Xbox Series X users can't sign into Xbox Live on backward-compatible 360 games, Microsoft investigating [Updated]

Update 27/04/26 – 09:05 am (IST): Internal support responses from Microsoft appear to contradict the company’s public “actively investigating” stance. According to an email shared in a recent Reddit thread, Xbox Support is now characterizing the sign-in failure as a “legacy service limitation” rather than a temporary bug.

The support team explicitly stated that Xbox 360 games are “only fully supported” on original Xbox 360 hardware and that newer consoles rely on a legacy authentication system that may not always function. Most notably, they recommended that users affected by this issue use an actual Xbox 360 console to play titles requiring Xbox Live connectivity.

This suggests the “fix” being investigated may be a fundamental infrastructure hurdle rather than a simple server patch.

Original article published on April 23, 2026, follows:

Users across Xbox communities are reporting a persistent issue preventing them from downloading profiles or signing into Xbox Live when playing backward-compatible Xbox 360 games on Xbox Series X consoles.

A thread on Reddit details one user’s experience after upgrading from a Series S to a Series X. Launching any 360 title triggers an error message that says “Can’t connect to Xbox Live.” Modern Xbox services remain perfectly functional, so this is clearly a backward compatibility bug. This isn’t the first time a Series S-to-Series X upgrade has caused headaches. Earlier, users ran into Discord-related issues on the Series X as well.

Users describe failed downloads, sign-in loops, and more. One user who bought a Series X specifically for 360 titles like Fallout 3 encountered the same issues. It’s fairly disappointing that such an important feature, which is considered a selling point, isn’t working properly.

The problem occurs during initial console setup for a lot of people, and it happens right after setup for some others. Users also note the inability to download profiles on backward-compatible games.

The usual troubleshooting methods, such as clearing 360 storage, power cycling, or switching the network, don’t seem to solve the issue, and this is because Xbox Support has confirmed that it’s a server-side error, and not a user error. Through a post on X, the company has said that they’re actively investigating the issue.

It’s tied to legacy 360 authentication issues on newer consoles, so it’s not related to your hardware or network. Xbox is actively treating this as a priority and will hopefully fix it soon.

Microsoft Support also advised filing reports via the Xbox status page, and some community members have tagged engineering leads for visibility. If you’re affected, your best move is to report the issue through the Xbox status page and keep an eye on Xbox Support’s X account for updates. Since it’s confirmed to be server-side, there’s nothing on your end to fix.

It’s not just Xbox players struggling. In another annoying incident, PS5 players are claiming that Sony’s new TOS prompt has kicked them out mid-game. We covered that here.

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