New Xbox Insider Update Aims To Help 'Free Up' Storage Space

Would be worthwhile if the reserved space for games could be deleted en mass, or automated for games that haven't been played in say > 1 month/week
Ridiculous amount of space is taken up by old games' reserved space, either on the internal drives or external ones

Accidental shadow copies or other content that is effectively 'hidden' waste is a good thing for Microsoft to go after. Most device cleaners have an option already to highlight when you have two or more copies of the exact same file(s). For the Free Up Space option to now go 'Ahem, I think that your space problems might be due to that errant excess copy of Call Of Duty', that's really useful.

"Rather than simply displaying leftover add-ons and shrinkable games, we will now also include recommendations like removing duplicate copies or games you no longer have access to"

Yes, this is most welcome. I reached the point where I have to uninstall games on a weekly basis due to space shortage. And no, I'm really not willing to encourage Microsoft's (expensive) approach to expanding SSD storage.

They'll need these sort of systems in place for when the 2027 handheld come about. I'm all for it. I'm always a little on the low side.

People must keep a lot more installed than I do.

This is good news duplicate game download are a headache and an easy mistake to make well for me at least 🤷

I’ve accidentally created duplicate copies of games over multiple drives (somehow) so this will be a handy feature to have.

Store your Xbox games on your PlayStation 😂

I am not uninstalling my old Xbox games in case they get removed. Maybe I should buy an external hard drive for them hmmm

@Kaloudz having SD storage could help so you get just swap out the games quickly for those you don't by want on SSD

@Kilamanjaro Interesting idea. You think it will come with two storage formats? SSD and (is it called) Smart Storage? The Series S storage? Assuming they use that same system next gen.

@x3King84 honestly a pretty good comment - made me chuckle!

@Kramlar thank you! It’s genuinely tongue in cheek and glad it’s taken that way! 😂

You know what would also save space? Being able to select screenshot resolution. I don't need every one to be 4k.

@Kaloudz I think for a handheld it makes sense. A majority of games that run well on native hardware tend to be lower powered & do well on SD cards, like platformers or simpler RPGs. I imagine you'd want your more powerful games on the SSD. So kind of like 360 games on an HDD vs Current Gen games on your SSD

It really needed an update to let me know that I can deinstall games😅

@Ricky-Spanish @themightyant I'm with you man. Also the amount of times games update and reinstall the old gen version as well as the new gen version gets right on my nerves.

Just let us play games off our own USB ssd

@Kilamanjaro That does certainly make sense. To be fair too, I have probably played more games that don't "need" the internal storage (that S/X logo) to run. I'm not even sure what the heck that is. Is that like the new industry standard? Or is that a MS thing?

I generally think Xbox is way more feature rich than Playstation but they do have one feature I'd love to have on Xbox. I'd love to have the ability to download the Xbox one version of games if I'd like. Some series X and S versions don't offer much and I'd rather just have the Xbox one version for storage reasons. Take saints row the third for example, the game runs at 60fps on xbox one x version and there's no point to upgrade to the series version. Just takes up precious SSD space.

I honestly just wish wd black or seagate decrease prices permanently. Even on sale they are pretty pricy. We have seen some sizeable discounts tho, so maybe happens soon.

@Kaloudz the SSD architecture is a faster read speed than what an SD card has to offer so you get better performance. Even on the Switch, the internal storage is always faster than the external. I think for next gen consoles they require their new SSD architecture for their next gen games. Not sure exactly in case anyone else wants to chime in with more technical details

@Kilamanjaro Ah right, and yeah haha, I have no idea how the intricacies work regards how anything is delivered inside the console. All I know is that (even the S, which I have) is lightning fast and looks great. I'm very excited for next gen.