Quick Answer: Three problems account for most of ReStory's launch week. If the game won't start on Windows 11, it is almost certainly error 0x11C7 from Smart App Control — turn that off and it launches. If saving or ending the day freezes for about a minute, running Steam as administrator fixed it for the player who chased it down. If your PC runs hot, cap your frame rate; the game pushes hardware far beyond what its visuals suggest. One progression bug is confirmed by the developers: firmware-update orders that report "not possible for this device" are broken and a patch is in progress.
Version note: Current for the launch build, checked August 7, 2026 — no patch has shipped yet. Sourced from the developers' pinned bug-report thread and their replies in the official forums, the launch-week bug board (74 threads on day one), and player reports, all linked inline. Single reports are labelled as such.
A crash or a hung save costs you the day's queue, which is why the save freeze below is worth fixing before it bites. (Screenshot: Mandragora / tinyBuild)
Game Won't Start: Error 0x11C7 (Windows 11)
Symptom: the game refuses to open on first launch and throws error 0x11C7.
Cause and fix: Windows 11's Smart App Control is blocking it. The player who reported it found that disabling the feature let the game open, and a developer (posting as k1mon) replied that the report was "very useful information." At least one other player confirmed the same error.
Read this before you flip it. Smart App Control lives in Windows Security under App & browser control, and Microsoft's own FAQ states that once it is off, turning it back on requires resetting or reinstalling Windows — it is not a toggle you can undo on an afternoon. Newer Windows builds have started allowing re-enablement from the Security app, so check what your own machine offers before you decide. If that trade is too steep, report the error in the developers' bug thread and wait for a patch instead.
Save / End-of-Day Freeze (Workaround Confirmed Both Ways)
Symptom: ending the day freezes the game for roughly a minute before it saves and continues. Players report it in both the demo and the full release, on hardware well above the recommended specs.
Workaround: run Steam as administrator. One player in the bug thread tested it in both directions — "running Steam normally brings the issue back. As soon as I run Steam as an administrator again, the problem is resolved." That two-way test is stronger evidence than the usual "this worked for me."
The developers add two checks worth doing if admin rights alone don't help:
- Confirm your antivirus or Windows Security isn't blocking creation of the save file.
- Check that the files in your save folder aren't marked read-only.
Crashes
Several distinct crash reports appeared on day one, each currently from a single player, with no patch yet:
- Crashing when changing window focus — alt-tabbing out of the game. If this is your pattern, play fullscreen and avoid switching away mid-repair.
- Crashing when the game closes — annoying rather than costly, since the day's save has already happened.
- Crashing on save — the one that costs you progress, and the reason the save-freeze workaround above is worth doing pre-emptively.
- Repeated hard crashes on an RTX 3060 Ti, from a reviewer who reports the game crashing "HARD" within short sessions while heavier titles run fine.
There is a thread pattern worth noticing: the overheating reports below and the crash reports overlap, and the one player who capped their frame rate reported the crashes stopping. Try the FPS cap before you conclude your install is broken.
Overheating and Heavy Hardware Load
Symptom: unusually high CPU and GPU temperatures for a stylised 3D repair game — several players say it runs hotter than far more demanding titles.
Reports in the thread: an RTX 5070 with a Ryzen 7700X sitting at 65-70°C in gameplay against 48-50°C in menus; another player at 1080p with a 60 FPS cap still reporting CPU heat with current drivers; the original poster overheating even on lowest settings.
What to do:
- Cap your frame rate. The developers name this directly alongside verifying files and updating GPU drivers. The original reporter capped to 30 FPS and said "It hasn't crashed since."
- Watch it with Steam's in-game performance monitor, which the developers also suggest, so you know whether the cap changed anything.
- Expect a partial result. One player notes the 30 FPS cap costs enjoyment and their CPU still reached around 60°C — this is mitigation, not a fix, and the load pattern looks like an optimisation issue rather than anything on your end.
Firmware Updates That Can't Be Completed (Developer-Confirmed Bug)
Symptom: an order requires a firmware update, and the game answers "not possible for this device" — even with the most expensive toolkit bought. The order cannot be cleared.
Status: known bug, patch in progress. A developer (posting as Misao Kamiya) answered the thread on August 7: "This is a known bug and the team are working on a patch as we speak!" Players report it on the legend guitar, the Mapple Mypod and the Autorolla Razor, so it is not tied to one device.
Nothing on your side fixes it. Leave the order in the queue and take other work until the patch lands — and if you were about to buy a more expensive toolkit specifically to clear it, don't; that has already been tried.
Smaller Reports (Single Sources, Not Yet Patterns)
- No way to return to fullscreen after choosing windowed — a settings dead end with no reported workaround.
- A gamepad can capture input at the first screen. PCGamingWiki documents keyboard and mouse being disabled when a controller is detected, leaving players stuck at the opening data-collection prompt with no cursor. Unplug the controller if you cannot get past the first screen.
- Wall paint bought but unusable, Atari Lynx battery bug, a soldering-after-cleaning bug, and a bugged competition repair — each one thread, each posted on launch day.
- "How did I do this?" unlocks after dusting rather than soldering. An achievement mislabel, not a loss — see the Achievements Guide for why the unlock rates back the report up.
How to Report Something
The developers pinned a bug reports and troubleshooting thread on launch day and accept reports through the Steam forum, their Discord's bug-reports channel, or their support site. What they ask for:
- A short description of the last few steps before the problem happened.
- Screenshots or video.
- A compressed copy of your ReStory game folder — the thread lists the exact paths for Windows, Mac and Linux/Steam Deck.
For performance problems specifically, they ask you to first update your OS and GPU drivers, make sure the game uses your dedicated GPU rather than integrated graphics, verify file integrity or reinstall, and temporarily disable overlays such as the NVIDIA app and Discord.