What is Baldur’s Gate 3 incompatible version error & can you fix it?

A frustrating error has swept over the players of Baldur’s Gate 3, with many being met with ‘incompatible version’ or ‘incompatible save’ after trying to load a previous save. So, here’s everything we know about it and whether you can fix it.

Baldur’s Gate 3’s release has undeniably been a successful one, with hundreds of thousands of people flocking to the game and praising it for its freedom, design, and lovable characters. Thanks to its lengthy early access period, the full release was also relatively unscathed by any major crashes or breaks, although it was still not quite perfect.

Shortly after release, Larian began rolling out hotfixes, to help iron out any unforeseen creases. However, one hotfix seems to have caused more trouble than it intended to fix, with many players coming across a pretty frustrating error. So, here’s everything we know about the ‘incompatible version’ or ‘incompatible save’ error and whether there’s a fix.

What is the Baldur’s Gate 3 incompatible version error?

The Baldur’s Gate 3 incompatible version error, or the incompatible save error many are receiving is caused by your game save taking place on the wrong version of the game. So, whenever you reload your save, the newer version of Baldur’s Gate 3 can’t find said save, because it’s on a different version.

This means you won’t be able to load the saves you’ve made since updating to hotfix 4. Which can be extremely frustrating for many players. Don’t panic though, because your saves are not lost, they’re just temporarily unavailable while Larian works on a fix.

Can you fix the incompatible version error in Baldur’s Gate 3?

Unfortunately no, you can’t currently fix the incompatible version error or the incompatible save error in Baldur’s Gate 3. Although a classic turn it on and off again is always worth a try.

Posted on August 16, Larian Studios shared their acknowledgment of the error, stating how “Due to a build error causing new crashes, we’ve rolled back Hotfix 4 for the time being. We’ll re-release it as soon as we’ve fixed the cause. If you’ve saved since updating, you won’t be able to load those saves until we’ve re-published Hotfix 4. Sorry about the inconvenience.”

Due to a build error causing new crashes, we’ve rolled back Hotfix 4 for the time being. We'll re-release it as soon as we’ve fixed the cause.

If you’ve saved since updating, you won’t be able to load those saves until we’ve re-published Hotfix 4. Sorry about the inconvenience.

— Larian Studios (@larianstudios) August 16, 2023

It’s clear that, while there’s not a fix just yet, one should be coming in the next few days. So, you can still play Baldur’s Gate 3, but you might need to lay off the save-scumming for a while.

While waiting for the hotfix to be re-rolled out, take a look at some of our other handy Baldur’s Gate 3 guides and content:

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