PS5 owners have digital purchases 'nuked' due to 'software bug'

A number of Sony PlayStation owners have said a 'software bug' means they're losing access to all of their digital purchases.

Gamers can buy PS4, PS5 and PS Vita games and other content on their accounts through the PS Store and this content is available for them to keep and download.

But on Reddit, a number of gamers across these consoles have said they're experiencing a 'bug' that means some content has been delinked.

When trying to then 'restore licenses', a workaround users said they found searching for fixes to the problem, the 'bug' is said to then delink all purchases made through the PS Store or games added to an account's library through PS Plus, PlayStation's subscription service.

User dSuds2342 posted: "For the last few months, there has been a bug impacting a relatively small amount of PSN (PlayStation Network) users in which all digital licenses (including purchased games and titles added to one's library via PS Plus) become decoupled from your transaction history which shows you purchased those things.

"If this happens to you, your transaction history will look totally normal, but your "Purchased" tab in your "Games Library" on the Playstation.com website will only show titles that were added after you became afflicted by the bug.

"Any games before you were hit with the bug will be inaccessible on console.

"If you try to download them, it will want you to rebuy/re-add from PS Plus, but when you try to do that it will tell you that you already own the content.

"Installed games impacted by the bug will show a padlock icon and can't be launched.

"In my case, I've had my PSN account since 2007 and right now, the only content I can access is anything I added to my account after roughly 11.50pm on February 29."

The user goes on to say they tried to find a workaround and found the option to 'restore licenses'.

But the user said this then 'nuked' the remaining licensed content they had bought.

The user said: "I suspect that if I had never run the 'Restore Licenses' process, that I would still have access to all of my games on my PS5."

Around 50 gamers are said to have been impacted by the 'bug', with some waiting since November for answers from Sony of what to do or if the company can fix it.

Sony has been approached for comment.

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