The internal memory of the Nintendo Switch is limited. If you have switched to the digital side and prefer to buy the games in the Nintendo eShop (either for ecological reasons or for convenience), the most likely thing is that you have already filled the memory of the console in recent months, because they do not stop finally leave the games we were waiting for. Therefore, if you need to make space on your console , this is the guide you must follow to achieve your goal.
How to delete a digital game from Nintendo Switch
If you need to make room in your console to download a new game in digital format, you can do it through 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 video game icon will continue to appear on the main screen of your console. In case you run it, the icon will take you directly to the eShop so you can download your game again . Many people don’t like this method because it “dirties” the console, but it is a totally valid and useful way to free up memory on the console.
To do this, follow the steps below:
- On the Nintendo Switch main screen, hover over the game you want to delete and press the ‘-‘ or ‘+’ button on your Pro or Joy-Con controller.
- The game options will appear in a very complete menu. Go to the “Data Management” tab.
- Click on ” Archive the program” .
- Read the warning, accept the dialogue, and you’re done.
Delete a game
The process is literally the same, only we will not keep the icon of the video game in question. This second method is more suitable if you are eliminating a game that you never intend to play again.
To do this, repeat the process. Position yourself on the game, open the menu by pressing ‘-‘ or ‘+’ and in “Data management”, click on “Delete the program”. You will be asked for confirmation and there will be no trace on the video game console.
What happens to my games if I delete a game?
Neither of these two methods that we have just shown you removes the save data of the video games. The process is designed in this way so that you do not accidentally delete your games when doing a free space operation.
The data of the games stored in your console can only be deleted if you go to Settings , Data management and go to the end, to the option “Delete save data” . There you can delete the games of the games that you are no longer interested in keeping. You can also transfer the games to other consoles in the option that is just above.
If, in addition, you have Nintendo Switch Online , your games will also be saved in the cloud service , so you will not have to worry about anything. Once you download the games again, you can return to the game as you left it.
How to manage games on Nintendo Switch
Once you’ve bought several digital games, the best thing to do is buy a microSD card for your console. The best are the so-called microSDXC , which are high-capacity. Our recommendation is that you get at least a 128 GB card. They are quite cheap, and in them you will be able to store quite a few games. If desired, the console supports cards of up to 2 TB capacity , but using such large memory can negatively affect the loading times of your video games.
There are a ton of such cards on the market, and Nintendo even sells their official cards in a collaboration with Sandisk . They are sold in sizes of 64, 128, 256 and 512 GB and are decorated with motifs from Super Mario, Apex Legends, Animal Crossing and Zelda. Although it is not something that should matter too much to us, since we are going to insert the card into the console once and we are hardly going to see it again. If the design does not interest you, you can buy other identical cards, even of the same brand for a few euros less.
Once you have your new card inserted in your console, the best you can do is transfer some titles from the internal memory of the Switch to the microSD . The process is the following:
- Go to Console Settings .
- Go to the Data Management tab.
- Enter the option “Move data between the console and a microSD card .”
- Click on the “To microSD card” option.
- A list of the titles that are on your console will load, and you can mark them for transfer to the microSD.
As a recommendation, the best thing you can do is keep the applications that you use regularly, such as Twitch, in the console memory. If there is a game that you use a lot, it will also be interesting that you continue to have it in the memory of the console instead of on the card, since the loading times will improve. You can send programs and games from the microSD to the internal memory of the console by repeating the previous steps and selecting “To the memory of the console”.
How to redownload your games
Once you have more capacity available on your Nintendo Switch, it’s time to re-download the video games that we had deleted.
If you did the deletion with the Archive option
Go to the Nintendo Switch menu and look for the icon for that game. Click and the eShop will be sent to you 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 digital purchase of the game you want to download again.
- Click on your username icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
- Select the option “Re-download” in the drop-down of options that are shown to you.
- Browse through the list of games until you find the title you want to reinstall on your console.
- Click on the cloud icon with an arrow.
- The game will begin downloading immediately, and you will be able to play again as soon as the installation is complete.
