11 September 2023 , 15:00
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Starfield launched last week and despite a hefty 15GB update for Xbox and 13.4GB patch for PC, crashes are plaguing players' games across both platforms. But while we wait for an official fix, there are a few workarounds that might solve the problem in the interim.
Update: Bethesda has released an update for Starfield which focuses on crashing and stability issues.
Bethesda loves its big games; both the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series offer huge open worlds to explore but, historically, the cost of that freedom has been performance issues, crashes, and bugs on older consoles like PS4, Xbox One and previous generations of hardware. And despite the Xbox Series X being touted as Microsoft's most powerful console, and PC hardware capabilities only being curtailed by the size of your wallet, Starfield is following suit with thousands of players reporting crashes across PC and Xbox Series X.
The day one patch set out to fix stability issues related to suspending and resuming the game on Xbox crashes occurring when viewing credits at the end of the game, and crashes that could appear when repeatedly loading some saves inside of ships. This is all via the leaked patch notes from Insider Gaming as the official ones don't appear to have been posted anywhere yet. But despite that, there are complaints that Starfield keeps crashing on Xbox Series X and PC all over Reddit and Twitter.
Windows Central's Jez Corden notes that he didn't have any Starfield crashing issues when playing for review, but with a new character the game is crashing "almost hourly". He says turning off Quick Resume seems to have helped but speculates that the save file cache may be too big; something that's seemingly backed up by another person in the thread.
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Between the Reddit threads offering workarounds to the Starfield keeps crashing issue, and reams of tweets on the topic, Bethesda has finally responded by posting pages for what to do if Starfield is crashing on Xbox and if Starfield is crashing PC. We've got all of the official workarounds below as well as suggestions from players on social media.
Starfield keeps crashing on Xbox Series X
According to Bethesda, there are a few solutions if Starfield keeps crashing on Xbox Series X. The Microsoft website has offered some up as well.
Restart the game
- Press the [Xbox] button on your controller to return to the Home screen.
- Press the [Menu] button on your controller, select quit and press [A] to close Starfield.
- Select 'Starfield' from the home screen and press [A] to restart.
Power Cycle the Console
- Press and hold the [Xbox] button on the front of the console for 10 seconds.
- Unplug the console's power cable and wait for 10 seconds.
- Plug the power cable back in and turn the console back on by pressing the [Xbox] button again.
Uninstall and Reinstall the Game
Do not delete your save files, but only the game itself. Once complete, you can reinstall the game from your library or disc.
- On the Home screen, select My games & apps > Apps
- Highlight the app you want to uninstall
- Press the [Menu] button on your controller, and select Uninstall > Uninstall all.
- To reinstall the app: On the Home screen, select My games & apps > Full library > All owned apps
- Select the app to reinstall and select Install all
Launch the game Offline
If the above solutions do not resolve it, disconnect your console from the Internet and launch the game.
Check your internet connection
Make sure that your Xbox Series X is connected to a stable and reliable internet connection. You can also try resetting your router or modem to see if that helps.
Outside of these workarounds, there's the disabling Quick Resume fix, and deleting older saves (or using less and just overwriting them) to avoid the save cache issue. As per this redditor, disabling auto save completely can mitigate the amount of Starfield crashes, and as per this reddit thread make sure you report the issue.
Starfield keeps crashing on PC
Bethesda's instructions for if Starfield keeps crashing on PC is one solution, in contrast to the options you can cycle through on Xbox. First off make sure your rig meets Starfield's minimum PC system requirements.
Make sure you have Starfield installed on a solid-state drive (SSD), not a hard disk drive
Installing Starfield to your solid-state drive is required in order for as smooth a gameplay experience as possible. If you currently have the game installed to a regular hard disk drive and are experiencing issues try installing to your SSD and see if there is a positive result.
If you do not know whether or not you have an SSD or do not know which drive it is, visit this link for How do I tell which drive is an SSD on PC?
Check that you have the latest video card drivers
Links to instructions for different video cards are found below:
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- AMD Instructions
- NVIDIA Instructions
- Intel Instructions
Disable Steam Overlay and/or the Xbox Game Bar
Steam: Disable Steam Overlay via Steam Settings, before launching the game, if you are experiencing low frame rate or experiencing performance issues. Alternately, enable Windows Game Mode in game (press Win+G) and selecting 'This is a game' when it prompts you.
Xbox: Disabling Xbox Game Bar
- Select the Windows Start Menu on the taskbar
- Select Settings.
- Select Gaming
- Select Xbox Game Bar
- Set the toggle to Off
Verify/Validate (repair) your game files
Steam
- From the Steam Launcher, right-click on the game from the Library and select Properties from the menu.
- Select the Local files tab and click Verify integrity of game files...
- Steam will verify the game's files. This process may take several minutes.
- Once the process is completed, the Check Window will automatically exit.
Please Note: One or more files may fail to verify; in most cases this is normal. These are local configuration files and should not be altered in this process. You can find further instructions regarding this here.
Xbox
- Open the Microsoft Xbox App and select the title you would like to verify and repair.
- Select the […] button next to the play button your game title and choose Manage.
- Select Files, then select Verify and Repair.
- You will then receive a pop-up warning you that you will not retain any mods or game saves that are not backed up.
- Select Yes to continue, the application will then verify your games files. You can launch the game once complete.
Make sure you are an administrator on your PC
To run Starfield as an Administrator:
- Navigate to the following location:
- Xbox App/Microsoft Store: C:\XboxGames\Starfield\Content\Starfield
- Steam: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Starfield
- Locate the game executable (the application/.exe file).
- Right-click it and go to Properties
- Click the Compatibility tab
- Check the Run this program as an administrator box at the bottom and click 'OK'
Once complete, restart your launcher and try launching the game again.
To run Steam as Administrator:
- Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam
- Locate the Steam executable (the application) called 'steam.exe'
- Right-click it and go to Properties
- Click the Compatibility tab
- Check the Run this program as an administrator box at the bottom and click 'OK'
Controller issues
If you have a controller plugged into your PC, unplug the controller before launching the game.
Antivirus software
Check your antivirus software to ensure that Starfield is added to the exclusion.
GPU and power settings
Set your Primary GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) and power settings by following the instructions here for Nvidia, AMD and additional laptop troubleshooting.
DirectX files
For some users, there's a chance you don't have all of the required DirectX files installed. Reinstalling the DirectX runtime libraries may resolve this issue, you can find more information here.