With gaming moving into a digital-focused future, things need to be running perfectly for you to get the best experience when you are playing. That being said, you will undoubtedly run into an issue every now and then. For example, if you are trying to play Halo Infinite on Xbox, you may run into a message that says, “The person who bought this needs to sign in” when you try to launch the game. If you are getting this error, here is how to get by it.
Related: Will Halo Infinite get a battle royale?
How to fix “The person who bought this needs to sign in”
When you try to launch a game on your Xbox and get “The person who bought this needs to sign in,” it means that you likely are trying to access the game on an Xbox where you have the game installed but not the right profile signed in or no internet access. This most commonly happens if you game share with a friend or family member’s Xbox console, so a different console is set to your Home Xbox.
If you are playing on an Xbox that is not set to your home console and try to access your games without an internet connection, you cannot access your games. If another account has that console set as an account, you can play their games at any time, even offline.
Reset your internet and console
But what about when you want to play your games? First, we recommend checking to see that your internet is running properly. Try resetting your router and your console. Hold the power button on your console for about 15 seconds so it fully shuts down, and restart it after about an additional 30 seconds. When your console turns back on, make sure your internet settings are correct and that you have a connection.
Set your Home Xbox
If you have your Xbox set to someone else’s account’s Home Xbox, but not yours, you can access the games you bought by making it your Home Xbox. Keep in mind, though, you can only switch Home Xbox on your account a few times a year, so if you do this too much, you could lose the ability to do this for a while.
First, open up Settings. Under General, go to Personalization and click My home Xbox. If the box is not checked, select it and confirm that you want to make that console your Home Xbox.
Now any account on that console can access all of your games and Game Pass subscription content without having to sign directly into your account. Wherever your account was previously was set to a Home Xbox will lose access to that content unless they purchase it themselves or sign into your account.
Check Xbox server status
If your Xbox can’t connect to the internet, but your phone and other items can, check the Xbox Server Status page to ensure the service is not currently down. If Microsoft has issues with Downloaded Games, it will appear here under the Games & gaming section.
Unfortunately, if the servers are down, there really is not much you can do but wait until they are fixed. If you have any physical copies, we recommend playing one of those or trying your other games until something works.
