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I have two Xbox 360s (work and home), each of which I want to use on Xbox Live using the same profile. I will not ever have both connected at the same time. I am aware I can move my profile from the console that currently stores it, on to one USB stick, but this is inconvenient to me as I don't want to have to take it with me every day. I also know I can recover my profile to the console that doesn't currently have it, but this takes longer than I want it to.

If I'm able to copy my profile from one USB stick to another, such that it technically exists in two places, I can have one stick permanently plugged in to each console, since I presume the Xbox Live servers won't know that they're different pieces of hardware (I don't even think USB sticks can be uniquely identified).

My question is: is there a way to copy (not move) the profile from one USB stick to another? I know it can't be done from the 360 dashboard, is there a way to do it using a PC? Would a straight 'clone' of the stick work? And if so, how might I do that?

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  • I haven't tried this but I would suspect they do not, as the information about the profile changes during the course of play Xbox Live probably has some way of noticing your USB sticks are out of sync. Again, that's pure speculation (hence not an answer).
    – tzenes
    Commented Dec 2, 2010 at 17:49
  • As this is an old post, you can now have your profile on both x boxes it just tells you that it was last logged in else where
    – Marriott81
    Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 9:02
  • @Marriott81 Oh cool, I didn't know that - I've not signed in to my 360 for a while!
    – Ben Hymers
    Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 11:20
  • @BenHymers not a problem, I know this is cheeky, but as there is not an accepted answer can I post it as one for you? Ill find the page now which says about this
    – Marriott81
    Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 11:42
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    @Marriott81 Not cheeky at all, to be honest I didn't know I hadn't accepted the top answer! But yours is now the most correct, so acceptance it shall gain.
    – Ben Hymers
    Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 16:23

5 Answers 5

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Taken from the official support website:

Profile improvements and changes

Latest console software picture The latest console software includes the following profile improvements and changes:

You can download your Xbox Live profile to multiple consoles. However, you can only sign in to one profile at a time. Your profile is automatically updated on your console and Xbox Live, whenever you sign in or out of your profile. To help keep your account safe, you can choose to require or not require your Microsoft account password on any console, For more information, see Password-protect your Xbox Live profile. If the last time you signed in to your profile you were using a different console, you’ll see a notification of this when you sign in. For more information, see Your gamertag was last signed in on another console. It takes significantly less time to download your profile (called "recover" in previous versions of the console software). https://support.xbox.com/en-US/my-account/manage-gamertag-and-profile/profile-storage-changes

Since this is a three year old post, with enough time the problem fixed itself and now have it saved on every console just only signed in at one time.

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You can have your profile on two consoles, just go to "recover my gamertag" on the second console. This means that you'll have to do this every time you go home / go to work, but that's the price you pay for not wanting to carry a use stick in your pocket.

There are ways (dd) that would probably copy the information, assuming you can find the right file system type. That the Xbox formats the USB stick suggests it may use some proprietry thing to prevent this, though. But even then, as tzenes says, the two copies would quickly become out of sync.

So I guess the short answer is, really, no. There's not a way that's going to be even as close to the convenience of just taking your USB stick with you.

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I've managed to get my profile to be on my home console and a USB stick at the same time. Here's how:

  1. Make sure you know the email and password for your Xbox account
  2. Format a thumb drive for use with Xbox. That’s in System Settings -> Storage, IIRC. You can either format the whole thing for Xbox use or choose the misnamed “Configure” option to use only part of the stick for Xbox.
  3. Go to System Settings -> Storage -> Hard Drive and find your profile. Select it, and then use the Move menu option to move it to the USB stick. It would be nice if “Copy” was an option, but apparently that would be too easy.
  4. Unplug the USB stick
  5. Your profile is now gone from the console (because you had to Move it, instead of Copying). So go to Sign In -> Download Profile and re-download it.
  6. Go to work
  7. Plug in thumb stick.
  8. Go to Sign In. You should see your profile listed. Sign in with that. the first time, it will ask you for your email & password again. Put them in. Be sure to check the “Remember Password” box after signing in.
  9. That’s it. Your home console will have a copy of your profile on the hard drive, and the thumbstick will have a copy that automatically signs in.

It might be that it could be adapted to have the profile on two XBoxes at once by adding a step between 7 & 8 where you move the profile from the USB stick onto the XBox. I haven't actually tried that, but I think it would work.

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  • I'm pretty sure the way Xbox works since this question was asked has changed. I have an Xbox in my bedroom with my profile store on the hard drive, and my roommate has an Xbox in the living room where my profile is stored on his hard drive. The only thing that happens when I switch between Xboxes is a notification pops up saying "This profile was last signed in on another console."
    – turbo
    Commented Jan 15, 2013 at 21:50
  • I think you're probably right. But I just happened across the question today and figured I might as well add a more recent answer in case anyone else comes this way in the future.
    – Brian Reischl
    Commented Jan 15, 2013 at 23:16
  • Yep, no need to do any of this any more; they revised the sign-in process and provided cloud storage and now it's actually pretty slick to just sign in and play. No need to faff around with USB sticks or wait for ages to "download your profile", whatever that used to actually mean :)
    – Ben Hymers
    Commented Jan 16, 2013 at 15:56
  • In my particular case my work XBox is shared and I don't want everyone to have access to my profile. The USB stick is a convenient way to handle it in that case. Can you even use Cloud Storage for profiles? I can't see how it would know whose Cloud Storage account to look at.
    – Brian Reischl
    Commented Jan 16, 2013 at 16:19
  • I think each profile gets its own cloud storage for game saves and such. I don't think it is used for profiles. I think before profiles were stored locally on the Xbox, but now it might be stored server side so all you really have to do is log in.
    – turbo
    Commented Jan 16, 2013 at 16:27
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So, okay. Logically there are ways to copy your profile. The most logical thing to do in my opinion, is to "move" the profile to a usb stick, and redownload it to the console. What you will be left with is your profile in two places, each time you redownload it if it is on the console it will be overwritten. The issue is your save games. Either put them on the cloud(But if your work connection is as slow as most... don't.) Or,have a USB for saves. By the way, you can copy saves if you are signed in. That might help.

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First, download usbxtafexplorer (you can get it here). This allows you to browse through the XBox's configuration files. Download the file explorer, plug USB into XBox 360 then move the profile over there: open usbxtafexplorer, in the top left click file -> open device -> content. There is a profile under 000000000000. Click "extract" button to whereever then plug the USB back into 360 and then move profile back to hard drive, then go back to usbxtaf and take the file extracted and click "inject" button where the 000000000000 folder is. There you go - you have your copy on the HDD and the flash drive.

NOTE you may not have the content or 00000000000 folder; to make them just copy any theme to the flash drive.

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    Like Sparky's answer, this covers only the copying part: what happens when you use each profile in turn? Typically an attempt to use a profile that has been updated on another console will result in a message that the profile is out of sync and must be recovered.
    – Dave DuPlantis
    Commented Jun 17, 2011 at 11:34

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