GTA Online allows players to explore Los Santos, take on races, pull off heists, and just goof around with friends and other players. When you first start off in GTA Online, you’ll create your character and then be asked if you want to ‘Skip the GTA Online Tutorial.’ The problem is, if you choose to play through it, you may encounter the GTA Online Tutorial bug, locking you out of playing with friends, as well as a number of other activities and features in the mode.
GTA Online Tutorial Not Finished Error
The issue stems from what we can only assume is a bug regarding the GTA Online tutorial. Simply put, it requires players complete two missions called ‘Mall or Nothing’ and ‘Learning the Ropes.’
However, once these missions have been completed and players unlock the achievement or trophy for completing GTA Online’s introduction, they’re still unable to join friends. A message that appears on-screen reads: “Sending invites/ Joining games is disabled until both you and this player have completed the GTA Online Tutorial.”
This bug seems to occur when a player who has finished the tutorial tries to join or send an invite to a player that hasn’t finished the tutorial, or chose to skip it. In our experience, having finished the tutorial ourselves, we were unable to join the games of our friends who opted to skip it instead.
How to Fix GTA Online Tutorial Bug
Create a New Character
To fix the GTA Online tutorial bug, we simply created a new character and then opted to skip the GTA Online tutorial. This triggered a cutscene for the ‘Cayo Perico’ island expansions released towards the end of last year, and then enabled us to join and invite our friends once again.
We’d recommend giving this a try if you are encountering the bug, though this is obviously not ideal if you have a ton of progress on your existing character. For now, though, that’s the best workaround we’ve found.
Closed Friends Session Lobby
From the GTA Online menu, select the option to create a ‘Closed Friends Session.’ This will make a lobby where only you and your friends can join and play around in. Some players over on the game’s subreddit have noted this works for them.
Complete a Survival Mission
Some players have also reported going to the industrial plant and completing the survival mission here resulted in the GTA Online tutorial bug being fixed. It’s not a guaranteed fix for everyone, but it does appear to have had a lot of success on forums.
That’s how to fix the GTA Online tutorial bug so you can finally play with your friends. For more on the game, be sure to search for Twinfinite, or see more of our coverage on the game below.
