When (specifically) do inactive names release?

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On one of the servers I play on, the name that I use everywhere (irl, as part of my business, and obviously all over online) has been taken. That’s to be expected, since it’s a fairly high pop server and even gibberish names get snatched up there if they’re short enough and I was slow off the mark in rolling characters there.

My question is: does anybody know if the inactive names being freed up is something that happens on pre-patch day (9.0 this time around I think?) or on Shadowlands launch day proper (8/26)? If it happens on Shadowlands day, does it happen at the same time that the content switch gets flipped? (if it happens on prepatch day, that’s just a “check for the name as soon as you log on” sort of deal, honestly—you can’t really predict when servers will be back up, heh)

The character that has the name that I want might not even be eligible, now that I think about it—as of the last time it was on the armory, the Xella who isn’t me was a level 103 draenei paladin, which means it was active for at least part of Legion (but I’ve been checking periodically since I rolled on WRA in MoP and she hadn’t changed at all since about midway through Emerald Nightmare’s raid tier). I have no means of contacting the owner of the character, but I know she still exists because it’s been well over 90 days since she disappeared from the armory and the name still isn’t available. But… the fact that she was/is 103 means she was technically active in Legion, so even if the account IS inactive now (and again: no way to check without knowing the player’s other characters, right?), the name wouldn’t be eligible for auto-release until the expansion AFTER Shadowlands, right?

(I was thinking about faction swapping one of my existing characters on the server, which is also the character I would want to have/use the name, but if the name is potentially freeing up in the next 60 days I don’t really want to pay for the faction change AND an extra name change on top of that. But it’s not gonna be available anyway probably, so shouldn’t I just do it? ugh ugh ugh sorry this is a lot of typing, lol :T)

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The whole account needs to be inactive for at least two expansions in order for the name to be released, not just the toon itself, and Blizzard no longer announces when names are released to stop people from holding those names up for ransom.

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To help specifically answer your question, there is no “set” date or time that names get released. The criteria that Jugend laid out has to be met in order for the automatic process of releasing names can even begin. GM’s are not able to release a name for you.

For instance, I have a character that has been inactive for multiple expansions, yet that name won’t be freed up seeing as I maintain an active account.

While it’s nice to be able to use the names that we consider part of our identity, at times you have to come up with a new name. And sometimes, you fall in love with that new name. I know I have.

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As others have said, the process is entirely automatic. We don’t get told when names become available, they just do. Like any of Blizzard’s timers, I’d imagine names would release if they’ve been inactive for exactly two expansions (patches included). That’s speculation on my part, but the gist is that it just happens and names are available.

There’s no use keeping an eye on a name to see if it gets freed up or not, cause that’s not really the purpose of it being automated. The automation is to keep the potential name pool from continuously shrinking due to buildup of taken ones, as well as keeping GMs from getting weighed down with the duty of checking to see which ones are or aren’t available. This way, it all falls into the simple: if you can’t use it, then you can’t use it.

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it goes on a rolling basis, A character needs to be on an inactive wow account (meaning a bnet account without an active subscription) for a minimum of 2 years (or expansions don’t remember) for a name to be released.

But as long as your wow account has an active subscription you can hold the name indefinitely even if the character holding it never logs into the game.