Grand Theft Auto 4 Update That Erases Saves Now Fixed

A recent Grand Theft Auto 4 update that erases saves became the center of talk in the GTA community. The update’s goal was to restore the in-game music and radio stations that were previously removed but it looks like it did much more than that because many players were reporting that this patch destroyed their save files. 

The older game’s social communities, especially Reddit, were alight with reports that their save files were being wiped out. Luckily, most were able to gain back an older save by completely uninstalling the game and reinstalling with cloud saves but that wasn’t a fix that worked for everyone. Luckily, Rockstar was listening and they’ve fallen back to a pre-update version of the game. 

A Rockstar rep recently released a statement about the studio’s plan of action, saying: “There was an issue introduced in yesterday’s update that temporarily gave the appearance that save files were destroyed and the update was recalled. The game should now be reading those save files correctly and we will redeploy the update as soon as we can.”

Grand Theft Auto 4 has been a whirlwind of issues since the game’s launch back in 2008, including its entire removal from Steam due to expired licenses. For those that have run into this update and are worried about their save files, many players have been reporting doing the following actions: 

• Uninstall the game
• Uninstall all associated files 
• Reinstall
• Opt into restoring a previous Cloud Save

If you haven’t fired up the game yet and it did not update with the corrupt save patch, then you’re good to go and free to enjoy the game as usual. It doesn’t have alien gang wars, but the fourth Grand Theft Auto definitely housed a unique charm that makes it a fun adventure to jump back into. 

Related: Epic Games Store Down As Grand Theft Auto V Goes Free

Hopefully, everyone’s files were safely restored and “dehidden.” In the meantime, you can check out some of our previous Grand Theft Auto coverage below, including how to take to Los Santos in VR: 

• Grand Theft Auto V VR is pretty dang awesome, here’s how it works
• GTA Online casino content was meant to be single-player DLC until it wasn’t
• Grand Theft Auto V can be played, for free, through the Xbox Game Pass

What do you think about all of the oddball troubles Grand Theft Auto 4 has seen through the years? What is your favorite entry into this beloved Rockstar franchise? Sound off with your thoughts and experiences over on Twitter @PrimaGames! We’d love to hear all about those interesting adventures.