Uninstalling games from Xbox does not free up disk space

Some users are experiencing storage issues on their Windows devices after uninstalling the games from the Xbox app. According to them, deleting the games from the Xbox app does not free up space on their hard drive on Windows 11/10 devices. The same problem is also experienced by some users on their Xbox consoles. If you are experiencing this problem, the suggestions provided in this article will help you free up disk space on your Windows 11/10 device and Xbox console.

Uninstalling games from Xbox does not free up disk space

If uninstalling the games from Xbox does nott free up disk space on Windows 11/10 device and Xbox console, the following solutions will help you fix the problem.

1. Manually delete the game folder from your C drive
2. Use third-party software to find and delete the leftover files of the game
3. Clear locally saved game data on your Xbox Console
4. Delete your game manually on the Xbox console
5. Remove leftover add-ons

Let’s see all these solutions in detail.

1] Manually delete the game folder from your C drive

By default, the games that you install from the Xbox app are stored on your C drive. You can change the default install location for Xbox games on Windows 11/10. If the storage space on your hard drive is not getting free after uninstalling the game from the Xbox app, you can delete the game folder manually.

If you have changed the default game install location for Xbox, open that location and delete your game folder from there. But if you have not changed this default location, you will find your game folder at any of the below-mentioned locations:

C:\Users\UserName\Appdata\Local\Packages

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps

Copy the above path and paste it into the address bar of your File Explorer, then hit Enter. After that, Windows will open the Packages or Windows Apps folder directly. Do note that, you have to replace the UserName in the above path with your Windows 11/10 profile name.

If you cannot delete the game folder, you have to take ownership of the game folder. After that, you will be able to delete it.

2] Use third-party software to find and delete the leftover files of the game

If you find the above method difficult to delete the leftover files of your game, you can use a third-party tool for the same. TreeSize and WinDirStat are the free tools that you can use to find which file or folder is taking up more space on your hard drive. These programs scan all your hard drive partitions and then display detailed statistics.

They will help you locate the leftover files of your game so that you could free up space on your hard drive by deleting them.

3] Clear locally saved game data on your Xbox Console

For those who are experiencing storage issues on Xbox Console after uninstalling the game, clearing the locally saved game data will free up space. The steps for the same are written below:

1. Press the Xbox button on your controller. This will open the guide.
2. Go to “Profile & system > Settings > System > Storage.”
3. Now, click the Manage Storage Devices option.
4. Now, select the following options:
   • Clear local saved games
   • Clear local Xbox 360 storage

The above options will delete your games saved on your hard drive and free up the storage space. This will not delete your saved game data from the cloud.

4] Delete your game manually on the Xbox console

If uninstalling the game did not free up space on your Xbox console hard drive, you can manually delete the game. The steps for the same are as follows:

1. Open Xbox Console Settings and select System.
2. Select Storage.
3. Now, select Hard Drive and then select Games.
4. After that, select the game that you want to delete and then select Delete.

5] Remove leftover add-ons

The leftover add-ons are the items that are left on your Xbox Console hard drive after uninstalling a particular game. If you have uninstalled a game, its leftover add-os have no use. Therefore, it is better to delete these items so that you could free up some space on your Xbox Console hard drive.

The following steps will help you delete leftover add-ons:

1. Press the Xbox button on your controller.
2. Now, go to “My games & apps > See all > Manage > Free up space.”
3. Select the Leftover add-ons option.
4. Select the game from the list and then press the Menu button.
5. Now, select Uninstall.

Read: How to update Xbox console offline.

What do I do when Xbox storage is full?

When your Xbox storage is full, you can delete the locally saved game data to free up some space on your Xbox console. If you had uninstalled the game but the console is still showing the full storage, delete the game manually and clear all the game leftover add-ons to free up space.

Can I use USB storage on Xbox One?

You can use a USB 3.0 external storage device on Xbox One for your games and apps. But your USB external storage device should have a minimum capacity of 128 GB. The USB 3.0 device is recommended because it has a high data transfer rate that does not impact the performance of your games. If you do not have a USB 3.0 device or if your USB device does not have 128 GB of space, you can use it to store and play media files.

Hope this helps.

Read next: How to clear Xbox Series X and Series S cache.