GTA Online players who see an empty character selection screen when logging back into the game, have been warned by Rockstar not to overwrite the old slot with a new character.
Speaking in an update on the support forums, Rockstar said not to replace the character with a new one in the empty slot, instead, back out of the selection screen into GTA 5 Story Mode and try entering GTA Online through the pause menu.
Repeat this step again if you need to or wait until Rockstar cloud servers are back up, Rockstar stated.
“If you receive the message ‘The Rockstar Cloud Servers Are Unavailable’, please return to GTAV Story Mode and follow the steps above. Please do not press “Retry” on the message and do not proceed online with saving disabled, as this may lead to overwriting your existing character.
“Do not create a new character in the empty slot where your character should be.”
Rockstar said it has been working diligently to try and find the cause for lost progress and what can be done to minimize the impact until a permanent fix is in place. It also said it has “not forgotten about the requests for restoration,” and are “in the process of determining the options for addressing the issues for those players who have been affected.”