Frequently asked questions

Signing in opens a Microsoft page inside the app. Two things break it more often than anything else.

Leaving the app mid-way. If Microsoft asks you to approve the sign-in somewhere else — an authenticator app, an email, a code on another device — switching away can close the sign-in down behind you, and you come back to an error. Either approve it on a second device, or put the app and your authenticator side by side in split screen so the sign-in page never goes away.

Two-step verification. If your Microsoft account uses it, have the second factor ready before you start rather than going to find it half way through.

If it fails. You land back on the sign-in screen with a short message — usually "There was an error authenticating your account", or "Oops! Please try again" if something else went wrong. Nothing is broken and there is nothing to clear: the sign-in button is still there, so tap it and start again. You do not need to restart the app or reinstall it.

Almost always this is Android quietly blocking them, and it takes about thirty seconds to fix.

1. Open Settings in the app. If there is a Notifications warning at the top of the screen, Android is not letting us through — tap it and switch notifications on.
2. While you are there, check the Alarms warning too. Without the alarms permission Android delays the app's background refresh, so notifications arrive late rather than not at all.

Still quiet after that? Check that you actually asked for the kind of notification you are waiting for. Settings → Notifications is not one big on/off switch — each type has its own entry, with its own settings inside:

• Latest Achievements — achievements you and your friends unlock
• Friends — who just came online
• Messages — your Xbox messages
• Communities — posts in the communities you belong to

So if your messages arrive but achievements never do, it is the Latest Achievements entry you want, not the system settings.

One last thing worth knowing: battery saver and Do Not Disturb both slow the app down on purpose. That is deliberate — it stops the app draining a phone that is already low — and everything catches up as soon as you come out of either.

The app refreshes in the background roughly every six minutes rather than constantly, so there is normally a short gap between unlocking something and seeing it here. If the gap is hours rather than minutes, it is usually one of these.

• Battery saver is on. The app deliberately backs off while it is, and catches up when you come out.
• Android has restricted background use. Check the app's battery setting in Android's own settings and set it to unrestricted.
• The alarms permission is missing. The Alarms warning at the top of the app's Settings screen tells you if it is.

You can always pull down to refresh by hand rather than waiting — that works on your profile, your latest achievements, a game's achievement list, friends, messages, communities, captures and blogs.

Battery saver, Do Not Disturb and Android's own idle mode each slow the refresh down to about every three hours. That is deliberate, and everything catches up in one pass as soon as you come out of any of them.

Your purchase is safe — it is just attached to a different app than the one you are looking at.

There were two Achievements for XBOX apps on Google Play: the free one, which shows ads, and a separate paid PRO app, which does not. Google Play treats them as two different apps, so buying PRO never removed ads from the free one — they are not the same install, and they do not share a purchase.

PRO is no longer listed on Google Play. Nobody can buy it now, and its store page will not open. That does not affect what you already paid for: the app stays yours, it keeps working, and you can still install it on this or any other phone from your own library.

How to get the app you paid for

1. Open the Play Store app on your phone.
2. Tap your profile picture, top right.
3. Tap Manage apps & device.
4. Open the Manage tab.
5. Find Achievements for XBOX (PRO) in the list and install it. If it is not there, change the list filter from Installed to Not installed — that is where apps you own but do not currently have on this phone are hiding.

Google explains the same steps here: Find and reinstall apps you have already bought.

One thing to check first: make sure the Play Store is signed in with the same Google account you paid with. Purchases follow the account, not the phone, so an app bought on another account will not show up in this list.

If you would rather stay on the free app

The free app offers a one-off ad-free upgrade of its own, in Settings, on the same screen as the subscription. It removes the ads from the app you already have, with nothing else to install — and it is the way to go ad-free from here, now that PRO is off the store. It is a separate purchase from the PRO app, so owning PRO does not grant it.

From inside the app, open Settings and, under Account, tap Delete my data. Two prompts follow: the first spells out exactly what goes, the second is the point of no return. Nothing is deleted until you confirm that second one, so closing either prompt leaves everything untouched.

Already uninstalled the app, or cannot sign in? Email xbox@indiesoftware.com.ar with the subject “Data deletion request” and your gamertag. Requests are handled within 30 days and remove exactly the same things.

One thing worth knowing before you do it: this removes your Achievements for XBOX data only. Your Microsoft account, your Xbox profile and your achievements belong to Microsoft — we only read them, and deleting here changes nothing on Xbox.

The full detail — everything that is removed, the few shared things that are kept with your name taken off them, and what is not ours to delete — is on the Delete your data page.