Xbox should never delete your captures without your consent or at least a warning!

Dharlequin · Sep 7, 2023

Since this is still an issue after so many complaints and no one from Microsoft cares to admit it's an issue or do anything about it, it's time to talk about it again.

I have had more than two years of Captures on my Xbox Series X. After Microsoft shut down the Xbox Companion App on PC, which I was using to transfer shots from console, I started looking for new ways to copy captures. I found out that now you can use USB drives to do just that. And the first time I do that (I'm not sure if that was the trigger or if it changed some setting in the console), my Xbox probably decided that I don't need my captures no more, and erased all of them up to yesterday's evening. Yes, even yesterday midday captures are gone, just like that.

And no, before you say anything, not all of the yesterday's captures were uploaded to cloud - so they are just gone forever, they are neither here, nor there. BECAUSE OF A REASON, apparently. And no, not all of even older captures were in the cloud or copied to PC, so they are gone forever now too.

This is a HORRIBLE, NIGHTMARISH and RIDICULOUS user experience. These things should never happen without me knowing about it, without any warning, notification. This should be a stupid option somewhere, that is disabled by default. No other console or platform does that. These are my captures, my stuff, on my console, that I bought, they are not even in your cloud which is understandably limited in space, this is my internal storage, and I decide what to do with it and what I want to store on it! I captured them for some reason, there was intent, even albeit miniscule at some time or another, but that's not for you to decide or judge.

This is what should be changed and updated, not the UI, that you change two times a month. UX should be updated first and foremost.

:)

KONSPIRACEETHEORY

This is actually false Microsoft just announced a new policy that will automatically delete our personally saved captures from our system. Also, this is illegal and invasion of privacy because I own my system, not Microsoft. So bet you a lawsuit will be coming. If I find one single capture of mine gone I will not hesitate to take action against Microsoft either. What's next Microsoft starts deleting games from my system too ?

ReynaldoB

Hi Dharlequin

Thank you for posting in the Microsoft Community forum. I hope you're doing well.

I understand that you have concern about your captures on Xbox that are being deleted without consnet. I’m so sorry to hear that you lost your captures. I know how frustrating and disappointing that must be. You put a lot of time and effort into creating those memories, and they are important to you. I would feel the same way if that happened to me.

Upon further research, this may be due to a storage limit on the Xbox network, which is 10 GB for Xbox One and 50 GB for Xbox Series X|S. Once the limit is reached, the oldest captures may be deleted automatically to make room for new ones. However, some users say that this is not clear or consistent, and that they should have more control over their captures.

To prevent losing your captures, you can either delete them manually, or back them up to an external device or OneDrive. You can also change the settings to save your captures locally on your console instead of on the Xbox network.

For reference, you may refer to this articles. Back up your game clips | Xbox Support and Manage your game clips and screenshots | Xbox Support

Sincerely

Microsoft Community Forum Moderator

ReynaldoB

Hi Dharlequin

Thanks for getting back.

I totally understand that you've already tried a lot of troubleshooting steps but the problem is still not resolved. At this point, it would be best if you contact our live support team. Due to the complexity of the problem, this would need a more advanced tools and troubleshooting steps.

To contact live support, please follow the guide below:

Please use this link: Contact us | Xbox Support
Scroll down and look at the lower left side if you can see the page matches the country/region you are currently located.
If not, please select the country/region it is showing and select the correct one among the list.
Make sure to use to check the available contact times of the support.
Select the "Contact Us" button
Select the drop-down menu options that will match your concern.
The next window will provide you with support articles based on your request and we recommend reviewing the relevant articles before selecting the "See contact options" button.
On the final window, you will be presented with multiple options. We suggest selecting either the "Chat online" or the "Request a call" options to speak with someone. Be sure to provide as much detail as possible.
If you cannot get connected to the support, please use the Virtual Agent and enter this exact phrase, "Talk to an agent".
Should you encounter same issue and have an error message please let us know so we can forward your findings to the Internal Support Team.

Sincerely

Microsoft Community Forum Moderator

Dharlequin

Thank you for your reply.

I want to clarify several moments:

1. I mainly capture images, so even with 14 MBs per capture I highly doubt that I could reach the 50 GB limit over two years.

2. My console now constantly removes new captures, even though it deleted them all a couple of days ago. So either the limit is inaccurate or there is no limit, or it is determined incorrectly.

3. People are reporting that their new consoles have been doing that from the start, when they only had around 30-40 captures. So again, either limit is inaccurate or something else is going on.

4. My console now randomly removes some images from internal storage and some from Xbox network - so now two storages are suffering and neither is stable.

5. I saw reports of people having issues with OneDrive as well, when captures were not uploaded, even though the process have started, and then captures were deleted by the console itself.

6. What is the point of deleting my captures manually if the console is doing that just fine? I don't want to delete them, I want to preserve my gaming history.

7. I tried connecting an external HDD to the console, and at one time it just magically vanished from Captures app, so I couldn't even access my captures, even though it was clearly identified in Settings and set as a capture destination. It was remedied by console reboot.

8. I have reports of people disabling uploads to Xbox Network, and the console would still delete the captures - meaning they will be lost forever.

So to sum up, there is no one clear, stable and reliable way to store captures on Xbox consoles, as either approach may lead to you losing all or some captures.

This should be addressed as a real and serious issue by Microsoft and fixed with a firmware probably. And Microsoft should not offer questionable workarounds and just fix what is broken.

You ought to escalate this to the technical department.

XBF Zineb F

To by pass this you'll need to use a capture card from the console though. Without a capture card, only the audio from your party can be streamed (after your party chat members give consent to their voice being broadcast).

Xbox should never delete your captures without your consent or at least a warning!