up vote 14 down vote favorite
44

I have an issue with my first Windows Phone device. When trying to download an app from the marketplace I get this message:

The My Family settings for your account prevent you from downloading this item. Your parent can manage My Family settings at windowsphone.com

When I go try to manage My Family settings at windowsphone.com, it shows me the Get Started link, but I don't have any accounts hooked up to it.

I think the problem is that I started to download a trial of Kinectimals and handed the phone off to my daughter, who was prompted for a birthdate. I thought it was asking for a birthdate as part of the game, and told her to input her own birthday. So now my windowsphone account thinks I'm 7 years old and I can't find any way to update that.

share|improve this question
  • thanks for this post. i did something very similar and was beating my head against the wall trying to figure this out. – user793 Nov 21 '12 at 23:15
  • I stumbled on the same problem on my new Windows Phone 8 device. The default setting was today's date, and without thinking further about I just tapped OK. There was nothing there describing the severe implications of an incorrect date, on the contrary, the default was set to today. Now I cannot even install a pdf-viewer! :) Strange thing is, I can change my birth date on the live.com account I had to register, but this doesn't help. – user832 Dec 5 '12 at 12:01
up vote 5 down vote

I got the answer from Microsoft directly - there is no way to change the birthdate associated with a store account. Apparently Microsoft can't or won't help you with it either.

I had to delete my account, reset my phone, and create a new account!!!

share|improve this answer
  • 6
    Did you contact them via email or phone? In my experience they can do things over the phone which they claim they cannot online e.g. change your account's country. – row1 Nov 17 '12 at 3:50
  • 1
    You should have had your mother do this for you. :P – jp2code Aug 26 '14 at 21:23
  • 1
    At present you can change your birthdate associated with your Microsoft account. – Kolappan Nathan May 27 '16 at 7:42
up vote 2 down vote

Hi I had the same issue setting up my sisters phone. To fix the problem log onto your live account at www.live.com go to your account settings (not your profile settings) then change the d.o.b to the correct one. My sisters was showing she was born in 2000, where in reality she was born in 1982. A quick change of the details and the app store worked correctly.

share|improve this answer
up vote 2 down vote
  1. Go to https://account.microsoft.com/
  2. Login with your Microsoft account

  3. Click on Your Info tab enter image description here

  4. Click on Edit your personal info enter image description here

  5. Change your Date of Birth and click save.

Your account details will be updated across all MS services.

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

I searched a lot and tried many times to change the date, but I was still unable to download apps. So I went to menu>settings>about>reset your phone and then I opened a new Microsoft Account (Hotmail) and I made the year of birth 1970. I tried it on my Windows Phone 8 (HTC 8S) and it worked. Hope that helps :)!

share|improve this answer

protected by row1 Feb 5 '13 at 1:56

Thank you for your interest in this question. Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site (the association bonus does not count).

Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.