Can I stop XBox from telling me my friends have logged in?

December 14, 2008 12:28 PM

I'm streaming movies from Netflix to my XBox 360 - can I get it to stop bugging me whenever any of my friends logs in to XBox Live?

If you're logged in to XBox Live, whenever any of your friends logs in or out, a message pops up on your screen saying so, along with a little notification sound.

I generally find this fine when using the XBox to play a game, but unfortunately, it also happens when you are logged into XBox Live in order to watch a movie that you're streaming from Netflix. I find this extremely distracting, and mildly annoying.

I've looked for an option to turn this off, and googled and such, but haven't been able to find a way to get this to stop, short of de-friending all my friends. Is there a way?

posted by Flunkie to grab bag (11 comments total)

I think there's a way to turn off notifications under "Privacy Settings."
posted by amyms at 1:02 PM on December 14, 2008

Or maybe it's under "Personal Settings" - Guide > Personal Settings > Notifications - (sorry, my son is the only one who plays xbox and he's not home right now, but I know the option is there somewhere).
posted by amyms at 1:04 PM on December 14, 2008

Hit the large X button in on the controller (not sure what it's called) to bring up the menu. Scroll to the right to settings. Select 'Notifications' and turn the notifications off either for when watching videos or off all the time.
posted by jimmythefish at 1:05 PM on December 14, 2008

Thanks!
posted by Flunkie at 1:10 PM on December 14, 2008

jimmythefish is right, but I just wanted to add that that large X is called the "Guide button." Mainly because I'm anal about things like that.
posted by joshrholloway at 1:10 PM on December 14, 2008

You can also log out and hen you won't be bothered until you log back in.
posted by COD at 1:20 PM on December 14, 2008

Everyone I know calls the big X the "start button" which seems fitting/apt.
posted by cmyr at 4:50 PM on December 14, 2008

Unfortunately there is a button labeled 'start' to the right of it (with the little 'play' arrow). It's commonly called 'start' by the documentation.
posted by defcom1 at 6:10 PM on December 14, 2008

I seem to remember that if you set your status to "busy" it suppresses the notifications too.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:22 AM on December 15, 2008

FWIW, the big circular button in the center of the controller to which you all refer to... "Xbox Guide Button" :)

As someone said, there is an actual "Start" button right next to it and an actual "X" button right next to that! I'm really not a stickler for such fine details, but I thought I'd clear it up since several people were unaware :)
posted by mrzer0 at 4:07 AM on December 16, 2008

Thanks for the clarification. I was hitting my blue X button to no avail until reading the thread more closely. And besides, I always thought of the Guide button as the power button.
posted by malaprohibita at 5:36 PM on December 17, 2008