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tmase83's avatar
tmase83
4 years ago
Solved

EA account linking to a new Xbox Account

Hi, I have an EA account, have had so for years. I have a reasonable amount of paid content on it, 20+ titles. I also have an Xbox Game Pass for PC subscription and have been eagerly awaiting acc...
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  • AssassinXDAhmed's avatar
    AssassinXDAhmed
    4 years ago

    I had the same issue today, I had a live chat with EA Help Agent and he told me to unlink my old account link your new account.

    I tried to convince him that I can't link another account to this account due to EA terms but he insisted to do it. I unlinked my old account and I told him what I should do next.

    He told me wait and I waited. after literally one minute he told me to try to link my new account and it magically LINKED. I wanted to thank him but he closed the case and marked it as "Fixed". His name is Ajay M.

tmase83's avatar
tmase83
4 years ago

I don't even fully see the security implications of linking a new account. I mean there is a six month cool down period relating to unlinking the same account twice;

"Once you unlink a platform account from your EA Account and link it to a new one, you cannot unlink it again for six months. Make sure unlinking is the best choice for you and that you understand the risks before you follow these steps." - https://help.ea.com/en/help/account/unlink-gaming-accounts-from-ea-account/

I can't see why this same six month cool down period couldn't apply to linking a new Xbox account to an EA account that has previously had an Xbox account linked. i.e. One xbox account every six months per EA account.

I'm sure there are other like us out there. Probably dozens!

Let me know if you get a resolution

thekurse's avatar
thekurse
4 years ago

I guess I don't really even understand why "unlinking" is an option if you can't link a new account.  Do people just unlink and never use that service ever again?   It's baffling.

I will definitely let you know if my yelling on social media or here uproots anything.  So far it looks like EA's "official" channels are useless.

  • EA_Jason's avatar
    EA_Jason
    Icon for EA SPORTS FC™ Team rankEA SPORTS FC™ Team
    4 years ago

    It says that you can unlink an account and link a new account, but you won't be able to link another account for 6 months @thekurse.

    Are you having trouble linking a new account after you unlinked your account?

    • PlutoniusX's avatar
      PlutoniusX
      4 years ago

      I have the same issue. When EA Play was added to the Game Pass on Xbox I installed EA Play on it which must have created a sort of "ghost EA account" and linked to it, I can't even see details of this account in EA Play since it sends me to the Xbox account instead.

      When I try to link on my EA Desktop account I get the message that it's already linked. If I remove the link on my Microsoft account, EA Play on Xbox keeps on working, so it seems that only appears when I link it on PC, so removing it from the MS account doesn't work either.

      This is a pretty obvious use case and EA will get more and more users with this issue, so they should develop a solution ASAP.

      • tastyjerk's avatar
        tastyjerk
        4 years ago

        I'm having the same issue as well. The rep I talked to was actually very helpful and was trying to link the correct accounts together after unlinking my other accounts, but it seems like even he was unable to at this point. He told me he was treating it as a bug report for now and I should check back in a week. I'm thankful he was helpful but what a strange headache all of this is. I'm excited to use EA Play with my Xbox Game Pass but it seems like I may never get to use my actual EA account at this point.

    • thekurse's avatar
      thekurse
      4 years ago

      @EA_Jason 

      I linked Xbox Account #1 to my EA Account 10 years ago.  I no longer access Xbox Account #1, and have used Xbox Account #2 (which has numerous purchases and my Gamepass attached to it) for some time.  When I went to link Xbox Account #2 to my EA account, it told me Xbox Account #1 was already linked.  So I unlinked Xbox Account #1 and attempted to link Xbox Account #2 and it is telling me I may only EVER link Xbox Account #1 to my EA account.  When I went onto chat and asked for the ability to link Xbox Account #2 I was told that it wasn't possible and that my best course of action was to link Xbox Account #2 to a new EA Account (essentially EA Account #2).  What I am saying is that is unacceptable considering all of my Origin purchases and credit card information are on my current EA Account and opening a second one just to utilize my EA Play benefits on Xbox Account #2 is ridiculous. 

      So yes.  I am having problems linking Xbox Account #2 to my EA Account because it is telling me that I may ONLY EVER link Xbox Account #1 to it, even though I no longer ever use that Xbox Account and have essentially shut it down.   Nowhere has it said "Wait 6 months" and your chat agent told me the same: that I may only ever link ONE Xbox Account to my EA Account for the LIFETIME of my EA Account.  

      EDIT: I've attached an image of the error I get when I attempt to link Xbox Account #2 to my EA Account. 

      • tmase83's avatar
        tmase83
        4 years ago

        I have the same error, after unlinking my old, unused xbox account.

        @EA_Jason EA's system will not permit you to link an Xbox account to your EA account if there has ever been another Xbox account linked to this account, period it seems. 6 month stand down period or not.

        It's very frustrating. 

    • SheppaRD_TR's avatar
      SheppaRD_TR
      4 years ago
      @EA_Jason Gamer friendly(!) EA! No solution, always make difficulties!
  • Qrusher14242's avatar
    Qrusher14242
    4 years ago

    @thekurseThe only reason i can see is to unlink and relink to a new EA account. I wish it would have a big warning when saying you could never link another Xbox account. I don't get the point either, i have access to my email and access to all accounts involved, who cares if i link another xbox to an EA account?? just a baffling choice to limit it to 1 account ever.

    @EA_Jason I did see one way i could maybe get it linked was to launch an EA game on an xbox console, but i dont own a current gen one. I mean, i have a 360, but not sure any of those EA games servers still work or if i could get it working again. So that probably wouldn't work. 

    How was issue not foreseen? You would think this would have come up in the testing stages, but who knows.

    • tmase83's avatar
      tmase83
      4 years ago
      @Qrusher14242 wrote:

      @thekurseThe only reason i can see is to unlink and relink to a new EA account. I wish it would have a big warning when saying you could never link another Xbox account. I don't get the point either, i have access to my email and access to all accounts involved, who cares if i link another xbox to an EA account?? just a baffling choice to limit it to 1 account ever.

      @EA_Jason I did see one way i could maybe get it linked was to launch an EA game on an xbox console, but i dont own a current gen one. I mean, i have a 360, but not sure any of those EA games servers still work or if i could get it working again.

      I agree the whole thing about only ever linking one xbox account over the lifetime of your EA account seems arbitrary.

      Forcing people to make a second EA account just to access EA Play content, separate from the EA account that you normally use would certainly serve to inflate the apparent number of users using the service. Im sure this is a metric that someone's performance bonus is tied to, or maybe I'm being a cynic.

      I suspect, like you my EA account got linked, probably without much input from me, when I owned an Xbox 360. The only EA title I owned on Xbox was BF4, which I doubt I played more than once or twice, and I certainly don't recall being made aware of a lifetime restriction on account linking back then. 

      • menarche's avatar
        menarche
        4 years ago

        The whole system is borked.

        An old roommate linked his xbox gamertag to my EA account on what I assume was an old Xbox I had so many years ago. EA chat folk who cannot think, just spurt out call scripts, want me to authenticate that account before they will remove it... hello... I don't have access to that account. 

        I can verify on Xbox all day long, but they cant remove it.

        Now if I do successfully get it removed, I have to wait 6 months to link it... I now either lose all my xbox achievements, purchases just to create a new account. Or, I wait 6 months. This is such a vile garbage system.

  • N30N_DYN4M1TE's avatar
    N30N_DYN4M1TE
    4 years ago
    @thekurse The only reason to unlink an account is to transfer all your accounts to a new ea account since there's no way to change individual accounts

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