Planning ahead for your Xbox accounts
Microsoft Corporation accounts cannot be transferred and have no beneficiary option — here is what you can do while the account is active
Xbox Support
Microsoft deceased-account access (Xbox profiles ride the Microsoft account)
Transfer of accounts after death is not guaranteed under Microsoft Corporation's terms. Lifetime planning offers a more reliable way to manage and share accounts while the account is active.
How to protect your Xbox accounts
6 steps for managing your Xbox accounts during your lifetime:
Family sharing
Xbox profiles and their digital libraries are non-transferable, but Microsoft provides a household-sharing mechanism called home Xbox. Designating one console as your home Xbox lets other people who sign in on that console play the digital games you own and use content provided through your Xbox Game Pass subscription, and it lets you play your own digital games offline. Only one console can be the home Xbox at a time, and Microsoft limits how often the home Xbox can be changed within a year. This is a de facto sharing arrangement, not a transfer: the games and the Game Pass subscription still belong to the original Microsoft account, and the shared access on that console ends if the account is closed or the Game Pass subscription lapses. Xbox Game Pass family plans let several people each use their own Microsoft account under one subscription, but each member keeps a fully separate account and profile.
Should you save your passwords for your family?
Some people store account passwords so a family member can sign in later. The practice has three practical limits:
- Two-factor authentication often blocks it. Most accounts require a second factor — a code sent to a phone, an authenticator app, a passkey, or a physical key. A saved password alone frequently does not grant access, and the recovery codes that would are easy to lose or let go stale.
- It usually conflicts with the platform's terms. Most operators prohibit account sharing and signing in as another person, including after a death. Stored credentials are not the operator's recognized access path, and using them can violate the terms of service.
- Operators provide other paths. Where an operator offers a designation tool — Apple's Legacy Contact, Google's Inactive Account Manager, a beneficiary designation — that mechanism grants access the operator recognizes. A password manager's own emergency-access or legacy feature passes credentials through a controlled process. Digital assets named in a will or trust give a fiduciary authority under each state's Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA).
Frequently asked questions
Note the Microsoft account email your Xbox profile uses, since Microsoft will not transfer an Xbox profile or reset a password for next-of-kin. Set the household console as your home Xbox if you want family members to keep playing your library and Game Pass content, keep the wallet balance low because it cannot be cashed out or moved, and document the gamertag and the Game Pass subscription so it can be cancelled. Plan the rest of the Microsoft account at the same time.
Recording that a Xbox account exists, alongside other accounts, gives a fiduciary the information needed to reach the operator through its official process.
Xbox does not support beneficiary designations. Unlike financial accounts, there is no way to name a beneficiary on this type of account.
Sources
Data sourced from Microsoft Corporation primary sources (5 pages reviewed). How we research.
Xbox Support
Microsoft deceased-account access (Xbox profiles ride the Microsoft account)
