18 questions about the long-awaited feature answered
We’re excited to announce that the online ID change feature on PSN is officially launching to all PlayStation 4 owners from tomorrow. You’ll also be able to change your online ID via a web browser, and that feature will also be available from tomorrow. Thanks to all of you who participated in the beta preview program back in October/November and who gave us your feedback!
We do want to take this opportunity to clarify one point – as a result of the preview program, we’ve found an instance where a game did not fully support the feature, even though it was originally published after 1st April, 2018, contrary to what we mentioned in our original announcement . All PS4 games originally published on or after 1st April, 2018 have been developed to support the online ID change feature, but there may be cases where a game is not fully compatible.
For more details and information, we encourage you to refer to the list of tested games, before making a change to your online ID. Do keep in mind that the large majority of most actively played PS4 games support the feature.
And we’re sure you guys have some questions about the long-awaited feature and how it all works. This FAQ should have an answer to your questions, and if not, just leave us a note in the comments below. We’ll do our best to update this document or respond in the comments section.
There’s also a section on our PlayStation support page that may help answer additional questions, which you can check out here.
Now without further ado, on to the FAQ!
1. Where and how can I change my online ID?
You can either change your online ID on your PS4 or web browser.
PlayStation 4:
- Step 1: From your PS4 go to [Settings].
- Step 2: Select [Account Management] > [Account Information] > [Profile] > [Online ID].
- Step 3: Enter an Online ID of your choice or choose from one of the suggestions.
- Step 4: Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the change.
Web browser:
- Step 1: Sign in to your account on the PlayStation Network and select PSN Profile in the menu.
- Step 2: Select the Edit button that’s next to your Online ID.
- Step 3: Enter an Online ID of your choice or choose from one of the suggestions.
- Step 4: Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the change.
2. Can I change my online ID on my PS3 or PS Vita?
No. The change can only be made through a PS4 system or web browser.
3. Do I have to pay to change my ID? How much will it cost?
The first change is free, and changes after that will cost £7.99/€9.99. For PlayStation Plus members, it will cost £3.99/€4.99 for each change after the first one.
4. Will my friends be able to find me with my new online ID?
When changing your online ID, you’ll have the option to display your old ID next to your new ID in your Profile for 30 days. This will make it easier for your friends to notice your ID change. You can only select this option at the time you are changing your online ID.
5. How many times can I change my ID?
In general, there are no restrictions to the number of times you can change your online ID.
6. Can I revert back to my old ID?
You can as long as the old ID doesn’t violate the Terms of Service. You can revert back to any of your previous IDs by contacting PlayStation Support.
7. Do I have to pay to revert back to an old ID?
No, reverting back is free.
8. What happens to my old online ID? Can someone else take it?
No, your old online ID is only available to you.
9. If I change my online ID multiple times, can I revert back to any of my past IDs?
Yes, you can revert back to any of your previous online IDs, as long as those IDs do not violate the Terms of Service.
10. How many times can I revert back to an old ID?
In general, there are no restrictions to the number of times you can revert your online ID.
11. Can any account change their online ID?
Child accounts cannot change their online ID.
12. Do all games support online ID change?
A large majority of the most-played PS4 games that we tested support the feature. We recommend that you check this list of tested games before you make the actual change. PS3 and PS Vita games are not supported.
13. What do you mean by a game supports the online ID change if it was ‘originally published’ on or after April 1, 2018?
The game must have launched for the first time on or after April 1, 2018, to support the online ID change feature. For example, a game that first launched back in 2013 that has since been re-mastered or re-sold as a ‘complete edition’ in 2018 does not apply.
14. Why is it that only games published after April 1, 2018 were developed to support online ID change?
Games published after this date were developed using tools that support online ID change at a system level.
15. Will all PS4 games released in the future support the feature?
All PS4 games originally published on or after April 1, 2018 have been developed to support the online ID change feature, but we do not guarantee that all games will be fully compatible.
16. I saw that there are a lot of potential issues and risks associated with changing my online ID. How do I know that I won’t run into these?
We recommend that you check this list of tested games before you make the actual change. A large majority of the most-played PS4 games that we tested support the feature, and we expect major issues to occur only in a small number of games.
17. What kind of issues could I potentially run into?
Below are some of the issues you may encounter. We expect major issues to occur only in a small number of games.
- Your previous Online ID may remain visible to you and other players in some areas.
- You may lose progress within games, including game saved data, leaderboard data, and progress towards trophies.
- Parts of your game and applications may not function properly both online and offline.
- You may lose access to content (including paid-for content) that you may have acquired for your games including content like add-ons and virtual currency.
18. What should I do if I encounter an issue by changing my online ID?
If you experience any issues while playing a game that is not on the list of tested games, we recommend that you revert back to your previous online ID that did not have those issues. Reverting back should resolve most issues.
Sweet! Anyone know if region change is coming?
I’ve got a New Zealand account but have lived in Australia for nearly a decade and it doesn’t look like I’ll be going back. Games being more expensive in NZ also doesn’t help.
Well i think maybe you can change it in your console settings or contact local PlayStation support
Came here to ask this very important question. I created my PlayStation account more than 10 years ago, now, when I lived in the UK. I don’t live in the UK anymore, but in order to keep everything I have accumulated over the years, I have to keep my account, and to pay for content i need to use british pounds… which means I still have a bank account in the UK which I use almost exclusively for this! Therefore, being able to change the region would really, really be useful!
There is region change in PlayStation store i haven’t tryed it, but maybe then you can pay in other currency for your content
Doubtful. They don’t want to let you do that, especially for that reason (getting cheaper/out-of-region games). I thought I heard something about calling them up to request a change but I don’t remember if I heard that such a thing works or if they’ll just deny you a change (and that’s if you don’t get a horrible person on the end – I’ve heard horror stories about Sony/PlayStation’s customer service).
They typically want you to make a new account, and I think their TOS actually says you have to make an account of the correct region for the region you’re in. Which is dumb but whatever. It’s Sony. “Dumb” is their forte.
The same here. I want this solution as well too.
No. Region change is not available at all.
I’m in the same boat. Lived in UK when I created my account and moved back to Australia. It’s frustrating AF but to be fair Sony aren’t alone on the this – I also have similar issues with Xbox, PayPal, Google Play store, etc. I get that it’s probably due to licencing restrictions but it’s pretty bad customer experience. People move country these days, it’s not the 1800s lol
Almost all banks in Australia offer something like a travellers card. I have one, it allows me to transfer money between currencies at no cost.
I’m in the same boat. I have a UK account but I’ve lived in the US for several years now. I doubt it’ll be possible given the DLC is region locked. :(
Region change is Europe for now, hopefully it can add Asia and America later dates :)
I am waiting when Sony will add Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania as regions. I had to register account in UK region. I would say that Sony is forcing us to create fake acounts with fake addresses. And I can’t add any payment method as well. They don’t accept my card and they don’t accept my PayPal as well because they are not issued/rigistered in UK! If they could add Malta then why can’t add us? Maybe Sony have not enough educated geographers and they think that we are still part of USSR?
Or they could simply allow us to use PayPal account which is not registerd in the UK (in my case, others may have other region).
Please, Sony, make us happy!
Not really worth the risk of losing paid add-on content…
What risk is there…?
…is what I was going to say until I read the latter points.
What the heck, Sony? Microsoft doesn’t have these issues. Even though the first change is free, any others are not… and you still have these potential issues. This is ridiculous.
Completely different systems. Different companies, different hardware, software, processes. Of course it is different. Changing BACK in the case of these issues is also free.
don’t compare sony and microsoft
“Reverting back should resolve most issues.” … confidence inspiring :-(
“… just leave us a note in the comments below. We’ll do our best to … respond in the comments section.”
LOL
Underrated comment.
And still no responses ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Not planing to change it because my PSN name is my first and last name so that any of my friends can find me easier wheather they just brought PS4 or want to invite me online. If my PSN name is BurnTheToilet no one will know who on earth is that..
same here
You can search for friends by their real name anyway even if their ID is “BurnTheToilet”.
Yeah I lacked creativity 10 years or so ago, nothing has changed now
The tested games link currently doesn’t appear to be working.
How will this affect PS3 and PSVita games? Will they still be playable, and able to earn trophies for the account after a name has been changed?
And regarding the ability to revert to previous names, after doing this would you also be able to change back to the new name again?
I have had my name change since the beta only issues I saw were multiplayer leaderboards like cod where I went back to level 1. PS3 games and Vita games there were no issues for me. Hope that helps you out
That actuality gives me a lot more confidence, as I still have a number of PS3 games I want to play and/or replay, some specifically to finally score that platinum trophy. Online leader boards isn’t something that will worry me so that’s handy.
Fingers crossed I’m also lucky enough to avoid any major issues.
Thanks for the input.
Is your old ID visible on PS3 or does it change to your new one. I’m still clearing my backlog of games there and don’t wanna mess up my trophies.
What about digital ps3 and vita games
It’s nice and all, but the fact you MIGHT lose access to your paid DLC is dumb.
Also, how will this affect PS3 & Vita games? Can you still play your downloaded games? And is it only the DLC being affected by the change? Im more worried about Vita, since majority of my games are digital on it.
Can I pick a name which someone else has claimed however have never used themselves as they clearly claimed it for resale purposes? Making money off Sony without their permission.
I think once you pick a name its tied to you forever. Don’t think it will be possible to transfer it to someone else
No you can’t as you have the option to go back to your old name at any time.
Sounds cool but risky. I would like to shorten my name to match my other non-PS accounts but some of my games are on the issues or critical lists so i am wary.
I’ll never change my ID. Quite happy with it and certainly wouldn’t even consider it when there’s a risk of losing data.
Is it possible to change the capitalization of my existing PSN ID? (ie. changing grahamrogers to GrahamRogers)
Maybe, but I doubt it, because I signed up with capitalisation in my name, which shows on my consoles but not on the PlayStation websites.
No. In short, capitalisation makes no difference to the Sony systems, so isn’t a change as such.
I knew it would never could be as simple as changing your name. Could it Sony? I don’t think I want to lose my add-ons because I change my name.
So its possible to lose some of my digital purchases if i change my ID, perhaps a full game maybe. If that were to occur, is there some sort of compensation for the loss/inability to access that item?
Says on there that the only fix is to revert back to the old name which is free to do
I’m quite happy with my name, but as someone who used to do a lot of work with databases… how bad is your database structure that you can’t change unique IDs at will?
I know it’ll probably never be made public, but I’d love to know the story behind this with regard to why it’s taken so long, and why it still can’t be guaranteed 100% successful. It makes it seem as if it was cobbled together by someone who really didn’t know what they were doing, and now you’re stuck with it because it’s so inflexible.
Yeah, I’m intrigued as to why an additional non-unique display name wasn’t pursued instead of an ID change. That would largely solve the customer problem with potentially fewer technical constraints.
From what I’ve read the main issue was that they used the actual username as the unique user ID, rather than using a separate key field. So I’m guessing that, for all the old games, they only know your account via the username. I’m assuming that from now on games will be storing a unique key to identify the user so name changes won’t be a problem anymore in the future. That would also explain why they won’t make the old usernames available again because, if it’s true they used the PSN username as ID, it would completely break all the old games (if I’m not mistaken Microsoft does release usernames after a period of inactivity). As to why they’re still running into problems, that’s a good question. But who knows how many systems were/are relying on the PSN usernames, both from Sony and third-party, on a worldwide scale.
They do kind of have a non unique display name with the “real name” thing which can be changed. As that was added later on (in the PS4 era), there’s not much reason why they couldn’t add another which isn’t private.
Cool. One of the most requested features has now been provided (in some way).
So, what’s the next big thing Sony?
finally I can change my name to x_byt3fl4r3_x
Needs to be XxX_69_Sn1p3r_Pr0_byt3fl4r3_69_XxX at least?
You’re forgetting to squeeze a 420 and Bl4z3It in there somewhere! ;)
Don’t forget to put a ‘Z’ letter at the end of your name. It means you’re a pro gamer. And also put ‘HD’ or ‘TTV’ or ‘YT’.
Bloodborne, DS3 – with Issues Identified
No, thanks
Any information of how earned PS4 trophies could be affected if at all? And does the non compatability also apply to PS3 game trophies as well as the games themselves?
I’m wondering the same thing. I’m assuming your old ID is still visible on your PS3/Vita but not on PS4
Assuming The Division 2 is fine because it’s so recent and get why it hasn’t been tested because of that recent, but would be nice to clarify if that game is safe.
It’s pretty much guaranteed to be safe. The text above states that they have found *an* instance of a game published after April 1st 2018 having issues, and the lists appear to confirm that the game in question is Big City Stories rather than The Division 2
I wanted to change my psn but knowing GTA has issues means I won’t be changing it… I don’t want to risk [DELETED] up my GTA stats/progress/anything else. Be nice to know what issues each game has.
Does this mean we can finally put an actual space between names? Or am I still stuck with the stupid underscore? _
Is there any way to change my online ID to an old ID of another account? Is it possible to get that ID somehow available if it’s okay to both ID owners?
Hi what about eu and non eu countries. Is the service going live for these places as well?
hmm i think even if fortnite wasn’t Published in 1st april of 2018 there is the epic thing right? so i should’t be worry about that but the most thing that make me hate it is my overwatch proggress well be lost or other games etc… hope they fix this
Overwatch doesn’t have any issues though…
How if I am a PlayStation Beta Tester and change my PSN ID ? Any impact ?
What about region change? ( ps store) is it coming to all any soon? ( I wanna try ps now with my account so badly :))
LOL this is ridiculous. Issues such as losing access to paid-for content and/or game progress is unacceptable. Thankfully I didn’t want to change my ID name in the first place, but I can’t see anyone changing theirs. The question is, how other companies allow ID name changes with no issues whatsoever, and Sony can’t offer the same kind of service?
So you are asking why different companies that use wholly different systems with different hardware and software, and different processes, have some things that work… differently?
It’s a valid question, a game platform is a game platform and some have the presence is mind to work good programming into their systems to allow customers a few problem free options like ID change, if a big platform like Sony can get it wrong then it shows how bad they actually are with something so simple as an ID change that doesn’t affect content.
“In general, there are no restrictions to the number of times you can change your online ID.” “The first change is free, and changes after that will cost £7.99/€9.99.” Guess I’m the only one who thinks that isn’t going to stop trolling / abusive individuals. ?♂️
Tom Clancy’s The Division is a game with no issues but does that also include the Division 2?
You’d assume the game was developed with the knowledge that PSN ID change in mind.
when comes it for Europe?
Tomorrow 11th April
Well even tho I’ve been waiting for years to have the ID change option we can see now that it’s bad programming on Sony’s part that it messes with your account content…. Microsoft and Steam ID change doesn’t affect anything so I won’t be changing my ID till Sony fix their new problems they’ve caused (if ever).
Shame on you Sony!
they cant fix those. thats the compromise they had to make to allow for an id change at all. its all in preparation for ps5 anyway
What about red dead online and red dead redemption 2 in general? I can’t find it in the list.
That was released after April 1st 2018 so it has the feature already programmed
This is so fake I was also really looking forward to changing my Id but I guess not
You did see the word “tomorrow” in the headline, right??? ;)
I’m in Australia and trying to change my psn but still can’t? @playstation it’s the 11th of April for me but my comment say posted on the 10th
it doesnt mean midnight..
Mate, we’re both about a day ahead of most of the world; 11th for them, means 12th for us
“You may lose access to content (including paid-for content) that you may have acquired for your games including content like add-ons and virtual currency.” That’s a massive Yikes from me dawg.
There are about 8 games in *that* list. Check it out, to see if it applies to your games catalogue.
I looked early this morning and now its late afternoon and still no name change option for me i live in the US. Ive sesrched for a system update and nothing. Ive tried logging in on computer and my console also. Any ideas.
Same problem for me in Canada
As someone who is still clearing my backlog on PS3 and Vita
If i change my PSN ID on PS4, is my old ID still visible on PS3/Vita?
yes
Thanks mate. As long as it doesn’t mess with my trophies, i’m cool with it.
What time can we expect it to drop in the UK tommorow?
It doesn’t work for me on browser. The edit button isn’t there. Any suggestions?
No ps4 browser pc or laptop on ps4 its in account management
It launches tomorrow
What time
So… It wont work on Overwatch and Warframe…
Is it just me or is this not working for anyone else? I see a lot of people saying that this is cool leading me to believe that it works but there is no Edit or Online ID button for me anywhere. I followed the instructions. I saw a software update so I thought I needed to download that. It still didn’t work. Can someone from Sony is anyone that knows what’s going on help me out? Thank you
Edit: This is on the 10th of April in Canada
Finally
Would Black Ops 4 be affected by the name change??? I wouldn’t want to lose my Master Prestige. :}
Well i have a second account and i made the change and i lose all progress on leaderbroards on my black ops 1 ps3 i havent play on my ps4 so idk maybe
Is this live?? can we change or id names?
Is this only for some countries and isn’t it out in Belgium yet…? Or is it just launching in a couple of hours? Because I can’t already do it…
If I have PSN Plus, can I still be able to do the ID feature?
Okay so im from australia, do we have a rough time on when this feature will be available?
Will it remove digital games i paid for?
Digital Games no. DLC that is account based like cosmetics and Currency maybe.
You mean like things you unlock in game or a dlc you buy on ps store
Offtopic, but can we get the option to delete games and trophies from our lists entirely at some point? The fact we can’t even hide them from ourselves has made browsing more painful than it ought to be.
Ironically (since I’ve always heavily opposed online costs being combined with it), it’s the short list of PS+ tryouts that I want gone…
Sorting feature to hide PS3, PSVita, PSPlus games would be nice.
So if i have too accounts a i want to switch the names is that possible
No that is not possible without some alterations as both names wont be accessible.