Will my saves survive on someone else's Xbox account — Cloud Save explained

One of the biggest worries with account-share purchases is "what if I'm halfway through and the seller takes the account back — does my progress vanish?". The answer depends on where saves live and which profile you played under.

How Xbox stores saves

Xbox keeps saves in two places at once:

1. Locally on the console — a file on the Xbox hard drive.
2. In Xbox Live cloud — a copy on the account you played under.

Auto-sync between the two during online sessions.

Played under	Local save	Cloud save
Seller's account	On your console	In seller's cloud
Your account (via Home Xbox)	On your console	In your cloud

Scenario 1: playing as the seller — dangerous

If you launch the game and play as the seller, progress goes to their Xbox Live cloud. When the seller changes the password or deletes the account, that cloud is gone.

The local copy stays on the console, but on the first online session under a new account Xbox may try to sync "cloud → local" and wipe your progress with an empty save.

Verdict: don't play as the seller, even if it's easier to launch that way.

Scenario 2: playing as yourself (Home Xbox) — safe

The right way:

1. You install the game while signed in as the seller.
2. You set Home Xbox on the console (Profile & system → Settings → General → Personalization → My home Xbox).
3. Sign out from the seller, sign in as yourself.
4. Launch the game — it runs on the Home Xbox license.
5. Progress writes to your local save and your Xbox Live cloud.

Now even a full deletion of the seller's account doesn't touch your saves.

What about the seller's existing progress

Sometimes you want to continue where the seller left off (say, an online game with significant progress). That's risky:

• The seller's cloud save can only be downloaded while signed in to their account online.
• Trying to copy the save between accounts via Microsoft Cloud Save isn't allowed by Xbox.
• The only path is to keep playing as the seller, which brings back all the Scenario 1 risks.

Better practice: start fresh under your own profile, leave the seller's saves alone.

If you already played as the seller — recovery

1. Switch to the console, sign out from the seller.
2. Sign in as yourself.
3. My games & apps → pick the game → Manage game and add-ons → Saved data → Delete from cloud for the seller's copy.
4. Launch the game — Xbox creates a fresh save under your profile.

The local save on the console may have mixed data — if you want a clean start, delete it too («Delete from console»).

Achievements and Gamerscore

Achievements go to the account you launched the game under. Want Gamerscore yourself — play as yourself. Don't care about Gamerscore — play as the seller, achievements stay with them.

Marix tip

Buy account-shares only from places where instructions explicitly say "play only after setting Home Xbox under your own profile". Marix includes that guide in every order.