Xbox gamers frustrated with bug that wipes out profiles

Summary Missing profiles and bugs galore with Xbox Alpha Skip-Ahead and Alpha Insiders update.
Profile data loss, system settings wiped, and Xbox gamers frustrated by latest preview update.
Impact of bugs may not be widespread since update only rolled out to limited, invite-only rings.
Just like Windows, Microsoft has Insider rings for its Xbox gaming platform too. This is where the Redmond tech firm tests upcoming hardware and software features with a limited audience before rolling them out globally; an example of this being keyboard and mouse support in Xbox Cloud Gaming. While the preview rings can be quite exciting for Xbox gamers at times, they can also bring annoying bugs, which is somewhat understandable, given the nature of in-development releases. However, this justification might not be enough for many Xbox Insiders who ended up facing lots of bugs in the latest preview system update.
Missing profiles and bugs galore!
As reported by VGC, Microsoft rolled out a firmware update for Xbox Alpha Skip-Ahead and Alpha Insiders on Wednesday. While this was initially available as an optional update, it became mandatory on Thursday, 11AM GMT. Typically, after installing an update, an Xbox boots to the Dashboard view, but after installing this particular update, users reported that their console was going through the initial setup process, indicating that no profile data existed.
After setting up their profile from scratch again, Xbox Insiders realized that while their existing games were still installed, they had lost all system settings, the wallpaper, recently played games, and Quick Resume. Gamers were also logged out of their media apps, which piled an additional nuisance. Interestingly, the Xbox preview update was meant to resolve profile issues, but it seems that it ended up creating new ones. Here is the latest change log:
Profile Fixed an issue where viewing your own profile would appear as if viewing another user’s profile unintentionally, offering none of the expected customization options. TV & Display Options Fixed an issue where the console would not correctly detect support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Vision for Gaming when connected to certain TV models, and playing Dolby Vision content would instead fall back to HDR10. System Various updates to properly reflect local languages across the console.
Impact might not be widespread
It is important to note that this preview update was only rolled out to Alpha Skip-Ahead and Alpha rings. Both of these are invite-only rings for the future and next releases of the Xbox operating system respectively, which means that they likely don’t have a huge user base as they are expected to be buggy. Regardless, the latest bugs have been an annoyance for many who have taken to social media to voice their concerns. Both these rings usually receive builds every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but given the severity of the issue, it will be interesting to see if Microsoft releases a hotfix to patch the bug today, provided that profile data can be recovered in the first place, of course.