GTA 5 Black Screen Error: All you need to know

GTA 5 has been released for the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in a brand-new edition. This version includes several console-specific upgrades, exclusive features, and graphical improvements that make it look as good as, if not better than, the PC version.

However, several players have been facing a peculiar issue in which they're stuck watching a black screen. This seems to be happening during the migration of player data from the older consoles. Here's everything players need to know about the problem as well as a possible fix.

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What is causing a black screen error in GTA 5 next-gen, and how to fix it?

What is the black screen error, and who is affected?

The black screen error seems to be affecting PS5 players who are transferring their GTA Online character data from PS4. When such players attempt to start the game, they are left staring at a black screen, and nothing else happens. As a result, players have been obviously scared of losing their data.

Waiting doesn't resolve the issue, as it can go on forever as long as the application is running. Some players on the Xbox Series X/S have reported that the error has been affecting them too. This indicates that this particular bug isn't exclusive to the PS5.

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How to fix the black screen error?

Thankfully, there's a simple solution to fix this annoying issue that many players have reported to be working. Simply restarting the game seems to have fixed the black screen error for most PS5 players.

The GTA Online app should be closed down and restarted for the game to run normally again. However, just to be on the safe side, players should wait for the migration to be completed after restarting.

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Other related issues and alternate solutions

After restarting GTA Online, many players are facing another issue where the game is stuck at a loading screen. The on-screen text is getting stuck at 90% or above. Some have reported that closing the application and restarting the console fixed it for them.

However, this might simply be a server issue caused by too many people migrating at once. Therefore, players are advised to simply wait it out as the server might be overloaded at the moment.

On PC, there's a simpler fix where the resource monitor can be used to suspend the process temporarily, making the game run again but in an empty public lobby. On PS5, players can do the following:

• Switch to a different account, open the game, then quickly switch back to the original account and run the game again.
• If this doesn't work, they can shut down their console, unplug it for around 30-60 seconds, and try running the game again.

Rockstar is yet to respond to the situation at the moment as it seems to be an issue on their part.