Madden 22 just dropped the October Title Update with upgraded Scouting in Franchise, but apparently it came with a major Connection Error bug.
If you're dealing with Connection Error or Connection Lost and seeing your Franchise save vanish, we've got details on how to fix it in Madden 22.
Madden 22: Franchise Connection Error & Connection Lost Bug
If you've already been trying out the newly upgraded Scouting features in Madden 22, chances are you might've run into this brand new bug.
Usually you'll receive one or both of the following errors, with Connection Error usually showing up first and sometimes followed by Connection Lost.
You'll get the following text with Connection Error: "Unable to connect to EA Server. Please try again later. See ea.com/unable-to-connect for additional information. You have been return to the Main Menu."
You'll see the following text with Connection Lost: "You have lost your connection to the EA Servers. You will be unable to access any online features until you sign in to the EA Servers again. See ea.com/unable-to-connect for additional information."
If you visit the link shown in the error, you'll reach a generic troubleshooting article from EA Help, but it's very likely none of these apply to your situation.
After some of our own testing, the bug seems to always appear in an Online Franchise Save, and not when using an Offline Save.
It also consistently triggers at the transition from the end of Offseason into the week of the Draft, whether simming ahead over a long period of time or just trying to Advance Week into the Draft.
How to Fix & Recover Deleted Online Franchise Save File
Perhaps the most alarming part of this Franchise Bug when you face Connection Error is that after being booted back to the Franchise screen for save selection, you'll notice the one you were just in is gone.
In fact, it can appear that all existing Franchise saves are now gone and completely missing from your Madden 22 game.
As scary as that look can be, there is an easy fix as you'll just need to force close the game and reload it from scratch.
You can do this by power cycling your console or backing out to a console home screen and closing that game application before launching it again.
When you head back into Franchise after doing that, your save should be there as it was before, and the one that crashed while advancing to the NFL Draft should be on that week after reloading.
EA has not yet acknowledge this issue or whether another update or hotfix are on the way for Madden 22 to remedy it.
Madden 22 keeps crashing on Xbox Series X|S and PS5?
While we're not sure if it's directly connected to the October Title Update in the same way that these new Franchise bugs are, crashes seem to be popping up more and more.
Many players have had issues with Madden 22 crashing on Xbox Series X|S, but that seemed to be a console-specific problem and was affecting multiple games from different developers.
Things seem to have now worsened, as many Madden 22 players on both Xbox Series X|S and PS5 are reporting that the title is crashing following the October Title Update.
EA has acknowledged the issue to some extent via the EA Help account, but only stated they are aware of and investigating these issues.