I took would like the Club feature to be brought back. My son got me into this game. He plays on Switch and I play on my Xbox. I have looked over settings on both Xbox and his Switch on what could possibly be going wrong, but for some reason I can't find him to add him as a friend. The only way we were able to play together was by him being in a club and me being in the same club. I really enjoy playing with him, and I can't figure out why his account is unable to play with me. If anyone has any idea how I can get around this, please let me know. In the meantime EA please bring clubs back.
I think the problem stems from one of my other son's account on Xbox is the same as my sons account on switch. Is there a way to change this? Preferably without the switch user not losing his progress, since he paid for membership and skins.
@YureMorte If you mean that son 1 is named "Player1" on the Xbox, and son 2 is also named "Player1" as well, you should see a thing when looking up their usernames, of multiple players named that. One of the icons should be the same as your platform, that would be the son on the Xbox, while the other one is the Switch profile.
It would look something like this, note that I'm on a PC:
However, if both sons use the same email, and on their accounts, they're linked to each other, they would both be playing on the same profile.
From the sound of things, the accounts aren't linked, which means cross-progression isn't enabled. (You don't want to link the accounts, as it will merge all the progress to the highest account, (which it goes by level), and any of the same heirlooms, skins, etc. WILL be lost, along with any badges earned on the lower level account, (especially ranked rewards)).
How to check if both sons have their accounts linked to each other:
If both sons load into the game and enteres the lobby, where one gets a notification saying that they're "already logged in another device", that means their accounts are linked and cross-progression is enabled, but if they both can play at the same time, it means their accounts aren't linked and cross-progression is yet to be enabled.
You can check if they're linked by going to https://www.ea.com/ and logging into one of the accounts, going to the account settings, then down to the connections tab. You would see something like this if they're connected, (which disconnecting won't fix anything, as it will only cause them both problems and loss of items if they happen to be on the same account).
You would see the username used for each platform, however I removed mine from the image for example sake.
I didn't see a way to login with a Switch, but if they linked an account to their Switch profile, such as Google, Facebook, Epic Games, their own Xbox account, etc. They can login with those.
If they aren't linked, (and they both can play the game at the same time), The one on the Switch can change their account name to something you can search for more easily. As a test, I had shorten my name down to "Mid", (I was displayed as "Midnight" due to the Switch's name character limit), which my friend did see that name on their friends list:
The offline account is my PC account.
Also be sure they use a name longer than 3 letters, as they won't be easily found. The reason why I say to change the Switch player's name, is because Nintendo doesn't limit how often you can change your name on the Switch and Apex uses whatever name is assigned to the user's Switch account.
Before sending this suggestion, I had tested it myself. I have found that after switching names, it will show the Switch account's new name in-game, even if the name was changed back. However, it should update in a bit to whatever name it gets changed to next. To force this change, I gave my Switch account's back its old name and then I logged in on my PC. (This made it display my PC's account name). Then when I got on my Switch, it did showed the new name before switching to back. I was concern for a moment, and had checked my stats, and watched the name change back.
If you're scared about changing names, (and haven't tried having your sons add you as a friend instead), have them send a friend request to your Xbox's account name from within Apex. You do that by going to the friends list on their switch while in-game:
You might be running into this problem however:
Which is this on the EA account settings page:
If you have tried that, one other possible solution is to create an EA accounts for all 3 of you, and then link your platforms to the EA accounts. This is more complicated than its worth, as you're pretty much making PC accounts for the purpose of sending friend requests to which might not be shared across platforms.
An easier solution, would be to have the son on the Switch friend someone else on a PC. You also friend the same PC player. Now on the PC player's end, they can invite both of you to the same party.
Once in the same party, you should be able to hover over your son's name in the lobby, and it should say "add friend". If you don't see it, then everyone ques into a match, and then you check the squad tab when you're able to. You should now be able to hover over your son's legend, (or banner card), and send a friend request there. If it doesn't show up then we all eliminate ourselves, (but don't return to the lobby just yet), instead you look at the page where it shows everyone's kills, damage, etc., now hover over your son's legend, (or banner card), and you should see the option to add them as a friend.
I'm willing to help you with getting you into the same lobby as your son. Since I'm on PC, my name will always be searchable, so you both can just friend request the PC account, then I can invite you both to the same lobby. To get the other son added, simply have the first son leave the party, and the other one send a friend request, to where I can then invite them for you to add. After you get your sons on your friends list, you don't have to keep me on your friends list. At this point you'll be able invite both of them, and then they can send each other a friend request in the same way, if needed.
Also just so you know, if you try to give your sons any of the free skins from the event, (which right now its a Seer skin and a Seer sticker), they would have to be on your friends list for at least 2 weeks before they're eligible for gifting. By the time you reach the 2 week mark, it would be the next legend's cosmetics, which should be Fuse. (Which would be a Fuse skin and a Fuse sticker). This limitation is so no one tries to friend another player and then try to scam them or take advantage of them. (It happens more than you think).
Thanks for the amazing explanation Midnight! So it seems I am able to find him in the find friends option and he is able to find me. But when we send friend request to each other, nothing comes through. Any thoughts ?
1.A) One of you, (or both), have a privacy setting that limits who can add you as a friend.
1.B) I'm not sure about the Switch, but on Xbox, there's a privacy setting under "Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows 10 devices Online Safety", tittled "You can play with people outside of Xbox Live". If this is set to "block", it will be the reason why, as Nintendo accounts are "outside" of Xbox Live
2) They have parental control enabled for their account, which limits certain functions. This is assuming they're under the age of 18 and you've enabled this setting for their account.
3) Within the game, (in the same place where you found the "find friend" button), friend requests aren't set to display
4) One of you somehow had blocked the other. If either of you saw the friend request message, hitting the wrong button will either ignore or block the person who sent the friend request
5) You sent a friend request to another Switch player. This would explain why they didn't see the request, but it doesn't explain how you didn't see theirs, unless you also have a Playstation or PC account, or someone on those platforms is using the same name. (It happens, on Playstation my username was already taken when I signed up in 2013).
If I had to take a guess, its your Xbox account not allowing friends outside the Xbox Live network.
On the off chance that you did friend each other, check to make sure that they're not on your friends list. Sometimes when sending a friend request at the same time, (or you both at some point sent one to the other), games would see that Player 1 sent Player 2 a friend request, and that Player 2 sent Player 1 a friend request, and instead of notifying them of a friend request, it just sets them as friends.
Friending a player in-game shouldn't require you to have a PC account linked. (To me, "EA" accounts are PC/Steam accounts, while all the consoles are <platform> accounts, this gets confusing as all accounts are considered EA accounts when used in EA games)
