How To Manage Storage Space On Your Xbox Series S (2025)

Is Your Xbox Series S Storage More Jammed Than a Clown Car? Are you tired of your Xbox Series S throwing tantrums like a spoiled brat every time you try to download another gigabyte of ‘I swear I’ll play this someday’? Are you just a bad game away from chucking your Xbox from the 49th floor of a skyscraper?

Introducing the ‘Stop Screaming at Your Storage’ guide! A revolutionary way to free up space. In this article, I'm going to channel my inner Marie Kondo, and walk you through some peace-filled, loving ways in which you can whip your Xbox back into shape. And no, I'm not talking about a juice cleanse.

Time To Do Some Digital Spring Cleaning

Before rushing out to buy an external hard drive, take a bit of time to tidy up your Xbox Series S internal storage first. Like any gadget these days, it's easy for your Xbox S to fill up real quick, thanks to installed games, saved files, and major system updates. But with a few nifty organizational habits, you can actually dig up some extra breathing room:

1. Remove Un-Played Titles: Let's be realistic - are you truly cycling through your entire library of games on a regular basis? Take an inventory and uninstall any titles you haven't launched in months. No need to worry about losing progress either, since your save data is stored safely in the cloud, and ready to download if you ever have an urge to play again.
2. Clear Out Old Media Content: You might be surprised at how gameplay captures and screenshots can consume a sizable chunk of storage space. Open up your Capture & Share settings to review and mass delete any unimportant clips or pics. If you're really pressed for space, you can even adjust the settings, so your Xbox automatically saves less media content moving forward.
3. Clear Out The Cache: We're not saying that you're going to get a dramatic amount of regained space, but clearing your console's cache can free up some hidden temporary data that gradually accumulated over your usage.

So, before shelling out more money on expanded storage, a bit of digital organization can unlock some quick and easy capacity.

Consider Using An External Drive

So, the most straightforward way to boosting your space is using an external hard drive. Here's what you need to know:

• You'll require a drive that's at minimum 128GB in size and supports USB 3.0 or later. Traditional HDDs are cheaper, and that's a little tempting, but keep in mind that they have slower data transfer speeds. SSDs cost more in comparison, but you can go to sleep knowing that you have bought yourself much quicker load times for games.
• Setup is relatively simple. Simply connect your chosen drive to any open USB port on the Xbox Series S. You'll be prompted to format the drive for use with the console. One thing to note, you can only store and play backward-compatible Xbox One, Xbox 360 and original Xbox titles from the external drive. Next-gen Series S/X games will need to be transferred internally to play due to higher bandwidth requirements. That being said, you can still store them on the external drive as cold storage until you want to play them.

Use The Seagate Storage Expansion Card

Building off of what we just went through, there's actually a solid, officially-backed choice if you want to go down the SSD route. Seagate's Storage Expansion Card is literally the gold standard memory choice for the Xbox S. Designed specifically for the console, this card plugs directly into the dedicated slot on the back of your console and provides the same ultra-fast performance as the internal SSD.

1. Why It’s Worth It: Unlike ordinary USB drives which require you to constantly move games back and forth, the Expansion Card lets you play directly from the storage media. This seamless user experience takes full advantage of the quick resume and fast loading capabilities of the Xbox Velocity Architecture.
2. Options and Pricing: Seagate currently provides 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB expanded storage options. Now, these do come at a premium price point, but the convenience and maintained game performance make them worthy of consideration if your internal SSD space is dwindling and you want to avoid game lag.
3. Plug-and-Play: Installing the card is as simple as inserting it into the expansion slot at the back of your Series S. No formatting required, no fuss—just instant extra storage.

Manage Your Game Installations Wisely

Sometimes it’s not just about having more storage but managing what you already have. Here are some quick tricks to make the most of your existing space:

1. Selective Installs: Many games nowadays allow you to choose what components to install. For example, you can opt to only install the single-player campaign of a game and leave out the multiplayer if you don't use it. Dig into your game's options to see if selective installing is available. This can end up saving you a lot of hard drive space.
2. Prioritize High-Performance Storage: If there are one or two games you play all the time and want to load quickly, keep them stored on your console's internal SSD or high-performance Seagate expansion card. This makes sure you have better access and loading times. And for games that you don't play too often, your external USB hard drive will work just fine.
3. Offload to Cloud: Take full advantage of your Xbox's cloud saves capability. While this doesn't directly save storage space on your drives, it does make sure your game progress is securely backed up online. That way, you can confidently uninstall a game to free up drive capacity if needed, but with the comfort of knowing you can easily reinstall later without losing your saves or progress.

Use Xbox Remote Play And xCloud Gaming (Game Pass Ultimate)

• Save Space with Cloud Gaming: If you have a stable internet connection, this is a game-changer. You can sample new releases right away without waiting for hefty downloads or constricting your existing library. Gaming on the go also becomes practical, rather than relying on what you have downloaded onto your phone or tablet already.
• Remote Play for More Flexibility: If your console is filled up, consider using Xbox Remote Play to stream your games from your console to another device. I know it's not a permanent storage solution (or even something that the average gamer would prefer), but it's just another way to keep playing without constantly juggling all those installs.

Stay Updated With Xbox OS Updates

Microsoft cares about your gaming experience, so they send out regular system updates for your Xbox to optimize performance and storage. It's important to let these updates install automatically when you're not playing. This keeps your console running smoothly without you having to think about it. Just make sure to set your console up to download updates automatically when you're not using it. And by the way, your console can also alert you when storage is running low, helping you stay ahead of the game.

FAQs

What happens if I unplug my external drive while a game is running?

You absolutely don't want to do that because when you pull the plug on the drive when you're running a game, the gameplay immediately stops, and you're going to miss out on any unsaved progress you made. Always make sure all your apps and games are properly wrapped up before ejecting your drive, or even shutting down your console for that matter.

Can I expand storage with multiple external drives at the same time?

Sure, the Xbox S allows you to hook up multiple external USB drives, but, only one can be designated as the external game storage location, i.e where you can store your games. Any other attached USB drives can then be used for storing media like music, videos, and screenshots, but not games themselves.

How can I check which games are taking up the most space on my Xbox Series S?

To see which games are taking up the most space, go to Settings > System > Storage Devices and select your internal or external drive. From there, choose “Manage Storage” and then “Games and Apps.” This will display all the installed apps and games, with the largest space hogs at the top. Scan this list to decide what games you want to liberate from your console...forever.