How To Clear Xbox Storage [6 METHODS]

If there isn’t enough storage for the system to function properly, it can cause errors and system glitches to appear. You have to clear Xbox storage to have it work properly. Therefore, you can manage your storage by deleting or moving stuff you don’t need.

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Key Takeaways

• Clear Xbox storage periodically, even when no errors occur, to help maintain optimal console performance and reduce the chances of storage-related issues.
• Deleting games and apps you no longer use and unnecessary game data frees up valuable storage space for new content and enhances the gaming experience.
• The drawback is that you must redownload everything you’ve deleted to replay it.

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When To Clear Xbox Storage?

Clearing your storage is something you should do whenever you have free time. Even if no errors pop up, or when you have most of the space free, you should delete anything you don’t need from your console.

Doing this makes the chances for errors popping up extremely low, and you won’t have to delete terabytes of data at one time, which takes hours to process. If you don’t have the time to do it often and need specific times when you should do it, manage and clear your storage when:

• Your console is slowed down.
• You’ve completed a game, and don’t think you’ll play it again.
• Xbox boots up slowly.
• The amount of filled storage reaches 70%.
• You plan on downloading a huge game.
• There is an update coming for your favorite game.
• You plan on recording large screen recordings.

Why Clear Xbox Storage?

Clearing your storage occasionally is crucial to having a well-functioning console. Storage is responsible for allowing you to install more games and plays a role in in-game performance, console bootup time, and an overall better gaming experience.

How To Clear Xbox Storage?

Fortunately, not only are there a lot of ways to make storage space on your console, they’re easy to follow as well. I’ve compiled a step-by-step guide with images for each step to make it even easier. Follow along with each option below, or choose what you believe might fit you best.

Deleting Games

Xbox games are quite heavy, often occupying hundreds of gigabytes in space. DLCs and other events only serve to increase this number further. While the upgrade in quality in regards to performance and graphics are both very welcome, it makes it so running out of storage is very easy.

The first and quickest method of clearing storage is deleting games that you no longer play, and I’ll explain just how you can do so below:

On Xbox Series X/S

1. You’ll see “My games and apps” on your dashboard on the lower left. Select it.

   

2. If, for some reason, you cannot see the option on your dashboard, press the “Xbox button” on your controller to access the “Guide menu.“
3. Select “My games & apps” from the menu.

   

4. Select “See all.”

   

5. You’ll see all your installed games and apps on the page that opens up. Highlight the game that you wish to uninstall.
6. Press your controller’s “Options” button to access the “Options menu.”

   

7. Select “Uninstall.”

Xbox One

1. Open the “Guide menu” by pressing the “Xbox button” on your controller.
2. Cycle through the tabs by pressing the left and right bumpers.

   

   My Games & apps (Image by Emopulse)
3. Select “My Apps and Games.”

   

   See All (Image by Emopulse)
4. Then, select “See all.”
5. Highlight the app showing the error.
6. Press the menu button to open options for that specific app.

   

   Manage Game – Image Credits [emopulse]
7. Choose “Manage games & add-ons” or “Manage apps,” depending on your needs.

   

   Uninstall All (Image by Emopulse)
8. Select “Uninstall all.”

Clear Xbox Storage By Deleting Apps

1. Open the “Guide menu” by pressing the “Xbox button” on your controller.
2. Cycle through the tabs by pressing the left and right bumpers.

   

   My Games & apps (Image by Emopulse)
3. Select “My Apps and Games.”

   

   See All (Image by Emopulse)
4. Then, select “See all.”
5. Highlight the app showing the error.
6. Press the menu button to open options for that specific app.

   

   Uninstall the game (Image by Emopulse)
7. Choose “Uninstall.”

Alternatively, from “Show all,” you can follow these steps:

1. Highlight the app showing the error.
2. Press the menu button to open options for that specific app.
   Manage app (Image by Emopulse)
3. Choose “Manage apps.”

   

   Uninstall all for Apps (Image by Emopulse)
4. Select “Uninstall all.”

Clear Xbox Storage By Deleting Game Data

To delete specific game data, follow these steps:

1. You’ll see “My games and apps” on your dashboard on the lower left. Select it.
2. If, for some reason, you cannot see the option on your dashboard, press the Xbox button on your controller to access the Guide menu.
3. Select My games & apps from the menu.

   

4. Select “See all.”
   Highlighting the game (Image by Emopulse)
5. You’ll see all your installed games and apps on the page that opens up. Highlight the game that you wish to uninstall.
6. Press your controller’s “Options” button to access the “Options menu.”
   Manage Game – Image Credits [emopulse]
7. Select “Manage game and add-ons.”

   

8. Then, select “Manage installation on Internal.”

   

9. On this page, you can see each separate data pack that makes up the game. This includes necessary data, HD texture packs, specific game modes such as zombies and campaigns for Call of Duty, and DLCs.
10. Remove the tick from any checkboxes belonging to data you don’t need.  
11. Lastly, select “Save changes.”
12. This will start a process to uninstall all the game data you selected, and you’ll be able to play the game with much higher free storage after it’s done.

Clear Xbox Storage By Moving Apps and Games

If you don’t want to delete anything and have an external drive, you can move stuff to that drive by following these steps:

1. Press the Xbox button on your controller to open the Guide menu.

   

2. Use the right bumper to navigate to “Profile & System.”
3. Now select “Settings.”
   Storage in Settings (Image by Emopulse)
4. Go to “System” > “Storage.”

   

5. Select “Internal.”
   Move or copy in Internal (Image by Emopulse)
6. Go to “Move or Copy.”
7. Select the games you want to move, then select “Move all.”

Clear Xbox Storage By Deleting Captures

Xbox captures are another item that can quickly take up large amounts of storage. Even a half an hour recording of your intense COD match can take up to around 10 gigabytes, depending on your settings preferences. There’s nothing wrong with keeping the captures you like, but you often record one that doesn’t appeal to you and never watch it again.

With how rapidly Xbox updates its UI, the newest updates have made mass deleting these captures easier. Follow these steps depending on your console:

Xbox Series X/S

1. Go to “Captures” on the main interface.
2. If you cannot access this, press the “Xbox button” to open the “Guide menu.”
3. Use the bumpers to navigate to “Capture & share.”
4. Inside, navigate to “Recent captures.”

   

5. In the list that appears, scroll to the bottom to “Show all.”

   

6. Now, go to “Manage.”

   

7. In the screen, select all the recordings you want to be deleted or “Select all” to delete them.

Alternatively, if you want to choose which specific recording you want to delete after watching it from “Show all,” follow these steps:

1. Instead of going to Manage, highlight the item you wish to delete.
2. Press your controller’s “Options” button to open the “Opens menu.” You can also press A to open options.
3. From there, choose “Delete.”

Xbox One

The method to do this is fairly similar to how you do it on Xbox series X and S. Follow these steps:

1. Go to “Captures” on the main interface.
2. Press the “Xbox button” to open the “Guide menu” if you cannot see this.
3. Use the bumpers to navigate to “Capture & share.”
4. Inside, navigate to “Recent captures.”

   

5. In the list that appears, scroll to the bottom to “Show all.”

   

6. A screen will open, showing all your captures. You can delete them directly from here by pressing A and then choosing “Delete.”
7. If you want to delete multiple recordings at the same time, go to the “Manage” button (the 6 bars beside the dropdown menus)

   

8. Select all the captures you wish to delete, or use the “Select all” button.
9. Press “Delete.”

   

   Confirm delete (Image by Emopulse)

10. Press “Delete” in the popup that appears to confirm the deletion.

Clear Xbox Storage By Moving Captures

Another thing you can do if you want to keep your captures safe, you can back them up on your Microsoft account’s cloud storage. The steps to doing so are very similar to deleting them. To back them up, follow these steps:

Xbox Series X/S

1. Go to “Captures” on the main interface.
2. If, for some reason, you cannot access this, press the “Xbox button” to open the “Guide menu.”
3. Use the bumpers to navigate to “Capture & Share.”
4. Inside, navigate to “Recent captures.”

   

5. In the list that appears, scroll to the bottom to go to “Show all.”

   

6. Now, go to Manage.

   

7. In the screen that comes up, select all the recordings you want to back up or Select all to save all of them.
8. This will start the process of uploading all selected captures onto your drive. After it’s done, you can safely delete them from your storage to clear space.

Xbox One

The method to do this is fairly similar to how you do it on Xbox series X and S. Follow these steps:

1. Go to “Captures” on the main interface.
2. If, for some reason, you cannot access this, press the Xbox button to open the Guide menu.
3. Use the bumpers to navigate to “Capture & Share”.
4. Inside, navigate to “Recent captures”.

   

5. In the list that appears, scroll to the bottom to go to “Show all.”

   

6. A screen will open, showing all your captures. You can delete them directly from here if you press “A”, then choose “Delete.”
7. If you want to delete multiple recordings at the same time, go to the “Manage” button (the 6 bars beside the dropdown menus)

   

8. Select all the captures you wish to delete, or use the “Select All” button if you want to delete all of them.

How To Save Storage?

If you don’t want to always clear Xbox storage when you need space, you can do something that makes your console less likely to run out of space. Since this guide’s about clearing storage space instead of ways to fix it, I’ll only mention ways of doing it:

• Attaching an external HDD/SDD.
• Using cloud storage for games.
• Using cloud storage to store and upload screen recordings.

If you’re having trouble understanding how to do this, look at Xbox Help.

Final Words

Having empty storage on your Xbox is very important to give the console enough leeway to function smoothly. You can clear Xbox storage by deleting, backing up, or moving your captures; deleting or moving games; and connecting external storage.

If this was helpful, also take a look at the other guides we have for Xbox, such as:

• How To Restart Xbox One
• How To Clear Cache On Xbox One