The members of the Xbox Alpha test group, consumers who try updates to come before getting started online for everyone, were surprised to discover this week that the last Alpha update was a little more destructive than not to work. It is sometimes the case that one of these updates does not fully realize one of its new features which is still in testing, but this is not quite the case with the last update. This fully resets the entire Xbox to factory settings, essentially wiping everything from the console.
The members of the initiate test group lit their Xbox consoles, the S series and the X series, and were faced with a message “There was a problem with the update”.
This message was then shared by initiate test members on social media sites like Reddit, confirming that it was not an individual problem. There were fixes, such as trying to install an older firmware or simply avoid this update, but shortly could be done after the update. Fortunately, since the Xbox recuperated backups in a cloud, the most that would be lost was the screenshot and the video catches kept locally and a lot of time lost to download everything.
In addition, it is in a way the purpose of the early access program for new updates. Most updates are good, but these are mainly crash tests to make sure that things are set before going to people who have not registered for unstable updates. In this sense, even a Buggy update is successful, because it allows Microsoft to divert problems with problems.
But it is all the software engineers and the nightmare of the programmers, the kind of thing that makes them awaken the night in a cold sweat: what if something is pushed and that it has catastrophic effects? Unfortunately, it cannot really be avoided with certainty. Software must possibly be tested and, as a team can be prepared before pushing it to the first group of testers, there will always be unpredictable variables.
An important lesson to know, however, is how to accept the public is of this dynamic. In this case, people have registered to be part of this program by fully understanding that it was at best unstable. But for a wider audience? It would absolutely not fly. Armed with this information, a lot of pressure can be put aside.
But if you are in the initiate program, maybe wait a bit before updating your Xbox.
