Baldur's Gate 3 Xbox Save Issues: How To Fix & Avoid

With Baldur's Gate 3, the overall Game of the Year for many, released on Xbox Series X/S consoles, there's a potentially critical savegame issue some players are experiencing. In December, Xbox gamers reported losing dozens of hours of progress as their save files disappeared.

Since then, developer Larian has pushed out an update, and Microsoft released an Xbox console system update to alleviate the BG3 savegame bug. As of 29 December 2023, players are still reporting loss of savegame files in BG3 on Xbox Series X/S, so we are here to help.

How To Avoid Deleted BG3 Savegame

Baldur's Gate 3 is a massive game that can take upwards of 100 hours to complete. Imagine losing a save game with, for example, 50 hours of progress. That would make even the calmest of gamers rage.

Despite Microsoft pushing out a console update, they still recommended some actions from BG3 players via Twitter.

If this issue occurs, your savegame file for BG3 might be gone for good on your Xbox console.

Losing a lot of progress without doing anything wrong is terrible, so check out the precise steps you can take to avoid the savegame missing issue on Xbox.

• Ensure your console remains powered, even when turned off.

  • Your Xbox console is designed to still perform checks and functions when turned off to help optimize your experience. When you turn your console off, make sure it is done properly. Any method that involves turning power off to the console directly can cause unexpected issues.

    • Examples of these are below, but not limited to

      • Turning power off at the wall or outlet the console is connected too.

      • Turning off a power strip or surge protector the console is plugged into.

      • An unexpected power outage

  • To turn off your console properly, follow these steps.

    • Hold down the Xbox button on your controller.

    • Select Turn off console.

      • You can also just press the Power button on the front of the console to initiate a shut down.

• Make sure your Xbox is up to date.

  • Ensure your system is up to date as console updates usually include fixes to how games operate.

  • Even if your console is set to receive automatic updates, you may still have to do a manual update to ensure your console is as up to date as it can be.

  • To perform a manual update, follow these instructions.

    • Make sure that your console is connected to the internet, and then press the Xbox button to open the guide.

    • Select Profile & system,

    • then go to Settings.

    • then to System.

    • and finally Updates.

      • Under Updates, you’ll see:

        • Console update available. Select this to begin your update, or

        • No console update available. This means your console is up to date.

• Close your game completely when you are done playing.

  • Save your progress in the game first.

  • Exit the title to your Home screen.

    • You can use the Xbox button on your controller to select Home to get here.

  • On the Home screen, highlight Baldur’s Gate 3 from your recently played list.

    • This will be towards the top of the dashboard.

  • Once highlighted, press the Menu button on your controller.

  • Select Quit

    • If it's not present, the game is not currently running.

• Clear some of your local saved game data.

  Your Xbox console may have trouble saving data for Baldur's Gate 3 if it already has large amounts of save data from other games stored locally. To avoid this problem, you can delete the local copies of save data from other games to free up some space. Any local save data you delete this way will be automatically redownloaded from the cloud next time you want to play that game.

  • On the Home screen of your console, select My games & apps.

  • Highlight a game and press the Menu button your controller.

  • Select Manage game & add-ons.

  • Select the Saved data box.

  • Select the saved game data you wish to remove and choose Delete from Console. These should all be labeled by Gamertag

    • This will delete the locally saved game data from your console for that tile and gamertag. This will automatically be redownloaded to your console next time you launch that title while signed in with that gamertag.

    • If you choose Delete from Everywhere, this will remove the saved data from the cloud as well, potentially causing all progress for that title to be lost.

Please note that these are official steps from Microsoft to avoid Baldur's Gate savegame issues on Xbox Series X/S consoles. 

Players are reporting that even following these steps does not guarantee safety, and some are calling for the removal of BG3 from the Xbox Store until this savegame deletion issue is resolved.

In case you've been living in the Underdark and missed it, check out the awesome Baldur's Gate 3 launch trailer below.

Hopefully, taking these steps will help you avoid losing hours of progress in Baldur's Gate 3 due to the Xbox save bug. Good luck, heroes of Faerûn!