Xbox Insider Update Reportedly Causing Factory Resets on Consoles

One of the latest Xbox Insider updates has been reportedly causing factory resets on Xbox Series X|S consoles, deleting user profiles, game libraries, and system settings. The glitch accompanies preview update 2504.250227-2200, which was rolled out to members of Xbox Insiders program.

The Xbox Insiders program enables users to test new console features and OS builds before they are officially pushed out. The patch, however, has riled anger after various reports of users’ machines automatically resetting to factory settings following the download. One of the earliest to sound the alarm was Reddit user Xenokaiii, who dubbed the bug the “biggest” problem in the software yet. Besides factory reset, the update also reportedly caused update loops that stopped games and apps from downloading and installing normally.

The issues were followed up by Xbox Insiders employee XB1R_Hypnos and GuruKronos, who verified that system updates, game downloads, and app installations were being impacted by a service problem. A patch has now been rolled out to impacted Xbox Insiders, and early feedback suggests the update is effective at fixing the factory reset issue.

Although the patch remedies the problem at hand, there are a couple of users who will have to manually reset some of the console settings when they install the patch. Xbox Insiders can trigger the update through the Xbox app or directly from their console.

Even after releasing the patch, there were Xbox Insiders who were outraged that the bug did not catch anyone’s attention before the update was released to the testing community for the program. The event highlights the risks of being a pre-release software tester when critical system behaviors are in question.

Since the public release of the patch is yet to be completed, Xbox will likely continue monitoring for feedback to ensure that patching is proceeding as intended on all affected systems.