Running out of room is a very real problem now. It was getting difficult once the digital age of gaming began to blossom with the Xbox One, and now it's being exacerbated by huge file sizes for optimized Xbox Series X|S titles and the continuous stream of games coming to Game Pass. The basic drives in our consoles are crammed full of games we've started, need to start, and will never start, but the thought of deleting any of them is too much to bear. Well, you can always put in a little bit of work to edge the most out of the storage you've got, or your other option is to purchase an expandable storage system so you can continue on your merry way of game collecting, and luckily, adding more storage to your console is a pretty simple affair.

Xbox storage tips and tricks

When it comes to looking after the storage space on your Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles, you have two options: organize the content you currently have stored, or purchase an external/expanded memory solution. We'll cover both here to help you quickly get your drives under control and get back to gaming.

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 unused games 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 clicking 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.