Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One storage — tips, tricks, and adding more

Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One storage never feels like quite enough, does it? Here are some tips and tricks you can use to squeeze a little more out of it.

Tom West

Published 22 Dec 2024

Running out of room is a very real problem now, and to help you combat your Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One storage woes, we've put together some tips and tricks to lighten the load. With the best Xbox Series X|S games rocking huge file sizes (and they're only getting bigger!), I'm here to help you ease the pressure on your poor console's memory capacity.

Here are three tips to help you get the most out of your Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One storage.

Tip 1 — Good storage practices

When your hard drive is filling up, it's not always down to the number of games you have downloaded. Other factors can also affect the space you have left, such as leftover DLC from uninstalled games and gameplay clips. Here are some good habits to get into when taming the hard drive beast.

Leftover DLC and add-ons

When uninstalling a game from your hard drive, it gives you an option to 'Uninstall all,' which will remove the game and all installed DLC. Make sure that you double-check that there isn't any DLC installed on your drives for uninstalled because some items can be left over.

Delete local save files

Your game files are saved to both the cloud and your internal drive, even for Xbox 360 titles you play via backwards compatibility. They're only saved locally for offline play, so if your Xbox is always connected to the internet then there is no reason to be giving up valuable drive space to store them.

Ensure that you're regularly purging the local saves by heading to Settings, System, Storage devices, and click on Clear local saved games/Clear local Xbox 360 storage. To reiterate, all save files are backed up in the cloud so deleting the local versions will not affect your games, as long as your console is always connected to the internet.

Ensure games are saved to one drive

This may sound pretty obvious but it's extremely easy to end up with a game saved on multiple drives, especially when moving games between the internal and external/expanded storage. When checking your storage contents, make sure you're looking out for duplicate game files.

Moving is faster than installing

This is one that's mostly aimed towards owners of the Xbox Series X|S consoles. Although you can only play Xbox Series X|S games from the console's internal or expanded memory drives, you can still download them to an external drive for easy access later. If you've purchased a new game that you won't be playing right away, but then decide to have a go on a whim a week later, you'll be able to play the title much quicker if you've already downloaded and stored it on a cheaper/larger external drive.

All you need to do is move it to your internal drive, which takes a fraction of the time to do compared to downloading it. Plus, you'll still be able to play games on your console during the move without slowing down the transfer speeds.

xbox storage guide external hard drives and expansions

Tip 2 — Managing your storage

The first thing you're going to want to do is to keep an eye on the storage you have left on your drives. That way, you (hopefully) won't be caught out by a full drive. To do this, head to Settings, System and locate Storage devices. This will bring up the Storage Devices screen and display a graphic for each drive connected to your system, showing how much space is left on each drive and the percentage used — if you are yet to connect any external/expanded drives to your console, there will only be one graphic.

This is the screen you need to keep full control of the storage on your system. By selecting the drive you'd like to manage you'll be able to do the following:

Internal

View contents: See what games and apps are installed on the drive, and also uninstall unwanted content.
Move or copy: This will allow you to move already installed items between your internal and external/expanded drives.
Uninstall things: Use this to be taken to the Free up space page where you'll be able to uninstall your games, add-ons, and apps in bulk.
Install here by default: Pick which drives your installs will automatically download to, providing you have an external/expanded drive attached.

External

Rename: Rename the drive to easily determine which drive you're looking at (especially helpful when using multiple external/expanded drives).
Format: To use an external drive for game installations you'll need to format it as a media drive. Once a drive is formatted, though, it'll only be able to be used to store games, apps, and personal media like pictures and videos — you can reverse this by connecting the drive to a PC and reformatting it to NTFS. All contents currently on the drive will be deleted in the process.
Set as capture location: Using an external drive as your default capture location requires the drive to remain formatted as NTFS. Drives formatted for Xbox game installs will not work.

Xbox Series X|S owners please note: Games that have been optimized for Xbox Series X|S can only be played from the console's internal memory (SSD) or an expansion card for Xbox Series X|S — we'll cover more on that below.

Tip 3 — External & expanded storage

Additional storage on your console can be achieved by adding either an external drive to your console (such as the WD_Black D30 Game Drive SSD for Xbox or by purchasing an expansion card like the Seagate Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Series X|S. Both solutions are extremely easy to connect to your console and we'll go over everything you need to do here.

External storage

When it comes to adding an external hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD) to your console, there's a huge selection to choose from, along with a varying degree of prices — depending on drive size, type of drive, and of course, the brand.

As a general rule of thumb, most drives will work as additional storage on your Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One as long as it can hold a minimum of 128GB worth of games and has USB 3.0/3.1 connectivity. You can use multiple external drives with Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles, so you're not locked into only having one additional drive.

Once you've purchased your new drive, connect it to your Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One via an available USB port — external drives can also work via a connected powered USB hub. You'll be asked to format this new drive, which will require you to follow the on-screen prompts — it will format the drive to hold games, apps, personal screenshots, and videos only, and delete all currently stored files. If, for whatever reason you cancel out of the formatting process, you can head to Settings, System, Storage, and select the drive to format on this screen.

Expanded storage

Expansion cards are solely available for Xbox Series X|S consoles, as the Xbox One doesn't support them. There are now two expandable storage solutions to choose from: the Seagate Storage Expansion Card and the WD_Black C50 Expansion Card — both of which, are a part of the Designed for Xbox program. Although prices have dropped for expansion cards in recent years, they're still pricier than their external counterparts, but you certainly get your money's worth.

Unlike external drives, the expansion card slots into a dedicated port on the back of your Xbox Series X|S and uses the same hardware as the SSD inside the console — you can only use one expansion card at a time. This means you can increase the available amount of storage and play Xbox Series X|S optimized titles, due to it acting as a second internal drive.

If you've decided to purchase yourself an expansion card, connecting it to your console is as simple as removing it from the packaging and slotting it into the port in the back of the console. Once it's in, head to the My game & apps tab to ensure that it has registered correctly and that your storage has increased — both companies offer 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB Expansion Cards.

One cool thing about expansion cards is that they act just like the memory cards of old, so you can have multiple and just switch them out as and when you want to access the games on them, if you so choose. An expensive option, sure, but a neat one!

Have these tips helped you make some valuable space on your Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One — ready for the huge number of upcoming Game Pass games, perhaps? Let us know (along with any tips you might have) in the comments below!

Written by Tom West

Tom has been playing video games since he was old enough to hold a controller, experimenting with a number of systems until he eventually fell in love with Xbox. With a passion for the platform, he decided to make a career out of it, and now happily spends his days writing about that which he loves. If he’s not hunting for Xbox achievements, you’ll likely find him somewhere in The Elder Scrolls Online or fighting for survival in Battlefield.