Xbox Plans Major Storage Expansion

Xbox Plans Major Storage Expansion

The Xbox Series X/S may soon offer more substantial storage options. As modern games demand increasing amounts of space, the current 16TB limit for external hard drives on Xbox systems can fill up quickly. This is especially challenging for Xbox Series S owners, whose internal storage is limited to just 512GB, making external storage almost essential for gamers aiming to fully utilize their consoles.

Currently, Xbox Storage Expansion Cards max out at 2TB. While gamers can expand storage with SSDs and external hard drives, the 16TB limit on external drives has been a bottleneck. However, Microsoft appears poised to remove this limitation through an upcoming update.

Members of the Xbox Insider program’s Alpha Skip-Ahead ring will soon gain access to a new Xbox Update Preview, which introduces support for external USB drives larger than 16TB. To take advantage of this upgrade, users will need to reformat their drives. The new formatting process will create multiple partitions on the drive, which will then appear as separate devices on the storage devices list. This change is particularly useful for storing large Xbox One titles, alleviating concerns about storage space while still requiring users to purchase larger external drives initially.

This update represents a step forward for Xbox users. As games continue to grow in size, more storage options will enable gamers to download and play more titles without the constant need to manage space. Additionally, this may encourage more gamers to embrace digital downloads or even choose the more affordable Xbox Series S as their console.

However, Microsoft has acknowledged that some issues remain. For instance, certain drives larger than 16TB may not display accurate information about their free space, and users are advised not to format such drives at this time. As part of the Xbox Insider program, these early adopters act as testers, and some lingering bugs are expected to be addressed before the feature becomes widely available.

Xbox Update Preview Release Notes

Here’s what’s included in the latest Xbox Update Preview:

1. Expand Xbox Storage with Larger Drives

• Support for external USB drives exceeding 16TB.
• Reformatted drives will utilize multiple partitions to maximize storage, appearing as separate devices in the storage list.

2. Discover Discounts with Ease

• A new badge showing the discount percentage will appear directly on the Home screen for select users, making deals easier to spot.

3. Accessibility Improvements

• Enhancements to Narrator functionality in Settings, especially in power options and remote play settings.

4. Entertainment Apps Performance

• Fixed issues causing sluggishness in media apps after extended playback.

5. System Updates

• Updates to improve local language accuracy across the console.

With these updates, Xbox is taking another step to enhance user experience and address the growing storage needs of modern gamers.