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

Short answer

Do the simple thing first. It is correct more often than the complicated thing people recommend instead.

Testing this yourself takes a few minutes and settles it definitively. The accepted community answer is broadly right and wrong in a specific way that matters here. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why.

When the usual advice fails

Edge cases are genuinely rare, which is why the simple answer is usually the correct one. Nothing here depends on a setting you are unlikely to have. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. The mechanic behind it is simpler than the discussion around it suggests.

Most of the disagreement online comes from people describing different versions of GTA 5. 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.

The practical answer

What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional.

  • Try the straightforward approach before the elaborate one.
  • Do not build a routine around an edge case.
  • Keep a save or backup from before you start — it costs nothing and occasionally saves an evening.
  • Revisit after a major patch if the behaviour changes.
  • Check which version any conflicting advice was written for.
  • Read the whole sequence once before doing the first step.

What to do instead

Everything below is framed around the current state of GTA 5 rather than a launch-week impression. Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about.

If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep.

Why it works this way

Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different.

Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you.

Worth knowing alongside this

GTA 5 is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time.

Where people go wrong

  • Copying a setup wholesale from a streamer without understanding what each part does.
  • Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.
  • Trusting a video thumbnail that promises a result the video never actually shows.

GTA V FAQ

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.

What if none of this works for me?

Then something in your setup differs from the assumption — version, region or platform. Check those three before anything else.

Does this change between platforms?

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

Why do other guides describe this differently?

Most were written for an earlier version and never revisited. Compare the steps against what your build actually shows.

That is the whole of it — if something here stops matching GTA 5, the game changed, not the method.