Can I safely re-link my Steam account without losing progress?

[seiseidoudou]

I recently had my account compromised (the hacker contacted support and managed to convince them to change my e-mail...) and used for cheating in Apex- thankfully, after much struggle with the EA Support team, I was able to secure my account and reverse the ban the hacker put on my account.

However, in the process of this I discovered that the hacker disconnected my Steam account. While I was in the process of recovering my account, I had to create a new one to play Steam games, and now it is linked with that one (meaning if I launch from Steam, I'm back to level one). I tried to unlink it in the EA Account page, but I just receive a generic error, so I'll probably have to contact support again just to unlink it there, but I had discussed this with a number of support representatives and I'm quite confused about the consequences of re-linking my Steam account with my primary Origin account...

Say if I unlink Steam from my newer Origin account, which I only created as a temporary measure while my old account was inaccessible, and then I re-link my Steam account to my original Origin account again, will I lose all of my Apex Legends progression? Currently I am able to access the game like normal if I launch through Origin, and I would like to go back to playing through Steam, but I don't want this to be at the cost of thousands of hours and hundreds of dollars (I know, I'm kicking myself for even paying a dime at this point) of progression. I wasn't able to get a straight answer from support (the representative even went as far as to blame me for disconnecting it, when it was not me), so I'm hoping that Answers HQ will help me out here.

I know this is a pretty confusing situation, one that I really didn't want to be in at all, but I can explain as much as possible if anything is confusing.

[EA_Illium · Accepted solution]

Hey @seiseidoudou, 

For clarification when you unlink a platform account from an EA account you lose access to:

• games and game progress
• DLC, expansions, and anything extra you have for your game
• memberships and subscriptions
• in-game purchases.

The exception to this is, if you own the game through a 3rd party platform or on disc you keep the game through them, so the game shouldn't disappear from your library. The way to attempt to recover these items is to link the platform back to the exact same EA account. 

If you unlink your platform account and link it back to your original EA Account, you may be able to get access to your stuff if you still can access the account.

Once you linked them back, if you are missing items (including if this was due to someone else having access to your account), you would need to speak to our advisor to look into this to see what they may be able to assist with recovering.

[EA_Illium]

Hey @seiseidoudou For questions about linking or unblinking and what it may do to connected accounts, I would recommend checking out the below EA Help articles that provide more information, If you are still running into issues getting your Steam account connected to the correct EA account reach back out to an advisor for further assistance. 

• Link Platform accounts to EA Account  
• Unlink your platform accounts from your EA Account 

[seiseidoudou]

I tried reading the linked articles but I still don't understand what happens if I re-link the *same* Steam account; is progression reset then as well? Is it only reset on Steam, or does it reset on Origin as well? I was hoping for more clarification on my specific situation.

I have already spoken with support twice about this, and both times I was told I would lose all progression. This is ridiculous for two reasons:

1) I did not unlink my account, the person who hacked into my account did (I have plenty of proof of this), and

2) Support helped this person into my account in the first place, so it is not my fault.

I am hoping that this is just a misunderstanding. After support let someone into my account, there's no way I am linking payment information to Origin; the only way I would ever purchase EA products or services again is through Steam, and since support is responsible for unlinking my accounts, I would expect that it would be possible to re-link them without losing hundreds of dollars of in-game items (that's what I would call a scam, by the way...) but it seems this is not the case. I'm fine with playing on Origin, but without the link to Steam, I have no choice but to abstain from purchasing EA products or services going forward due to these unaddressed security concerns.

[EA_Illium · Accepted solution]

Hey @seiseidoudou, 

For clarification when you unlink a platform account from an EA account you lose access to:

• games and game progress
• DLC, expansions, and anything extra you have for your game
• memberships and subscriptions
• in-game purchases.

The exception to this is, if you own the game through a 3rd party platform or on disc you keep the game through them, so the game shouldn't disappear from your library. The way to attempt to recover these items is to link the platform back to the exact same EA account. 

If you unlink your platform account and link it back to your original EA Account, you may be able to get access to your stuff if you still can access the account.

Once you linked them back, if you are missing items (including if this was due to someone else having access to your account), you would need to speak to our advisor to look into this to see what they may be able to assist with recovering.

[seiseidoudou]

Thank you for the more in-depth reply. Unfortunately, since there's no guarantee I won't lose hard-earned or paid-for items, I can't consciously risk losing it all, so I'll be forced to stay with Origin and avoid purchases moving forward. EA should consider revisiting this system in the future, there should be no "maybes" when dealing with progression loss in these situations, especially when the situation is the result of something completely out of my control. 

[BruceweedTV]

@seiseidoudou I have the same problem & till today I dont know if I can relink my EA to my Steam (that was linked to EA) without loosing my progress bought through Origin.

[NotPobzy]

I’ve been dealing with the same stuff, they tell you that you lose progress but I had a friend that was able to solve the problem that we all are having and he didn’t lose any progress they just tell you do to scare you to not do it. Literally EA is one of the biggest scams of the century I’ve been trying to get my steam account linked to my EA account but still haven’t had no luck I’ve been told they can do something about it but then when they talk to they’re “team” they can’t do anything about it anyone and I have to make a brand new account. So I hope this changed your guys mind to to keep trying still and till they give us an opportunity to link a new steam account to an existing EA account.