How to Free Up Storage on Your Xbox Series X|S

01.03.2024 - 17:17 / howtogeek.com / Tim Brookes / Series X

Are you running out of space on your Xbox? Don’t worry, creating free space is easy. We’ll have you downloading and installing new games in no time.

Delete Games to Create Free Space

The easiest way to create space on your Xbox console is to delete games you’re no longer playing. Think about what you’re currently playing, what’s coming out soon, and what else is on your backlog to make an educated decision about what to delete.

One way to decide which games to uninstall is to look at how much space they’re taking up. Small games that you might pick up and play won’t make much of a difference, so you might as well keep them around. Large triple-A titles and live service games tend to take up much more room.

An easy method to do this is to open “My games and apps” and use the “Sort” drop-down at the top to “Sort by size” and then use the “Filter” option to select “Internal storage” (since everything on all drives will be shown by default). This will place the largest games at the start of the list, and give you an idea of how much space they’re taking up.

Highlight a game, hit the “More” (hamburger) button on your console, then select “Uninstall” to get rid of it.

If you want to uninstall multiple games and apps at once, there may be a quicker way. Head to Settings > System > Storage devices and choose your “Internal storage” drive. In the pop-up that appears, choose “Uninstall content” and you’ll see a list of installed games and apps and how much room they’re taking up.

You can “Sort by size” at the top of the list then use the checkbox next to a title to select it. You can choose as many as you like, then hit the “Remove selected” button on the right to trash everything.

Check for Add-Ons and Shrinkable Games

Deleting games isn’t necessarily as thorough as you might think. Sometimes things get left behind, and sometimes you can elect to shrink a game by removing optional content. Microsoft has made this easy.

Open “My games and apps” and choose “Manage” in the left-hand sidebar followed by “Free Up Space.”

You’ll now see two options in the sidebar that you can choose between: “Leftover add-ons” and “Shrinkable games.” Flip between the two to see what your options are. “Leftover add-ons” refers to content for a game that you no longer have installed, whereas “Shrinkable games” are games for which you can remove optional content.

Clear Out Your Xbox Captures

Screenshots and videos are stored on your console’s internal storage by default, but they don’t appear alongside your games. Videos in particular can take up a lot of space, so it’s worth clearing out your captures if you’re especially tight on space.

Launch the “Captures” app under “My games and apps” to see all media. Use the drop-down to