How to delete your games from the Nintendo Switch... and how to get them back

The Nintendo Switch has limited internal storage. If you've gone digital and prefer to buy games from the Nintendo eShop (whether for environmental reasons or convenience), you've most likely already filled up your console's storage in recent months, as the games we've been waiting for are finally being released. Therefore, if you need to free up space on your console , this is the guide you should follow to achieve your goal.

How to remove a digital game from Nintendo Switch

If you need to make room on your console to download a new game in digital format, you can do so using two different methods : deleting the game or archiving it.

archive a game

When you archive a game, you delete the program and free up space. However, the game's icon will still appear on your console's home screen. If you launch the game, the icon will take you directly to the eShop so you can download it again . Many people dislike this method because it "clutters" the console, but it's a perfectly valid and useful way to free up storage space.

To do this, follow these steps :

On the main Nintendo Switch screen, hover over the game you want to delete and press the '-' or '+' button on your controller Pro or Joy-Con.
The game options will appear in a very complete menu. Go to the tab "Data management".
Click on «Archive the program».
Read the warning accept the dialogue and ready.

Delete a game

The process is exactly the same, except that we won't keep the icon of the video game in question. This second method is more suitable if you're deleting a game you never intend to play again.

To do this, repeat the process. Select the game, open the menu by pressing '-' or '+', and under "Data Management," click on "Delete Program." You will be asked for confirmation, and there will be no trace of the game on the console.

What happens to my games if I delete a game?

Neither of the two methods we just showed you deletes your game save data . The process is designed this way to prevent you from accidentally deleting your game saves when you perform a disk cleanup operation.

The save data stored on your console can only be deleted by going to Settings , Data Management, and then to the bottom, to the "Delete Save Data" option . There you can delete save data for games you no longer wish to keep. You can also transfer save data to other consoles using the option located just above it.

If you also have a Nintendo Switch Online membership , your game saves will be backed up to the cloud service , so you won't have to worry about a thing. Once you download the games again, you can pick up right where you left off.

How to Manage Games on Nintendo Switch

Once you've purchased several digital games, the best thing to do is buy a microSD card for your console. The best ones are the microSDXC cards , which have high capacity. We recommend getting at least a 128GB card . They're quite inexpensive, and you'll be able to store a lot of games on them. If you wish, the console supports cards up to 2TB , but using such large cards can negatively impact your games' loading times.

There are plenty of these types of cards on the market, and Nintendo even sells its official cards in collaboration with SanDisk . They come in 64, 128, 256, and 512 GB capacities and are decorated with designs from Super Mario, Apex Legends, Animal Crossing, and Zelda. However, this isn't something we should worry about too much, since we'll only insert the card into the console once and hardly ever see it again. If the design doesn't appeal to you, you can buy identical cards, even from the same brand, for a few euros less.

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Once you have your new card inserted into your console, the best thing to do is transfer some titles from the Switch's internal memory to the microSD card . The process is as follows:

Go to Console configuration.
Go to the tab Data management.
Enter the option "Move data between the console and a microSD card".
Click on the option "To microSD card".
will load a list of titles that are on your console, and you can mark them to be transferred to the microSD.

As a recommendation, it's best to keep frequently used apps like Twitch on the console's internal memory . If you play a lot of games, it's also a good idea to keep them on the console's internal memory instead of the microSD card, as loading times will be faster. You can transfer programs and games from the microSD card to the console's internal memory by repeating the previous steps and selecting "To Console Memory."

How to redownload your games

Once you have more storage space available on your Nintendo Switch, it's time to re-download the games we had deleted.

If you did the deletion using the Archive option

Go to the Nintendo Switch menu and find the game's icon. Click it, and you'll be taken to the eShop to complete the process.

If you did the deletion using the Delete option

Open the Nintendo eShop from the menu of your Nintendo Switch console.
Select the user profile that made the purchase digital file of the game you want to redownload.
Take the click on your user icon, in the upper right corner of the screen.
Select option "Redownload" in the dropdown of options that are shown to you.
Browse through the list of games until you find ethe title you want to reinstall on your console.
Take the click on the icon of the cloud with an arrow.
The game will start downloading immediately and you will be able to play again as soon as the installation is complete.

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