iOS 14 update may delete Fortnite, Epic warns

By Giovanni Colantonio Published September 23, 2020

Epic Games warned that iPhone users who update to the new iOS 14 may accidentally remove Fortnite from their phones entirely.

According to the Fortnite Status Twitter account, iOS 14 sometimes prompts users with a “Temporarily Remove Apps to Install the Software Update?” message if they don’t have enough free space for the update. Since Fortnite is no longer available on iPhone due to Epic and Apple’s legal dispute, once the app is removed, there’s no way to reinstall it.

Fortnite iOS players updating to iOS 14 may lose access to Fortnite. If the message “Temporarily Remove Apps to Install the Software Update?” is accepted, it may result in Fortnite being deleted. Fortnite cannot later be reinstalled due to Apple preventing users from doing so.

— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) September 23, 2020

Epic says that players can work around the issue by selecting “cancel” when the message appears and freeing up space on the phone. To do so, users can navigate to the iPhone Settings tab in the General Settings menu and offload apps to prevent the message from appearing when they update their iOS.

Digital Trends reached out to Apple for comment. We will update the story when the company responds.

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Giovanni Colantonio

Section Editor, Gaming

Giovanni is a writer and video producer focusing on happenings in the video game industry. He has contributed stories to…

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