If you have ever owned a PS4 or PS5 and subscribed to PS Plus you know that Sony add and remove games each month from the library.

When a game you have installed from the PS Plus library is removed it shows a locked icon next to the game, showing you can no longer play the game. Normally if you go to the game it gives you the option to buy the game to continue playing it.

But sometimes the PS Store shows a message saying you already own another version and can't buy it or the game is not available to buy.

I was stuck with this bug and there are a few suggested ways to buy the game to continue playing. One is to rebuild your licenses for installed games, which might free it up so the store knows you don't own it, but that didn't work. Another was to uninstall the game and delete the save game data, but as I was 20 hours into the game I didn't want to do that.

The solution that worked in the end was to go to Playstation.com on a computer and log out of my account. Add the game to the cart and then click to buy it. It asks you to log into your account to complete the purchase and the game already installed on the PS5 was instantly released and ready to play again.

This is a long standing bug when a game gets removed from the PS Plus library. Very annoying.