NBA 2K24 has launched worldwide. In 2023 language, that means some players will inevitably experience crashes, bugs, instability issues, and error codes early on. If you are among the cohort of players hit with a 4b538e50 error message, we’ll share some hotfixes for it.
If you’re rushed out to play NBA 2K24 as soon as it launched, there’s a sizable likelihood that you’ve had trouble logging into and playing the game smoothly. The most common culprit for game instability are the 2K servers, but for once, they may not be the ones at fault, especially if your issue results in a 4b538e50 error message.
Are NBA 2K24 servers down? How to check 2K server status
According to 2K’s own report on server status, NBA 2K24 servers are currently running just fine and you shouldn’t be having troubles in that regard. You can always check the 2K server status over on nba2k.com if you have any doubts on the matter. The bad part is that if servers are indeed to blame for game issues, there’s really nothing you can do about it, and will have to wait for 2K to fix the servers themselves.
Why you are getting the 4b538e50 error in NBA 2K24
The much more likely scenario is that you’re experiencing the dreaded 4b538e50 error message. This is nothing new as NBA 2K23 players also had to deal with the same error, but the one positive is that we know much more about it a year later.
There are several possible reasons why you’re getting the 4b538e50 error. Here are all of them, ranked by plausibility:
- You don’t have the most recent version of NBA 2K24 downloaded
- You have too many NBA 2K accounts on your console
- Account email confirmation failed
- Deleted Reserved Space from hard drive
- Game data is out of sync
- Software blocking access to 2K servers
With many known reasons for an error come many possible solutions. You can try any of the following to fix the 4b538e50 issue and at least one of them is bound to be your solution.
How to fix 4b538e50 error in NBA 2K24
- The easiest fix is just playing the game. There could be some data missing from your game and playing a few games in Play Now mode could and should trigger an internal data download that will fix the problem. Once that download is complete and NBA 2K24 is ready to be fully experienced, you’ll see a pop-up message asking you to return to the game’s main menu. NBA 2K24 is all yours after that moment.
- The maximum number of NBA 2K accounts on a single console is five. You could receive the 4b538e50 error message if you have more than five accounts as a means to lock you out of the 2K servers. You should only get the error on the additional accounts past No. 5, so if you stick to those first five accounts, you should stop seeing the 4b538e50 message.
- If your email verification is the culprit, all you need to do is send the information again via nba2k.com. Just click on “Sign In” and follow the steps until the end.
- NBA 2K24 is using Reserved Space to store updates and patches. If you’ve meddled, read deleted, said Reserved Space, a 4b538e50 is almost inevitable. That requires you to intentionally delete game data, though, and we trust you haven’t done that. If you did, you should try bringing your game up to date again by downloading all available updates. You may need to reinstall in the most extreme scenarios.
- Though it’s not the only possible reason, deleting Reserved Space may lead to NBA 2K24 data becoming out of sync. When your data is out of sync, Play Now is your friend, however, you don’t get to play this time. Enter Play Now mode and sit on the mode’s menu until an update message appears. That message will once again ask you to return to the main menu, where a loading screen will finish the syncing process. It’s by far the most tedious solution, so you better pray it’s not the one you need.
The final proposition we have is to fix PC software interference with NBA 2K24’s data. As the name suggests, this concerns strictly PC players. Since it’s a little bit more intimidating to execute, we’ll lay it out separately. It’s just a little bit of Windows tinkering, we promise, nothing too fancy. You will need to run a PathPing and a TraceRoute to find out whether any other software is preventing NBA 2K24 from functioning properly.
How to run a PathPing and TraceRoute for NBA 2K24
- Type “CMD” in the Windows search bar and press Enter. This will open the Command Prompt.
- Type the following command in the Command Prompt, then press Enter: pathping -n 104.255.107.131
- Executing the command may take up to a minute or two, but eventually, the Command Prompt will display some statistics that you may or may not understand. Understanding them is not important. What is important is copying the data. To do this, press Ctrl+A, then Ctrl+C. Create a Notepad document and press Ctrl+V to paste the data there. Save the Notepad document and return to the Command Prompt.
- Type the following in the Command Prompt, then press Enter: tracert 104.255.107.131
- Once again, this may take a couple of minutes. The execution will be done when the window says Trace Complete. Repeat the same process of copying the data into a Notepad document, preferably a separate one.
- Send the Notepad document(s) to 2K Support via their Submit a request form.
It’s taken 2K and the NBA 2K community a full year to develop all of these fixes, so we’re rather confident one of them will fix your 4b538e50 error in NBA 2K24. If not, then the best you can do is report your exact experience via that Submit a request form we mentioned over at support.2k.com, so the team could work on a possible solution.
