Xbox Update Is Resetting Consoles To Factory Settings, But You're Probably Not Affected

The latest firmware update for Xbox Series X|S consoles is out now, and it's apparently resetting users' consoles to factory settings--but none of this likely applies to you.

Microsoft's testing program, Xbox Insider, is free and available to everyone, and if you're in the Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead tier of the program, you can test out features before everyone else. But things don't always go smoothly with these early updates, and that seems to be happening here. For what it's worth, Microsoft makes it plain and clear in the Xbox Insider terms that the pre-release testing phase is unstable, but this latest update is notable for the damage it's doing.

Players are reporting that their entire profiles are being removed. Reporter Tom Warren of The Verge said this happened to him as well. He said this kind of thing is known to happen with pre-release software.

VGC encountered the wipe as well. The site said previously installed games remained on the console, but all other settings were deleted.

The purpose of the Xbox Insider update was to fix an issue with Xbox profiles that could cause your own profile to appear as if they were viewing another person's profile. The update also aimed to address an issue where your Xbox would not correctly detect Dolby Vision setups. Clearly, the update's release did not go as planned if it's removing profiles entirely.

The Xbox Insider social media account has not commented on the issues with the update that players are reporting as of press time.

If you're currently in the Xbox Insider program and want to leave, you can navigate to the Xbox Insider Hub and select "Leave Preview." To completely close an account, users can navigate to Settings > Manage account > Close account.

The number of people in the Xbox Insider program is unknown, as Microsoft does not share that data, but it's likely that only a very small percent of total Xbox users are in it.