If you are starting your Baldur's Gate 3 adventure on Xbox but have been seeing a lot of issues with Saves disappearing and don't want to risk starting a game and losing your saves shortly after. This article will walk you through the problem and some ways you can minimise the risk of saves disappearing after a crash or for a few other random issues.

Related: How to Disable Cloud Saves in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Baldur’s Gate 3, the fantasy epic has finally arrived on Xbox and recently shadow-dropped on Xbox Series X & S after winning Game of the Year at The Game Awards. Sadly it has unfortunately brought along an annoying bug that causes disappearing saves. Bugs and errors are normal in new releases but anything that affects saves and progress is a lot rarer and way more problematic for Xbox Players. No one wants to spend hours playing a game only to lose all of that hard work in an instant. The good news is that Larian are already working on the problem and should have it fixed pretty soon.

What's Causing Baldur's Gate 3 Saves to Vanish on Xbox?

The bug causing saves to vanish on the Xbox Series X was first reported by players like Reddit user Loganburke, who noted that every console reboot made Baldur’s Gate 3 act as if it had never been played before. Hundreds of frustrated players echoed similar complaints, marking this as a substantial issue for a game of Baldur’s Gate 3's magnitude. The game also responds the same way to random crashes. If the game crashes it restarts thinking it's a new game.

Larian Studios' Response to Saves Disappearing on Xbox.

Larian Studios, the developer behind Baldur’s Gate 3, is aware of saves disappearing and has been quick to respond to the save disappearance bug. An update was released on December 11, 2023, suggesting that the issue might be linked to a crash. Larian suggests updating the Xbox system to help fix stability with save. However, a proper fix will still be a little bit away so we've listed some workarounds you can use in the meantime.

Player Experiences and Workarounds.

If you are desperate to keep playing but also want to reduce the risk of losing all of your hard work and progress you will need to try some of the following things!

Adjusting save management practices

  • Notably, creating a limited number of manual saves,
  • Deleting old saves before making new ones,
  • Occasionally reboot your console.

Preventive Measures: Manual Xbox System Update

The other super important part of the process is to make sure you have a System-level update rather than relying solely on game patches. Larian Studios recommends players manually check for Xbox system updates. Unfortunately, they probably aren't small updates but they come with stability fixes. They are simple solutions available from Xbox to help solve a lot of annoying bugs and problems like this. To do this System > Settings and check for updates.

What if Nothing so far has Solved this Problem?

As with everything at launch, there are going to be some problems, however with an issue this big Larian should have it fixed pretty quickly so just check if an update is available from Xbox in the coming days and you should be able to start playing without the problem of save files in Baldur's Gate 3 on Xbox Series X|S vanishing. Interestingly there wasn't a save issue that caused saves to disappear on the PC version of Baludur's Gate 3.