Why Is My Xbox One So Slow? How to Make It Run Faster?

Xbox consoles represent a remarkable feat of technology. However, like any sophisticated device, they can occasionally suffer from performance issues such as lag or slowdowns. If you are finding ways to fix very slow loading on your Xbox One series, this article is specifically written to offer six practical solutions and quick fixes, ensuring your Xbox One returns to its peak performance. But before fixing it, let's answer the question you may concern about most: "why is my Xbox One so slow?"

Why is my Xbox One so slow and lagging?

When you find the Xbox One is slow, knowing the reasons before fixing can help to better solve the problems. Why is your Xbox One so slow? Multiple reasons can cause sluggish gaming issues, including caching, conflicts, and other causes. There are some common causes of Xbox One running slow and freezing:

Why is my Xbox One so slow?

Hardware or software issues: Over time, the hard drive or cooling system in your Xbox One may degrade from extensive use, leading to a slowdown. Besides, if your console hasn't received the latest software updates, it may have difficulty running newer games or applications due to compatibility or bug issues. During these times, you will notice the Xbox One feeling slow.

Internet connection: A poor or unstable internet connection can cause online games to lag or download updates slowly.

Overheating: If your Xbox One is not properly ventilated or if dust accumulates inside the console, it can overheat, causing performance loss.

Background processes: Running multiple applications or having too many games installed can consume system resources and cause the console to run slowly.

Limited storage space: If your hard drive is nearly full, it can slow down the Xbox One’s performance, especially when loading games or applications.

For these different reasons, we have explored different solutions to ensure your Xbox One runs smoother.

How to fix Xbox One running slow issue?

There is nothing worse than sitting down and only to explore the causes. Now, follow the 4 fixes to speed up your Xbox One and deeply enjoy an epic gaming session.

Fix 1. Free up the drive space of your Xbox One

Insufficient storage space is probably the most common and important cause of Xbox One running slow. This occurs because the system has less space available to efficiently store and access game data or application files. As a result, the console may take longer to load content, resulting in a slower overall experience. Some advice is to uninstall games and apps, but we guess you probably don't intend to do that because every software is attractive otherwise you wouldn't have installed them, right?

Fortunately, there are many other effective solutions if you choose AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional to extend drive space. This professional tool is dedicated to solving disk problems for many years. To easily get more storage on Xbox One, you can free download the powerful software and then follow the steps:

Way 1. Merge partitions

When there is an unallocated space on the disk, but it is not contiguous to the target partition, you can use this powerful tool to extend the partition by merging the unallocated space into this one and to expand the storage space. Or you can also try to use to to move Xbox PC games to another drive.

Step 1. Unmount the Xbox One hard drive and connect it to a working Windows computer. Download the AOMEI Partition Assistant on the PC and right-click the partition, then select  "Advanced" > “Merge Partitions”.

Step 2. In the pop-up window, all partitions on the disk will be displayed. Check the partitions to which you want to merge unallocated space and click OK. Then click "Apply" and then "Continue" to start the merge process.

Way 2. Upgrade to a bigger hard drive

Upgrading your Xbox One's internal hard drive to a newer and larger one is better than merging partitions to expand space. Larger new drives usually provide better performance and long-term reliability compared to merging partitions, which offers only a temporary solution, and it may not increase overall capacity from root.

If you want to fix your slow Xbox One once and for all and have the budget for it, don't hesitate to upgrade the disk. To seamlessly and effectively transfer the old data, just run the Clone Disk provided by AOMEI Partition Assistant. No matter your new disk is larger or smaller than the old one, you can clone the whole disk with ease.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, click "Clone" in the main interface, and select "Clone Disk".

Step 2. Choose the hard disk that you need to clone as the source disk and click "Next".

Step 3. Select the destination disk to store the data on the source disk, and then click "Next".

Step 4. Then, you can check the source and destination disk in the next window or change to "Sector to Sector clone", and click the "Confirm" button to continue if there is no problem.

Here, you can also click the "Settings" button to adjust the partition size on the destination disk or tick "4k alignment" to optimize performance of SSD.

① Clone without resizing partitions: all partition will be cloned to the target disk as the original partition size. It is available when the target disk is large enough to hold all partitions on the source disk.
② Fit partitions to entire disk: all partitions will be cloned to the target disk and take up its full capacity according to the original partition size proportion.
③ Edit partitions on this disk: you can change every partition size on the target disk as you need.

Step 5. After returning to the main interface, check the pending operation and click "Apply" and "Proceed" to commit the operation.

If you are cloning the system hard drive to another hard drive, to successfully boot from the destination hard drive and avoid the embarrassing moment that cloned SSD won’t boot, please do as below:

Step 1. Restart your computer, long press the "F2" key (perhaps other keys like DEL), and access the BIOS environment.

Step 2. Change the boot order and set the cloned hard drive as the first boot drive in BIOS.

Step 3. Press "Enter". Now you should boot the computer from the cloned hard disk successfully.

Further info: if you want to clone only the C drive and boot-related partitions to another hard drive, you can try its “Migrate OS to SSD/HDD Wizard”, which only transfers the OS partition to another hard drive and allows you to boot from it smoothly.

Just wait a while, everything on your original hard drive will be migrated to the new disk. When you choose to boot from the cloned hard drive without reinstalling everything and keep enjoying your old system, programs, etc, which seems like nothing has changed. By the way, you can wipe old hard drive as a data disk.

Fix 2. Clear the Xbox One cache

Caches are temporary files and data used by Xbox Storage to speed up game loading. Sometimes these files become centralized or corrupted, which can cause a lot of problems with the console, including Xbox One running slow and freezing.

Step 1. Save the current game and back up your progress. Turn off the console by unplugging the power cord from the back of the Xbox (not the wall).

Step 2. Unplug the power cord from the Xbox and wait 5-10 minutes for the console to clear its cache. Then plug the power cord back into the console and wait another 5 minutes.

Step 3. Turn the Xbox console back on and see if the problem has been resolved.

Fix 3. Change DNS settings

Trying to change your DNS (Domain Name Servers) settings can also be beneficial to improving your internet connection and speed. To change your DNS settings, simply follow these steps:

Step 1. Press the Xbox button on the controller to access the guide.

Step 2. Go to System > Network > Network Settings > Advanced Settings.

Step 3. Select DNS Settings > Manual.

Fix 4. Reset Xbox One network to factory default settings

Certain incompatible updates or changes may also cause your Xbox One to run slowly. If you have changed your settings, reset the Xbox One console network to the default settings to fix the problem.

Step 1. Click the button on your Xbox controller. Go to Profiles & System > Settings > System > Network Settings.

Step 2. Find the target network and choose Configure Network.

Step 3. From the Other Settings menu, select Restore to Factory Defaults.

Summary

With explaining “why is my Xbox one so slow” and giving targeted solutions, you can better enjoy the games you like. Apart from fix Xbox One running slow, you can also use it to effectively manage your Windows PC. It supports moving installed apps to another drive, converting system disk between MBR/GPT without data loss, and recovering lost data. For Windows Server users, please choose the Server edition.