How to Delete Game Save Data on Nintendo Switch

How to Delete Game Save Data on Nintendo Switch.

If you have a lot of Nintendo Switch games loaded on your console, you may be experiencing storage space issues. The Switch only comes with 32GB of internal storage, and downloading just a few games will quickly use it all up.

If you haven’t already invested in an SD card for your system, which can greatly increase your Switch‘s storage, you’ll have to resort to archiving or deleting games. You can also delete game save data in any game to get even more space.

In this article, you will learn how to archive games, delete game save data, and how to upload games to an SD card.

How to Archive/Delete Games

When you back up a game from the Switch home screen, you are actually saving program data to the cloud, not to the console itself. You will still be able to download it to your Switch later. You can also delete the game from the home screen, but this will not delete your progress data. Here’s how to archive or delete games.

Find the game you want to uninstall on the Switch home screen.

Press the – or + button on your controller.

From the pop-up menu, go to “Manage Software”.

Select “Archive Software” or “Remove Software” depending on what you want to do.

When archived, the game icon will remain on the home screen, allowing you to easily redownload it at any time. If you decide to remove the game from the home screen, you will have to go back to the online store to redownload the game (but you won’t have to buy it again).

If you need even more space on your Switch, you can also remove your save data from the game.

How to Delete Game Save Data

Archiving or deleting a game should free up a lot of space, but if that’s not enough for you, you can also delete save data from those games. This can be a good option if you don’t think you’ll be playing the game again for a while and don’t mind having your game progress erased.

Navigate to settings on the home screen, which looks like a gear icon at the bottom of the screen.

Go to Data Management > Delete Saved Data.

Select the game for which you want to delete save data.

Choose whether you want to delete a specific user’s save data or want to delete all game save data.

Once the game save data is erased, you won’t be able to recover it. However, you can still re-download the game itself.

How to Move Games to an SD Card

If you don’t want to worry about deleting and re-downloading games, your best bet is to get an SD card. With them, you can have up to 2TB of space for your games, depending on the card you get.

Once you get one of these, you can save games to your SD card and access them at any time without having to wait for the game to reload. Make sure the SD card is inserted into the switch in the port on the rear panel under the slide-out stand.

Follow the steps below to move games to SD card.

Open “Settings” on the main screen of the Switch.

Go to Manage Data > Move Data Between Console and microSD Card.

Select Move to microSD card.

Choose which games you want to download to your SD card.

Select Move Data.

Once you insert the SD card, any games or software you download from that point on will be automatically downloaded to the card. Whatever is stored in the internal memory will remain there until you move it.

Why Deleting Game Data Can Be Useful

In addition to being able to have space for other games on your Switch, you can also uninstall game programs or keep data for other reasons. It’s always a good idea to leave free space on your Switch for updates, as there are often many updates released for both the system and the games you may own.

Also, if you run out of space on your Switch, you will have trouble creating new save files for the games you play. So, if you’re playing on a Switch without an SD card, it’s a good idea to make sure you delete games you don’t normally play so you always have enough space.

If you plan to buy more physical games than digital games, you can do without an SD card. However, overall it’s a good idea because you never have to worry about space when you have it.

Deleting Data on the Switch

If you follow the guide above carefully, you shouldn’t have any problems deleting games and game save data thoroughly. No matter what, you will always be able to re-download games previously purchased from the online store.

Tell us about how you manage your Switch‘s storage in the comments below.