How to Play Xbox Series X|S Games from External Storage

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The 9th generation of consoles came with the need for fast and rapid storage. Both the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 require super fast storage, with the former needing a proprietary Expansion Card to extend the SSD storage to both boot and store the games. Both consoles allow for external portable HDDs and SSDs to be plugged in via the USB ports, but this form of storage only allows for 8th gen on PS5 (which is just PlayStation 4 games), and for Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One games to be played direct from the drive.

You’ll see that if you try to boot an Xbox Series X|S game that isn’t on your internal storage you’ll get the message that the game cannot be played from external storage, and that it will need to be transferred to internal storage. And this was, until recently, illustrated by the two arrows symbol, any games that had this symbol means that they need to be transferred to the internal storage to be played. But there used to me be games that didn’t have this symbol and that was an easier way to tell if a game could be booted from external storage or not. There are games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Sea of Thieves and We Happy Few, Star Wars Squadrons and Maid of Sker that despite being Xbox Series X|S games can be booted from the External Storage.

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But why do games need to be on the internal drive at all?

When Microsoft announced the Series X|S buzzwords like Xbox Velocity Architecture and Smart Delivery were brought in, with the latter being the tech behind knowing which version of the game should be downloaded from the store. So if you are on the base Xbox One, One S, One X, Series S or Series X, you would get the best available game for that system. Unfortunately for Series S owners they are quite hamstrung by the small capacity on 364GB (advertised as 500GB) yet, having to download large file sizes.
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So how do I get Series X|S games to play off an External Drive?
Well, this won’t apply for all games but there are few games out there that are Xbox Series X|S certified such as Decenders, which has the X|S logo, but can be stored on External Storage.

You can press the VIEW Button, the button that has two over lapping squares just above the D-pad, then you can bring up a menu and then go to “file information”. From here you can see two important pieces of information, the first;

Is the “Gen” – it says Durango, (which was the pre-release code name for the Xbox One)
The second is “Console Type” – which says Xbox One Gen 9 Aware. Meaning that this the Xbox One version of the game but with certain features on the Xbox Series X|S
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But why care?
Well games are starting to take up a huge amount of space, such as the Halo Master Chief collection and if you didn’t have to store this on your internal drive then it makes it a bit more palatable to have it as part of your collection when it can be stored externally, and yet still reap the benefits of the Xbox Series X|S.

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Like and subscribe if you haven’t already!

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Be sure to check me out on my social network channels;

[tng_abu]

I’m so mad about this cause for last gen I had a 5tb external for 100 bucks but now they want 200$ for 1tb for the sad external

[scupking]

Microsoft needs to allow new games to play off external hard drives. If not they need to lower the prices of the official storage starting at $99 for the 1TB card.

[RomanVentura]

This video stopped me from wasting money on a Internal Hard drive and it taught me how to properly use a external hard drive. Thanks!

[No-mask]

Xbox did a poor job here. There are some games that don’t change wether it’s on x/s or just Xbox one. So having the option of being able install the next gen or old gen would be a lot better. The reason I bought the Series S was because I didn’t think I needed the X storage space because I have a 4tb hard drive, turns out I can only download a couple games on it. Now I need go out and buy the new SSD or whatever it is, just to install a pissing game.

[DVDFOyt]

This actually helped out a lot so I could move certain games to my hard drive to free up space for other games that need to be on the internal storage. This is huge for me as someone who is new to xbox

[HP-]

Just so you know, in your settings you can change it so it won’t show your email on your home page so you won’t need to cover it

[GuillermoBarron]

Oh boy, great video. I had a few doubts on getting a HDD but now I'll go for it without fear to archive X One games

[rhinothegamingguy]

This video was very helpful as I was getting pretty confused and frustrated on why I had to transfer them back then this video explained my questions. Thank you!

[dyinglightgoated]

This actually helped so much I had never thought of checking the code name before Ima sub good video man

[ThGaMbr]

So basically what xbox is saying "oh, you guys think are so sleak to buy an external hard drive that is more cheaper to play your games. Think again! Im gonna make it that you won't be able to. And that you need to buy the expansion ssd that cost more for just 1tb"

[raminham]

All games that have gen code:durango will playable from usb external drive on both xbox series s and x consoles even if they have x/s logo.

[harlyluv]

Thanks so much for the video. I recently upgraded to the xbox series x and many of the games are huge! I was confused on the type of storage device until I saw your video. Understanding the file type and what type of storage device it will play off of really helped! And it also gives me an idea of how a game will affect my storage. Prices for the storage devices are outrageous but biting the bullet now may save me in the long term. Again thanks!

[sxppressions]

I have a seagate 3.5TB external storage plugged in a USB but i still can’t play my games like forza or even gta (series s|x optimized) and i still need to transfer the games… which is really disappointing bc its litterally 3.5TB but can’t play most of the games.. i need help and explication

[ErnestoValdezJr]

WoW... this is some good information. I'm looking to buy some external storage for my Series X but didn't want to spend all that money on the proprietary cards for so little space. So I'll by a normal external drive (with the proper specs of course) and just now that I'll have to take a few minutes to transfer games back and forth, which I don't see me doing too often as I play one game for a while.

[rje]

thank you for explaining the difference, finally a video that does! does a nvme m.2 drive work just as well as the xbox-branded storage though?

[KAHLORIAN]

Hey man thank you a bunch now that I understand it the simplicity makes me feel dumb😂 have a good one

[sahdeekeethompson]

I feel like Xbox is neglecting their consumers because they are making higher storage alternative for other devices but limiting to their own now I am considering to buy a PS5 because there is a 8 TB external storage option for that and only a maximum of 2 TB storage for Xbox it seems like they don't care and that hurts.

[carmenenriquez]

So what's the purpose... Of buying external if internal let's you have 3 games max and the others can't be played from external??

[fnjaydee]

Huge help I was wondering why I could play some x/s games but not others saves me a lot of time 🙏🏿 earned sub

[ThatPlaneGuy]

I just wasted 100 bucks for a hard drive that doesnt even let me play the games on it??