Cannot Change Xbox Privacy Settings Despite Being Age Verified

Who is This Guide For?

Minecraft Java Edition players in the UK will not be able to communicate with other players in game unless you have the following privacy settings on your Xbox account:

• You can communicate outside of Xbox with voice & text: Allow
• Others can communicate with voice, text or invites: Everyone

You can only change these settings on a UK account if:

• You are over 16 and have an Age Verified account
• You are a member of Microsoft Family Group and you are an Organizer - You can then set privacy for other members

However there is a known issue where an Age Verified account may not be able to update their privacy settings. This guide will take you through fixing it if you meet these conditions:

• When you make changes to your Xbox privacy settings, the page says they save but after a refresh they have not changed
• You are in the UK
• You are over 16 and have a verified your age
• You are in a Microsoft Family Group by yourself

Why is it Not Working?

We aren't sure but the best guess is that your Microsoft account has conflicting data that makes it look like you can edit your privacy settings but when it validates your request to change them it fails.

This conflicting state likely happened when Microsoft migrated UK accounts to require age verification. It didn't happen to everyone so it probably depended on your account being in a specific state before the migration.

Before Starting

To ensure that you don't get locked out of your account make sure that you have login details for your account, including the means for any 2FA/MFA steps that are required.

You will also need to pass the age verification check again.

What is the Fix

Break out of the privacy deadlock by triggering the removal of the age verification on your account. This is done by changing your date of birth.

Then after logging out, clearing cookies, and then logging back in again you can set the date of birth to the correct value and then run the age verification.

Step by Step

These steps were provided by Microsoft Support:

1. Temporarily change your date of birth to an age under 16
   Sign in to your Microsoft account and update your age on the following page:
   https://account.microsoft.com/profile
   This temporary change is intended to trigger the new UK age-verification requirement.
2. Add your account to a Family Group
   Skip this step if you are already in a group by yourself
   After changing your age to under 16, your account will be recognized as a child account.
   At that point, the system will prompt you to add a parent account.
   Please add your main account to a Microsoft Family Group so that you can later change the age back to the correct adult age.
3. Sign out everywhere and clear browser data
   Sign out of your Microsoft account on all devices by following the instructions here:
   https://support.microsoft.com/help/sign-out-everywhere
   After signing out, clear the cookies for your browser, particularly for: `account.microsoft.com` and `www.xbox.com`
4. Sign back in and restore your correct age
   Sign in to your Microsoft account again.
   Update your date of birth to your actual age.
5. Complete the UK age verification
   Visit the verification page:
   https://aka.ms/XboxUKAgeVerification
   Check whether the system now allows you to complete the age-verification process successfully.
6. Update your Privacy & Online Safety settings
   Once age verification has been completed, go to:
   https://www.xbox.com/privacy
   Review and update your Privacy & Online Safety settings as needed.

If you are unable to make changes and the page says you haven't verified your age then log out and clear your cookies as described in step 3. Then log back in and try updating the privacy settings again.