The sizes of games on Xbox One are very large. For instance, the size of Red Dead Redemption 2 is already 107 gigabytes. So, it is actually wasteful to download the same game multiple times, especially if you have data capping. What you can do instead to save data is to transfer all of your games to another Xbox One console with the use of external hard drives.
Save data and time by copying your games
You should install games on an Xbox One first if you want to give someone a new console. Whether it is a birthday gift for your spouse or a Christmas surprise for your children, installing games before handing it over will allow them to use it immediately once they open the box.
The console will rip most of the disc on the hard drive immediately when you just played an Xbox One game for the first time. Then, the Xbox will automatically download all the other content it needs to play the game. These additional contents can lead to more than 100 gigabytes per update, and most of the time, games like Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Gears of War 4, and Final Fantasy 15.
If you have two or more Xbox One, you have to install all your games on each of them. This just means that you also have to download them multiple times, but it may take a long time, especially if your internet connection is slow. What’s worse is that if you have data capping, the data you’ll consume downloading these games on each console can exceed the cap.
For instance, if you’re using Comcast, you will have a data cap of 1000 GB or 1 TB. When you download an Xbox One game, almost a tenth of that data will be consumed. Luckily, external hard drive support for Xbox One is added by Microsoft. It’s not just useful for expanding your data storage, it can also be used to copy or move a game from an Xbox One to another console.
How to Transfer Games
It’s a pretty straightforward step to transfer your games from the Xbox One to another. What you have to do first is to plug in the external hard drive that you’re planning to use. If formatting is required, do it. But, you should make sure that the data inside your drive has a backup on other devices first before formatting so you won’t lose any important files.
A USB 3.0 flash drive with over 256-GB storage is required by Microsoft. But, since the size of each game is approximately 100 GB, getting a drive with at least 1 TB is recommended.
1. From the Home screen of your Xbox One, press the button on your Xbox controller. This button is located at the center, with an Xbox logo that lights up. Then, select the Settings’ gear icon located on the upper-left side of the window. Choose Settings on the menu afterward.
2. Choose the System option and select the Storage option on the next list.
3. On this next step, you will be able to see the hard drive where your games are stored. Choose the Internal option if you have never used an external hard drive before. For this step, we will choose the hard drive named “xbox”.
4. Select the Transfer option once the submenu appears.
5. If you just want to transfer certain games, just select each one of them. But, if you want to transfer them all, just choose the “Select All” option.
Then, select the “Copy Selected” option so the game files will be copied to the external drive. If you want to move the game files and delete the original copy of the game, choose “Move Selected”. However, this should only be done if you’re planning to free up space.
When you take a look at the top of the screen, it will indicate the games that will be transferred to the internal drive. But, you should be concerned about is. Just follow the next steps of this guide.
6. Choose the drive where you want to transfer your games. For this guide, we will be selecting an empty external hard drive.
7. You will receive a confirmation with a detailed number of games that will be transferred. Choose the Copy or Move option if the detailed information is correct.
Your games will both exist on the source drive and destination drive when you choose the “Copy” option. On the other hand, your games will be deleted from the source drive and will be moved to the destination drive if you choose “Move”. Make sure that your choice is correct before proceeding.
8. Xbox One will begin to move or copy each game file to the hard drive. A notification or a progress bar won’t appear on the screen while the process is running. Just press the Xbox button on your controller to see the transferred games.
9. This can take from a couple of minutes to hours, depending on the speed of your external storage device and the number of games you’re transferring. Go to the “My games & App” section to see if some of the games are still transferring.
10. Choose the “Queue” option in the sidebar. The games left to transfer will be displayed on this option.
Final Thoughts
Copying or moving your games from one console to another may be faster than downloading each of them again, especially if your internet connection and the speed of your external storage is slow. If you have a data cap, it can also be avoided if you just transfer games from one drive to another.
