EA games. This would be a big problem if we allowed anyone to contact us and unlink accounts without proving they are the owner. These threads are locked because there is nothing we can do about it through Answers HQ so they very frequently just go in a circle and often turn very toxic.

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@EA_Aljo wrote:

@dcourtwreck 

We can't unlink a gamertag without verifying ownership because it's very damaging. You lose all content and progress for EA games. This would be a big problem if we allowed anyone to contact us and unlink accounts without proving they are the owner. These threads are locked because there is nothing we can do about it through Answers HQ so they very frequently just go in a circle and often turn very toxic.

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The trouble is there is often no way to prove my Xbox account is my own (ie the email EA has in account does not exist). What has been requested 1000 times is to give the account owners some other REASONABLE way to validate ownership (tell me an IP address from 10 years ago is not reasonable)

In the dozens of threads we've seen on this topic I have seen some cases where support will offer to send the user a message directly on Xbox live with a verification code. DO THIS. Make this standard escalation procedure.

Follow existing process until all other avenues are exhausted, but give users an out.

As someone that is TRYING to play EAs games, and has since NHL 94, it's very frustrating and sort of a slap in the face to be told the company is just locking threads instead of working towards a solution for a problem as common as this.

@miks88 

Threads get locked because there's nothing we can do about this and these conversations tend to become toxic. 

As far as account verification goes, there are more questions than the IP address so it's not solely based on that. They ask you questions about the history of the account so the idea is that the actual owner will know those details.

@EA_AljoI'd just like to chime in here i've contacted your support 3 times and each time I get the same copy paste answer that I have to re-again access to the old account. The old account in my case and numerous others being decades old with no way of accessing the e-mail.

In my case, I have the outlook address that my gamertag is currently using. I have a screenshot showing that link. 

I have created a new EA account alongside this one with that outlook address..... Can you not just take that as proof of ownership?

If you want me to verify one EA account with another EA account that shows the link between gamertag and Microsoft account i'll happily do that.

I can tell you with 100% certainty that not every account owner will be able to tell you this information. Like I said, I've had my gamertag for a LOOONG time - since day 1 of Xbox live.

So that means it could be any one of the dozen addresses I've lived at in the past 15+ years, any one of the credit card #s in the same period (could also be my mother's, since she paid for it when I was a kid), and I have only purchased physical copies of EA games in the past so I'm really clueless on how to look up my history there.

Is there simpler solution than asking a user to dig up decades old information that may or may not exist? Yes. Take 15 seconds to send a verification code to the account (the XBL/PSN account, not the EA email) you're verifying. Account owners will know the code.

Edit: I want to be clear, I am not trying to start a "toxic" discussion. I would however like to share the flaws and frustrations with EA's support and account verification policies. I understand EA community managers can not directly do anything to solve the issue here in this forum but this problem will not magically go away by locking threads. We would like to help EA find a solution that works within their policies as well.

@miks88 

It's not an easy one to come up with a perfect solution for. The easier it is to recover your account, the easier it is for others to steal accounts. For example, if someone hacks your Xbox account and we sent a message there to verify, we've now handed over the account to the hacker. I definitely get how frustrating this is, but currently it's our only option for account recovery.

@Philster07 

I'm really sorry, but there is absolutely nothing I can do to help with this. Unless the account recovery process changes, you'll need to be able to answer the questions the advisor asks.

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@dcourtwreck wrote:
@EA_AljoIn my case, it's a deleted EA account that is paired to my gamer tag, confirmed by EA support chat. What content/progress is there to lose with a deleted account? Apparently whatever email address is associated with the account isn't even available to the rep anymore. The advisor doesn't have any verification questions for me because it seems very little data is retained for a deleted account. It's just dead weight on my Xbox gamer tag.

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This is my case as well, linked to a deleted account so now my gamertag cannot be used with EA nor the account recovered. I was even able to track down the correct email, but when support attempts to send me a code nothing comes through because the account is deleted.

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@EA_Aljo wrote:

@miks88 

For example, if someone hacks your Xbox account and we sent a message there to verify, we've now handed over the account to the hacker.

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Alright, if we're talking hackers, what if a hacker had control of someone's Xbox account and linked their own (the hacker's) EA account to it. If the true owner of the gamer tag reclaimed their profile, would that Xbox account just be stuck with that hacker's EA account pairing forever? I'm not saying I was hacked, just a hypothetical. What would someone do in that situation? The actual account owner would have no information on the hacker's EA account to be able to verify and unpair it. 

@miks88 

Bummer that you aren't getting the codes. How did you figure out what email was associated with the deleted account? I haven't even been able to get that far. 

@dcourtwreck 

You would need to go through account recovery and answer the verification questions to regain control.

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@dcourtwreck wrote:

@miks88 

Bummer that you aren't getting the codes. How did you figure out what email was associated with the deleted account? I haven't even been able to get that far. 

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Some time consuming process of elimination work. I gathered every email I could think of I've ever used. Personal, school, work, a couple throwaways, my parents current emails, their old emails, etc.

I noticed if you request a recover code be sent using the usual EA login screen when logging in via email, it will tell you if there is no account associated with the email or, if there is, it will say a code has been sent.

So I went through every email. My current email has this account associated with it, so a code was sent even though I didn't need it. A whole bunch had nothing associated with it. Then I landed on my mother's 25 year old email she used to help me sign up for Xbox live when I was a kid. This is an email from an ISP that doesn't even exist anymore, but thankfully I was able to get the email reactivated (don't get me started on that process). Turns out this is the one, says a code has been sent...

Unfortunately, no code actually gets sent. Talked to support directly and asked for the code to be sent to the email, no luck. I even emailed support directly from that email and they STILL couldn't verify my account.

@dcourtwreck 

The actual owner would have to go through account recovery to get the account back under their control. At that point, they can unlink the gamertag.

@dcourtwreck 

They would also need access to the EA account in order to link the 2. Regardless, I'm very sorry, but there is nothing I can do to help with this. You'll need to try again with an advisor.

@dcourtwreck @Philster07 @miks88 

ACTUAL SOLUTION:

I had the same problem. Fully explained in this thread verified by EA AHQ staff, online support is useless and cant help. 

https://answers.ea.com/t5/EA-General-Questions/Unlinking-Dormant-deleted-Account-from-Xbox-without-o...

Basically you need to contact EA's Data Protection Officer (Links and explanation in thread linked above). From there they will verify you via Xbox live by sending you a message from their test machine with a verification code, you email it back and they then reset the account unlinking it from your Xbox account, allowing you free to add a new one. No reason it wont work for your Microsoft account so long as you have access to that.

Took me 2 days to get an email response then it was sorted within a couple of hours.

I did this literally couple days ago and now spreading it on here so the EA staff here know about it, and the community starts to pick up on it. Solution was tick as solution on the thread.

@Vanlife4me ....if this works EA support and all of the community mods here owe you a beer or 10.

Going to give this a try and will report back.

Thank you!

Hello, everyone. There is more information available on data privacy rights at the bottom of this article. Going through the account recovery process is the proper way to try to recover access to an account. Submitting a GDPR request is not intended for account recovery. Nor may it result in successful account recovery from this line of staff who are suited to address other types of requests. 

There are some additional details on how to get help when being locked out of your account here.

More information on accessing your account data can be found in this article.

We definitely understand how frustrating it is to lose account access. However, contacting GDPR does not guarantee account recovery as it is not intended for this. Any previous experiences other players have had with successful results may have been anecdotal.

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@dcourtwreck wrote:
@Vanlife4meLooking promising. I got a reply email and am in the process of verifying my Microsoft/Xbox account via friend request and private message code.

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How long after you submitted the request did you get a reply? I'm still waiting on a response on my side.

@miks88 So my first reply took about 2 days to come through, then once i replied, it was a matter of hours. I guess I caught the person as in the middle of their work day.

I am in the UK and looks like they work what would be night time here. As their replies to me were all after around 9pm GTM. Also worth noting, they may currently be getting alot of requests since this Info is fairly new to the community and the CMs, so they may be in slight shock as to what is happening aha.

Long and short of it is that if you fall under GDPR regulation (in the EU), then you have a legal right to rectify under article 16 for any account you own. Other countries may have different policies and different routes.

As stated above by a CM, this process if mainly used for if you have lost access to the email address held under the EA account. If the email address held under your EA account is no longer valid (you no longer have access/Permanently deleted/hacked), therefore you have a right to rectify it providing you can verify who you are (For me it was via xbox live). Just putting this in here for disclaimer purposes as it may not work for all depending on the situation, as the CM above pointed out. They are waiting on further clarification to this however.