Five years into the life cycle of the Xbox One, storage space has become a valuable commodity. The base model’s 500GB drive doesn’t seem quite so spacious when your “Ready to Install” list is packed with AAA games that can take up more than 50GB — and almost double that if you’re downloading 4K-compatible games on an Xbox One X. We’ll tell you how to delete games on an Xbox One so you have more room for all your new titles.
Unless you’ve invested in an external drive to increase your console’s storage capacity, you’ve probably experienced the feeling that comes when you are forced to delete one of your games to make room for another. If not, the first time can be a harrowing — and confusing — experience. To help you out, we assembled this handy guide on how to delete and reinstall your content. It won’t make picking which games to eradicate from your drive any easier, but it will tell you which buttons to press to do so.
Step 1
From the Xbox One home screen, press the Xbox Button > My Games & Apps.
Step 2
Highlight the title of the game you would like to remove from your hard drive and press Menu on your controller. (That’s the Start button, for most players.)
Step 3
Select Uninstall from the pop-up menu that appears.
An uninstalling note
You’ll be able to see some details about the game, including its file size and a link to the game’s page in the Xbox Store. You can choose to move the data if you have another storage device connected, copy it, or uninstall it entirely. Choose Uninstall All, and the entire game will be removed from your hard drive. This includes DLC and any extra content the game may include.
Reinstalling deleted games
If you want to reinstall a deleted game, head back to My Games & Apps > Full Library > All Owned Games. This will show all the games you’ve purchased, even if you have previously uninstalled them. To install a game, highlight and select the game you want and hit Install. You’ll then see a progress counter in the bottom left corner of the screen with your current download speed as well as how much you have left.
You’re also able to install all content for the specified game at once via the Install All option. Keep in mind that there’s no reinstalling save data once it’s been deleted. Once removed, that data is lost forever unless you have connected to the internet prior to deleting the data, in which case it will be reinstalled from the cloud when you choose to reinstall or re-download the game.
Looking to share games on the Xbox One? Check out our handy guide to find out how.
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