Xbox plans major storage upgrade

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Summary

  • Xbox Series X/S may soon support external drives over 16TB, increasing game storage capabilities.

  • Users in the Xbox Insider Alpha Skip-Ahead ring will receive an update that allows support for larger external USB drives.

  • Increased storage options can benefit players with larger games and more titles.

The Xbox Series X/S may get bigger storage options soon. With many new games needing more space, the Xbox Series X and S's 16 terabyte limit for external hard drives is easy to fill. The Xbox Series S itself only has 512 gigabytes of internal storage to use, so the need to use external options may be a necessity for most gamers who really want to max out their systems.

Currently, Storage Expansion Card options are currently limited to a maximum of 2 TB. However, there are many other options for expanding Xbox Series X/S storage via SSDs and hard drives. Yet, even with the various commercial choices for these forms of storage, the Xbox hardware still limits users to the aforementioned 16TB limit. Surprisingly, it looks like Microsoft will try to remove this limitation via a future update.

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Xbox Insiders who are part of the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring will receive a new Xbox Update Preview. According to the release notes, there will now be support for external USB drives larger than 16 TB. The catch is that devices must be reformatted to use this change. Once formatted, new partitions will exist in the drive, which will also appear as multiple drives. Considering that there are many large Xbox One games that can be saved on the external drive, Xbox owners don't have to worry much about size limitations. Sure, they would still have to buy the hard drive with more space to begin with.

This seems like a step in the right direction to help Xbox owners. With technology continuing to evolve, games can eventually get bigger. More storage options can also help entice players to play more titles and download more digital software. With how expensive Xbox Storage Expansion Cards are, an alternative option to store downloaded titles could help gamers make the decision to buy digital games, or even purchase the Xbox Series S as their console of choice.

Still, with all these updates, Microsoft has mentioned that there is currently an issue with some drives larger than 16TB. Some external hard drives do not accurately reflect information and free space, and the current advice is not to format drives larger than 16TB. This is an understandable oversight since those in the Alpha group are much like testers. With the Xbox Insider program rolling out new features, it's expected that some may have lingering issues that still need to be resolved before it's released to all Xbox owners in the future.

Xbox Update Preview Release Notes

  • Expand your Xbox storage with support for larger devices

We enable support for external USB drives larger than 16TB, so you can be sure your favorite games are always ready to play! Freshly formatted drives larger than 16TB will be formatted with multiple partitions to utilize all available space for games and apps. These will appear as multiple drives in the list of storage devices.

  • Find great deals from home

Today's update makes it easier than ever to find discounts. A random subset of users will see a new badge we add to games on sale that you don't already have access to, showing the percentage off right on your home screen.

Fixes to improve the Narrator readout in Settings, especially in power options and when enabling remote play.

Fixed an issue where some media apps could become laggy or sluggish after extended playback.

Various updates to correctly reflect locales across the console.

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