Insiders Report Xbox Update Restoring Consoles to Factory Defaults

Xbox owners enrolled into the Xbox Insider program are reporting that their consoles are being reset back to factory settings by a new update.

The Xbox Insider program allows users to receive new system features early, and is split into various ‘tiers’ for how new and/or buggy they want these features to be when they receive them.

Users in the earliest Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead tiers say the latest console update is removing their Xbox profiles, console settings and Quick Resume data (thanks, VGC) – and has now been made a mandatory download, so cannot be skipped.

The Xbox Insider program has been running for 15 years, but an issue this big is extremely rare. The scheme’s dedicated reddit is awash with complaints, with one user calling it the “biggest bug I’ve ever seen release in all my years of being in the preview program”.

“This one actually factory reset my Series X,” another user wrote. “It must’ve updated today and now my console is requiring me to set it up as brand new.”

“Light a candle for the guy here with a broken HDMI port and relies on remote play,” wrote another. “Update messed everything up and now I cannot remote to my Series X, can’t even see what is going on.”

While users can re-sign into their profiles and manually change back their settings, anyone impacted will lose time (and need to remember their passwords, including to any media apps).

Eurogamer has contacted Microsoft for comment.