This comes up often enough in GTA 5 that it deserves a straight answer rather than a thread to scroll through.

Short answer

In most cases the straightforward approach works. The exceptions are specific and listed below.

Nothing here depends on a setting you are unlikely to have. The accepted community answer is broadly right and wrong in a specific way that matters here. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work.

When the usual advice fails

Most of the disagreement online comes from people describing different versions of GTA 5. Testing this yourself takes a few minutes and settles it definitively. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. It is worth separating what the game does from what players have concluded it does.

Edge cases are genuinely rare, which is why the simple answer is usually the correct one. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. The mechanic behind it is simpler than the discussion around it suggests.

What to do instead

None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. Everything below is framed around the current state of GTA 5 rather than a launch-week impression.

  • Try the straightforward approach before the elaborate one.
  • Test it yourself where testing is cheap.
  • Prefer the in-game option over an external tool when both exist.
  • Revisit after a major patch if the behaviour changes.
  • Do not build a routine around an edge case.
  • Check the version you are actually running before assuming anything is broken.

Worth knowing alongside this

Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about.

GTA 5 is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why.

Why it works this way

A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over.

It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows.

The practical answer

If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you.

Where people go wrong

  • Treating a rare edge case as the normal behaviour and planning around it.
  • Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.
  • Assuming a guide from an older season still describes the current version.
  • Copying a setup wholesale from a streamer without understanding what each part does.

GTA V FAQ

Does this change between platforms?

The behaviour does not. Where menu paths or prompts differ, that is noted above.

Why do people disagree about this?

Mostly because they are describing different versions. Version drift explains the majority of contradictory advice about GTA 5.

Do I need any mods or third-party tools for this?

No. Everything described here works with the base game on any supported platform.

How long does this take?

Minutes if it goes cleanly, an evening if you hit the edge case in the caveats list. Neither is unusual.

Bookmark it if you like, but honestly, once you have done it once you will not need to come back.