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Guide [FAQ] Name Changing

Captain Dory

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Herro there

There have been a lot of threads popping up recently with concerns for name changing. Mainly it's "will my stats be carried over?" And "can banned players change their names?" So, I'm basically giving an essay of the new system. It's

Unique
Universal
Identification

Referred to as UUID's in this tutorial and most places that aren't essays. These are lines of numbers and letter. For example, my (Captain_Dory) UUID is

ba50aae029c74a489e0aba594224807

UUID was implemented late 1.6, 1.7 was the finalizing stage for Mojang and Developers to switch their systems over from Name based things to UUID. All minecraft names stored in the official database were changed to have a random UUID (Note, no 2 players have the same).

A month ago, the BukkitDev team made a thread on the bukkit.org homepage, telling plugin makers to switch to using UUID's. Basically, what this would do is, for example, store a players UUID, not name. Before 1.7, plugins would store players name.

Storing player names is not currently unsafe, but it will be when 1.8 is released. Say, using a permissions plugin- If a donator changed their name, they would lose all their permissions. Because a players UUID is always the same, this wouldn't happen if the plugin is updated to the new system.

Now for the actual FAQ (From Pixelatorx2);

Q. Will I lose my rank if I change my name?
A. No, your rank is tied to your UUID (unique/universal user identifier). Your UUID is a string of numbers and letters that are assigned to your Mojang account, and do not change even when you change your name.

Q. Will I lose my stats if I change my name?
A. No; same reasoning as above. Your stats are tied to your UUID.

Q. When will name changing be supported?
A. According to Mojang, you'll be able to change your name sometime after 1.8's release, after they have completed an update to their web services.

Q. I'm banned and I'm changing my name. Will this unban me?
A. No. Just like your ranks and stats, bans are also tied to your UUID.

Q. When will 1.8 come out?
A. As far as I'm aware, the last Mojang estimation was for a release sometime in May.

TL;DR:
You really have nothing to worry about. Staff members take care of this stuff. This thread is just to inform on what is going on.

Any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to ask me or a staff member ^_^

If I've got some false information in this post, please let me know ;) This was typed on my phone in an extremely long and boring car trip. I just want to be home! :c
 
Last edited:

Pixelatorx2

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The recent Minecraft update, 1.7.5, made changes to how names are stored. All minecraft names stored in the official database were changed to have a random UUID (Note, no 2 players have the same).
False.

UUID was implemented late 1.6, 1.7 was the finalizing stage for Mojang and Developers to switch their systems over from Name based things to UUID.

Also,
Here's the answers to a few frequently asked questions on name changing:
Q. Will I lose my rank if I change my name?
A. No, your rank is tied to your UUID (unique/universal user identifier). Your UUID is a string of numbers and letters that are assigned to your Mojang account, and do not change even when you change your name.

Q. Will I lose my stats if I change my name?
A. No; same reasoning as above. Your stats are tied to your UUID.

Q. When will name changing be supported?
A. According to Mojang, you'll be able to change your name sometime after 1.8's release, after they have completed an update to their web services.

Q. I'm banned and I'm changing my name. Will this unban me?
A. No. Just like your ranks and stats, bans are also tied to your UUID.

Q. When will 1.8 come out?
A. As far as I'm aware, the last Mojang estimation was for a release sometime in May.

^^^ From the homepage.
 

Sheldor

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Thanks, I think that this will help a lot of players :)
 

Chiller4

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Can you change your name to anything? How exactly does that work?
Well, if the name's already taken, you can't change your name to it as far as I'm aware. So sorry, you can't change your name to ThatOneTomahawk :p
 

Sheldor

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Yes. So if a name is already taken, you cannot change to that name, but if that name becomes available, than you can change to it :)
 

Cartercraft99

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Yes. So if a name is already taken, you cannot change to that name, but if that name becomes available, than you can change to it :)
Sounds good! Thanks for the help :)

I have one more question though. What if I want my name back and I can't get it for some reason someone took it? Do I definitely get it back, or do I have to wait?
 

Captain Dory

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Sounds good! Thanks for the help :)

I have one more question though. What if I want my name back and I can't get it for some reason someone took it? Do I definitely get it back, or do I have to wait?
Unfortunately, you would have to wait until the person who took your name changes it, if he does :p
 

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