Xbox warned users back in September that they would be deleting online backups of player captures that were 90 days old or older. After months of no action, Xbox is now circulating messages warning users that May 30th is the day when their capture library will be deleted. The company has not provided a reason for the change, but players have 90 days to back up their content before deletions begin.
The new policy was implemented in September with a 90-day deadline for players to back up their content, but the deletions were postponed until May 30th. Xbox rolled out a new UI for bulk backups, allowing players to back up their content either through OneDrive or with an external storage drive. This change will allow Xbox to regain storage on its servers, making it cheaper to manage, but players will need to find alternative ways to back up their content.
Xbox will be deleting all game captures and screenshots that are 90 days old or older and uploaded to the Xbox network. Players who have swapped consoles over the years may not have locally stored versions of their older captures, so it’s important to back up their content using external storage or OneDrive. Automatic uploads to the Xbox network will still be available, but players will have 90 days to share their content before it gets deleted.
Players can manually or automatically upload their content to the Xbox network, but it will be deleted after 90 days. It is unclear if clips can be reuploaded after deletion, so players should make sure to back up their captures to avoid losing them. Xbox provides options to back up to external storage or OneDrive, with external storage being a more cost-effective and versatile option. OneDrive is integrated with Xbox for quick and easy sharing.
Captures made with the Xbox Game Bar on PC are stored locally and not subject to the 90-day deletion policy. Players using Xbox Game Bar to capture content can access their captures on their PC and back them up using cloud storage or a flash drive. Xbox provides instructions on how to access and back up captures from the Xbox Game Bar on PC for those concerned about losing their content.
Players who want to delete old captures on Xbox can do so by accessing the Capture & Share section and selecting the captures they want to delete. There is an option to delete multiple captures at once to streamline the process. Once captures are deleted, they cannot be recovered, so players should be cautious when pruning their capture collection. The opportunity to back up captures before deletion provides players with a chance to organize and prioritize their content.
