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I have gone and created 3 emails for my children, connected to the family organization through Microsoft and imported all to the XBox Family app… only two of my kids can be friends and the other only allowed to be followed. Why can’t they be friends? Before you say check settings… I have done this and all 3 are identical. I have literally spent the last hour going between each of the kids tablets to try to add each of them to their own friends lists and have double / triple checked settings and have gotten nowhere. The difference in their ages are 1 year apart… not sure what the deal is. I can’t even go in through the XBox Family app to just simply add my own gamer tag as a friend or them to each others lists outside of the MineCraft app.. sigh
Way to go Microsoft for making this process overly complex and not allowing for much in the way being helpful so far.
Would be nice if Microsoft added a button to allow parents to Add Trusted gamer tags or friends to their children’s accounts.
A free app and service that helps families create healthy digital habits and stay connected. It’s designed to support both online safety and real-world awareness by offering tools for screen time management, content filtering, and location sharing
Hey there, Jesse Bunnell
After reading your post, I am a little stumped with what could be happening. However, I will try and help you with your question.
Before you say check settings… I have done this and all 3 are identical.
Please can you tell me what settings you have allowed for your child who is unable to add friends?
"only two of my kids can be friends and the other only allowed to be followed" ... "The difference in their ages are 1 year apart… not sure what the deal is."
It would suggest that the age is something that is causing the problem. It looks as though the the child has had the ability to add friends blocked based on their age. Especially when you mention that their settings are identical. However, when I tried to find documentation around this, I could only find that settings will be applied based on their ages automatically, but the parent can change these. You can find out more about these definitions here: https://support.xbox.com/en-GB/help/family-online-safety/child-accounts/add-family-member-on-xbox-one
I am thinking either there is a setting backend, and the system is preventing your child from adding friends based on their age or that there is a small setting that has been missed.
Looking at the definitions in the article above, is your child who is unable to receive friends requests classed as a child or teen?
Why can’t they be friends?
Can you try adding your other children from the account that is unable to accept/receive friends requests?
Thanks,
Nathan