How to convert your offline Gamertag to an Xbox Live account and keep your Achievements and Gamerscore

You bought your Xbox 360, and couldn’t wait to play – now you’ve already gained some Gamerscore, but your account is an “offline account” and not an Xbox Live Account! You don’t want to sign up for a new account, because you’ll lose your Gamerscore and Achievements! Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Before you start this process, you should have a Windows LiveID / Microsoft Account that does NOT have a Gamertag associated with it already. Don’t have one? Just sign up for an email address at Hotmail.com, Live.com, or Outlook.com (and don’t ask how to remove a Gamertag from a LiveID – you might get lucky working with Technical Support, but to my knowledge there is NO WAY to do it – even if you transfer the Gamertag to a different LiveID, a placeholder name is created on your old LiveID – so it can never “not” have a Gamertag associated with it again!). *phew* that’s a lot of Microsoft lingo. Anyway, onward!

  1. Start your Xbox 360 and sign in as your current “offline” Gamertag.
  2. Press the Guide Button.
  3. Select Join Xbox Live.
  4. Select Continue.
  5. Enter your first name.
  6. Enter the email address of your Microsoft Account.
  7. Enter the password of your Microsoft Account.
  8. Verify locale and age, select Continue.
  9. Verify privacy settings, select Continue.
  10. Choose Accept for the Terms of Service.

At this point, a new Gamertag will be generated for you automatically. Because the name you used in your offline may already be taken, it doesn’t try to register with that one – instead it creates a new Gamertag for you. It would be nice if it at least tried to register your Gamertag before assigning a generic one, but since it doesn’t, you may now want to proceed to our article on How to change your Xbox Live Gamertag.