If you quit the game without saving, all progress—including auto/quick saves—will be lost.
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=838237877

(設定ファイルの読み込みに失敗しました。ランチャーから起動しなおしてください。 / 无法读取配置文件。请用启动器重新启动。 / 設定檔案讀取失敗。請由啓動程序再度重新啓動。)

Cause: Character encoding issues caused by mismatched system locale and game settings.

To change the system locale: (ex: to Simplified Chinese)
1. Right-click STEINS;GATE in your Steam Library → "Properties…" → Language → Set to Simplified Chinese.
2. Go to Control Panel → Clock and Region → Region.
3. In the "Region" window, Switch to "Administrative" tab.
4. Click "Change system locale…", and set it to "Chinese (Simplified, China)".
5. Restart your PC.

For multilingual users:
1. Go to Control Panel → Clock and Region → Region.
2. Switch to "Administrative" tab.
3. Click "Change system locale…".
4. Tick "Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support".
5. Restart your PC.
Note: Enabling UTF-8 may cause older non-Unicode programs to display garbled text or fail to run properly.


Cause: The game does not support fullscreen mode at refresh rates higher than 60Hz.

Solution 1: Change your refresh rate to 60Hz
1. Right click on your desktop → Display Settings → Advanced display settings.
2. Click on Display adapter properties for the active monitor.
3. Go to "Monitor" tab → Set "Screen refresh rate" to 60 Hz.
If your monitor doesn’t offer this option, you can use Custom Resolution Utility (CRU) to create a 60Hz profile.

Solution 2: Use Borderless Gaming[github.com]
If you prefer a fullscreen-like experience without changing refresh rate settings, use Borderless Gaming to force the game to run in borderless windowed mode.


Possible Cause 1: Windows Defender (or other antivirus) blocked access.
Fix:
1. Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Windows Security.
2. Open Virus & Threat Protection, then click "Virus & Threat Protection Settings".
3. Click "Manage Controlled Folder Access".
4. Choose "Allow an app through Controlled Folder Access".
3. Click "Add an allowed app", Allow game launcher from the game directory (Default: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\STEINS;GATE").

Possible Cause 2: Documents folder is set up to OneDrive.
Fix:
1. Open OneDrive settings → Sync and Backup tab.
2. Click Manage Backup, and disable backup for Documents folder.


Cause: missing DirectX 9 runtime files.

Fix:
1. Download DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010) from Official Microsoft Download Center[www.microsoft.com].
2. Run the downloaded directx_Jun2010_redist.exe. Place the extracted files in a new folder.
3. Inside the extracted files, run DXSETUP.exe to install DirectX.

If the issue persists:
4. Extract Jun2010_d3dx9_43_x86.cab. (You may need a tool like 7-Zip on Windows 10)
5. Copy d3dx9_43.dll to the game directory. (Default: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\STEINS;GATE")
6. Restart the launcher.


Cause: Incompatibility with AMD graphics drivers.

Solution 1 (for laptops with dedicated graphics card)
Try changing from hybrid graphics mode to dedicated GPU-only output mode (how to do this depends on your device).

Solution 2: Use DXVK
1. Open the game directory. (Default: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\STEINS;GATE").
2. Create a new folder named GATE.
2. Download dxvk-1.10.3.tar.gz from GitHub[github.com].
3. Extract the .tar.gz file (you may need a tool like 7-Zip on Windows 10).
4. Copy all the DLL files from x32 to the newly created GATE folder.
5. Restart game.
Video Guide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm2xn6sn4VE

Cause: Faulty input device detection.

Try the following steps in order:
1. Disconnect your controller or disable your laptop touchpad.
2. In launcher, disable any detected devices.
3. Open Device Manager → Human Interface Devices → disable all HID devices.


Cause: Corrupted save data.

Fix:
1. Right-click STEINS;GATE in your Steam Library → "Properties…" → Turn off Steam Cloud.
2. Delete save folder: Documents\My Games\mages_steam\STEINS;GATE
3. Restart the game.
Note: This will erase all your progress.


1. Verify game files in Steam: Properties → Installed Files → Verify integrity of game files
2. Delete save files (see above).
3. Reinstall the game.
If the issue still remains then...