GTA 5's New Enhanced PC Edition: How To Preload And Transfer Story Progress For Free

Grand Theft Auto 5's long-awaited enhanced upgrade on PC finally arrives on March 4. Ahead of that, existing GTA 5 players can pre-load the free upgrade via the Rockstar Games Launcher or Steam.

Additionally, existing owners can now transfer their story mode progress to the new edition of GTA 5 for PC through a new option found in the Pause menu. Scroll down to see a quick rundown of how to pre-load the new edition of GTA 5 for PC and how to transfer your saves to the new version.

GTA 5's new enhanced edition on PC brings over the changes, improvements, and additions from the Xbox Series X|S and PS5 versions, including better graphics, faster loading times, and lots more.

If you don't already own GTA 5 on PC, you can grab it through GameSpot sister site Fanatical via the link below. Note that the key must be redeemed through the Rockstar Games Launcher.

Looking ahead, Rockstar said it will announce details on the next GTA Online update in March, and while details are thin for now, the studio said the update will focus on "sky-high illicit revenue opportunities" with the character Oscar Guzman.

As for GTA 6, Rockstar Games is planning to launch the game later this year, and the release date might have gotten narrower now that we know when Borderlands 4 is coming.

How to preload GTA 5's new enhanced edition

If you already own GTA 5, you will see "GTA V Enhanced" in your game library. This should happen automatically without any input from you. As part of this, the existing version of GTA 5 for PC has now been renamed "GTA V Legacy." As announced previously, this version will still be supported going forward, but cross-play is not possible between GTA V Enhanced and GTA V Legacy.

How to transfer story mode progress

Players can now migrate their story mode progress from GTA V Legacy to GTA V Enhanced. Players can navigate to the Pause Menu from inside GTA V Legacy on PC to do this.

Importantly, players can only migrate saves to GTA V Enhanced one time. "While you will be able to continue playing from where you left off in GTA V Legacy, progress cannot be copied back," Rockstar said.

When GTA V Enhanced officially launches on March 4, players can then migrate their GTA Online character progress to GTA V Enhanced, and again, this can only be done once. However, transferring GTA Online content to GTA V Enhanced does not delete any progress from GTA V Legacy. The content that transfers to GTA V Enhanced's GTA Online mode includes characters, GTA$, progression, stats, vehicles, properties, weapons, clothing, and player-created jobs.

Full intructions

As published by Rockstar Games, the full set of instructions for how to transfer story content from GTA V Legacy and GTA V Enhanced on PC can be found below.

Question: How can I migrate my Story Mode Save from GTAV Legacy to GTAV Enhanced on PC?

Answer: Migrating your Story Mode Save from GTAV Legacy involves the following steps:

1. Making sure the Rockstar Games account you are signed into is linked to the preferred PC platform account
2. Uploading your Story Mode Save Game from GTAV Legacy on PC to Rockstar Games
3. Opening GTAV Enhanced on PC and downloading the Story Mode Save Game

Important:

• Migrating GTAV Legacy progress to GTAV Enhanced may only be done within the PC platform, migrating from PC to console or console to PC is not supported.
• Some Profiles may not be eligible for migration for several reasons, such as account suspensions, account bans, or the Profile having illegitimate or insufficient progress.

Notes:

• Depending on the size of your Story Mode Save Game and service load, migrations may take time to complete.
• Only one Save Game can be uploaded per account and players can update their uploaded Story Mode Save Game until they initiate a download of their Story Mode Save Game on GTAV Enhanced.
• Once the Story Mode Save Game from GTAV Legacy has been downloaded successfully to GTAV Enhanced, no further Story Mode migrations will be available on that account.
• Story Mode progress made in GTAV Legacy after migration will not be synced to your Story Mode progress in GTAV Enhanced.

Uploading your Story Mode Save Game 

1. Open GTAV Legacy on your PC
2. Go to the Pause Menu in-game 
3. Choose Game and select Upload Save Game 
4. Select the Save Game you want to migrate, then Upload the Save Game 
5. An alert screen will prompt you to confirm that the Story Mode Save Game is the one you wish to migrate
6. Wait for the Story Mode Save Game upload to complete 
7. After the upload completes, you will receive a message confirming its successful upload to Rockstar Games

Notes:

• You can update the Story Mode Save Game uploaded to Rockstar Games multiple times, overwriting the previously uploaded Save Game each time, until you download it on GTAV Enhanced
• Uploaded Save Game files will be available for download for 90 days
• After 90 days the Save Game may be removed, and you will need to upload your save again

Downloading Your Story Mode Save Game

Launch GTAV Enhanced and download your Story Mode Save Game via either the Landing Page or the Pause Menu.

Landing Page

Note: If you already have Story Mode Save Games on your PC, you will need to download your Game Save using the in-game Pause menu.

1. Open GTAV Enhanced on your PC
2. Select the Story tab on the Landing Page
3. If there are Story Mode Save Games available, an alert screen will ask you to confirm if you want to download the Story Mode Save Game selected
4. Once your Story Mode Save Game finishes downloading, you will receive a message confirming its successful download to your PC
5. From there the game will automatically load your Story Mode Save Game

Pause Menu

1. Open GTAV Enhanced
2. Open the Pause Menu
3. Select Game then Download Save Game
4. Select the Story Mode Save Game you wish to download
5. An alert screen will ask you to confirm if you want to download the selected Story Mode Save Game
6. Once the Save Game finishes downloading, you will receive a message confirming its successful download to your PC
7. From there the game will automatically load your Story Mode Save Game