After Ultimate Game Pass conversion, you CAN'T SWITCH BACK TO LIVE GOLD!!!

Okay, so a few months ago, I did the whole "convert your remaining subscription from XBLG to Ultimate Game Pass for $1" thing. I thought it sounded too good to be true. Turns out it was.

Before I switched, I chatted with a Microsoft agent online who reassured me that not only would my entire subscription be switched over for $1, but at the end I could cancel and go back to my regular account. Which is true- KIND of.

See, once you convert your account from XBox Live Gold to Ultimate Game Pass, you CAN'T GO BACK.

So when I canceled the autopay on my brand-spanking new UGP account, and I bought a 12-month Gold card from CDKeys and put in the code, it told me that if I continued, the 12-month card I just bought would automatically be converted to 4 months of Ultimate Game Pass.

So my account- which I've had since XBox Live has existed, with all of its hundreds of games and thousands of dollars of content- is now being held for ransom by Microsoft. I either have to get a brand new account and lose access to all of my content, or pay for Ultimate Game Pass from now on, quadrupling my XBL cost (and we have to have 2 accounts for the household, because we have 3 XBoxes with 3 online players) going forward.

And there's no way to fix this.

How has no one reported on this??? It's INSANE. You literally CANNOT convert your account back to a regular account, so you pay the Ultimate Game Pass price or you:

• can't play online

• can't access any of the Games with Gold for XBox One you've downloaded

All because I believed a Microsoft agent and thought everything would be fine and dandy.

I mean, I'm not paying $200 a year for something that's still technically available for $52, even with the extra games (which honestly I treated like rentals and haven't touched in the last 3 months). Jesus.

Why would you have to start a new account? Nothing you said makes sense....or you're not explaining it well.

If you cancel ultimate, and start live with a code you keep the same account....again no idea what the issue is.

No, you don't.

It's on their site. You CANNOT convert your account BACK to XBox Live Gold. If you try with a code, it automatically converts to Ultimate Game Pass at 1/4 of the time you paid for. If you try recurring billing, it doesn't give you a choice to go back to Live Gold.

Once you have Ultimate Game Pass on your account, it's LOCKED to that account. You have to get a new account or you HAVE to pay for UGP to play online.

I actually might be wrong. It might just be worded poorly on their website. I'm going to chat with a rep in a bit and see what they say.

It might just be that you have to wait until the subscription completely runs out to go back and resubscribe. Hopefully.

@cheeseweasel24: Yes you can. You just let your ultimate expire. You cancelled the autopay when you still had time left on ultimate. You just need to wait until ultimate has expired then use the code and you get 12 months live.

...and I was wrong. Got in touch with the rep, the problem was just that the subscription hadn't ran out. If I'd waited until tomorrow to try to put the code in, everything would've been fine.

Still odd that they put the whole "your account can't be converted back" bit in the support section of the website, but I'm fixed, so I'm happy. This week has been weird enough.

This all sounds kind of confusing anyway. Maybe I'll stay away from Gamepass Ultimate... lol

I am actually confused with Ultimate Game Pass. I had it for myself and my nephews were able to share Xbox Gold on it. Now I got it for my nephew for $1 and he had Xbox Gold so I merged Gold with UGP since it was only $1. Then my other nephew I did the same thing and he has Ultimate Game Pass. Now for me I don't have it so I have to get it for myself? They also have another Xbox One that they have with their dad and have their accounts on that one. The Xbox One I have is under my Gamertag since I bought Xbox Gold last year and converted to Ultimate Game Pass till the end of February 2020 which it expired.

I have also have had problems with Xbox Live Gold, I bought a 3 month Live Gold subscription from my store, but it wouldn't work because I had used a credit card earlier! This is petty, Microsoft! We spend thousands of dollars each year on games and Gold subscriptions, and then you don't allow us to use official MS codes? I think it stinks a bit of "we can do it to earn more, so let's" - type of thinking!

I have used the Xbox since the original, but I get more and more reasons to go for the PS5, next time I change console, from my One X. It is sad, really! And expensive!

I was able to downgrade to Xbox Live as I notice it gave me the option to subscribe to Xbox Gold for $9.99 or Xbox Ultimate Game Pass for $14. Went back to Xbox Gold and can now share Gold with my nephews and it bumped to my Xbox Gold to September 2020 which is nice.

@chiron69: Cancel the subscription with the credit card, and when it runs out use the code.