Xbox owners warned they have until 9 January to change one setting

Nothing quite says happy New Year like the threat of losing important gaming data.

And that’s exactly what Xbox gamers should be aware of since the console’s maker Microsoft has quietly announced a change of policy within some recently updated terms and conditions.

According to Reddit user Comrade_Jacob, the update means that there’s an important piece of admin gamers should be aware of if they want to hold on to certain content.

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That’s because there’s a significant change coming to Xbox Network (the online gaming and content service for all things Xbox) and how it handles gameplay captures.

The change will mean any screenshots and gameplay clips that gamers have uploaded to the Xbox network will be automatically deleted after 90 days. That’s right, you could lose those epic gaming moments forever if you don’t do anything about it.

This means that - to keep any cherished gaming moments safe - gamers will need to make sure they’ve backed everything up. This can be done by saving them to an external storage device or a cloud service like OneDrive - and the Reddit user suggests deletions will start on January 9 (although Microsoft hasn't confirmed this date).

“I suspect there will be some confusion so let's be clear: this does not affect the captures saved to your drives, be it the internal or an external drive,” explained the Reddit user on the post.

“If your capture is saved to both a drive and the network, you will retain the one uploaded to your drive. If you've uploaded a capture to the network and deleted it from your drive, you are now at risk of losing that capture forever; you must copy it to a physical drive or upload it to OneDrive if you want to preserve it.”

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And so, to make sure you don’t face this scramble in the future, you might want to tweak your settings to ensure all new captures automatically upload to your chosen backup option.

Here’s how to do it: first, head over to the ‘My Captures’ page on your Xbox and select ‘Manage’. From there, you can pick which clips or screenshots to save and easily upload them to OneDrive or another service. Easy!

Although a word of caution: this change only affects captures stored on the Xbox Network. If you’ve got your clips and screenshots on internal or external drives, you’re in the clear – sort of. On the other hand, some users have reported missing captures from internal drives, with no clear explanation as to why. This mystery loss just goes to show that backing up your files is always a smart move, no matter where they’re stored.

So, Xbox owners, consider this your friendly New Year reminder. While you're busy setting goals and making plans for 2023, don't forget to secure your gaming memories. After all, what’s a gamer without their epic highlights reel?