Top 4 Methods to Recover Lost Game Files from Xbox One

If you’ve also accidentally lost game files on your Xbox One, you’re lucky to have landed on the right page. This guide will focus on addressing the question of how to recover lost game files from Xbox one, and offer 4 effective methods for doing so.

Aria

By Aria / Updated on July 23, 2025

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Can You Recover Lost Game Files on Xbox One?

Playing games on game consoles has become a popular way for more and more people to relax and entertain themselves. Imagine this: you open your game console with great anticipation, only to find that your favorite game won’t launch or your saved progress is missing—this is simply terrible. As one of the most popular game consoles, Xbox One is also unable to avoid such situations.

Xbox One Console

Normally, lost game files may have the following impacts on the game:

  • The game fails to launch or crashes: The previously functional game icon turns gray, and a prompt "Installation required" pops up.
  • Game saves are lost: The game progress is reset to zero, and if cloud saving is not enabled, the progress will be difficult to recover.
  • Abnormal game content: Mosaic patterns, stuttering, or no sound appear in the game screen.
  • Impaired online features: Error messages pop up when using multiplayer mode, and game updates get stuck and fail to complete.

When dealing with such a tricky situation, can you recover lost gam files on Xbox one? Take it easy. The next section will provide 4 proven methods to recover the lost game files.

How to Recover Lost Game Files from Xbox One

To enhance users' gaming experience, Xbox One offers two built-in backup features: cloud backup and backup to an external hard drive, allowing users to restore data from backups after data loss. Additionally, you can redownload the game. Finally, a professional data recovery tool will be recommended for recovering lost game files.

Solution 1. Restore from Cloud Saves

If you have an Xbox Live Gold account or a Game Pass Ultimate subscription, your console will automatically enable the cloud save feature with unlimited storage capacity. If you enabled the cloud backup feature before losing your game files, your console will automatically sync the previous backups when you log in to the game again. Your game will return to its original state.

Step 1. Sign in to your Xbox One console with your account.

Step 2. Launch the game which lost game files, and you’ll find that the game saves are synced with the backups. You can navigate to "Home" > "My games & apps" > "Manage games & add-ons" > "Saved data" to check if the saves have been retrieved.

Manage Game & Add-ons

Solution 2. Reinstall Games from Xbox One

If deleted game files cause the game to fail to launch or display an error code upon startup, this may be due to the deletion of core game files. Reinstalling the game will resolve this issue. Xbox One keeps track of the games you’ve downloaded and then deleted.

Step 1. Locate "Home" > "My games & apps" > "See all".

Step 2. Select the "Ready to install" section at the left panel. Choose the game you wish to recover and click "Install".

Ready to Install

If you have an Xbox live gold account, when the process is completed, the game save data will automatically sync from the cloud saves.

Solution 3. Restore from External Backup

Xbox One allows users to directly move or copy games, game screenshots, and videos from the internal hard drive to an external hard drive, but game saves cannot be directly accessed or exported. If you have manually backed up game data to an external hard drive before, you can follow the steps below to restore them from the external hard drive.

Step 1. Sign in to your Xbox One console with your account. Insert your USB external drive with backup to the console.

Step 2. Navigate to "Settings" > "System" > "Backup & transfer" > "Restore this console".

Backup and Transfer

Step 3. Select the USB drive to restore game files from.

Step 4. Select a backup to restore game files following the prompts.

Solution 4. Recover with Professional Tool—MyRecover

If none of the above methods work to recover the deleted data on console, you can try a professional data recovery tool—MyRecover. It can scan all disks on a Windows computer and provide an opportunity to recover lost data. Since Xbox One data is also stored on the internal hard drive, you can use MyRecover to scan for the lost data on Xbox One.

MyRecover supports data recovery from camera memory cards, game console storage cards, USB drives, and hard drives of various brands and more wide range of devices. It also supports data recovery in various complex data loss scenarios, such as formatted USB drives, lost partitions, and initialized disks.

 MyRecover
All-in-One FREE Data Recovery Tool
  • Intuitive interface requiring no technical expertise;
  • Faster scanning compared to command-line tools;
  • Higher success rate for permanently deleted files;
  • Work on HDD, SSD, USB flash drive, memory card, etc.

Step 1. Remove the internal drive carefully from Xbox One and connect it to Windows with a correct adapter. You can follow this video to perform the process.

Step 2. Download and install MyRecover on your computer from secure channel.

Step 3. Select the Xbox One internal drive from the displayed drives to scan, then click "Scan".

Select a Drive to Scan

Step 4. Choose the files you wish to recover from the recoverable lists and click "Recover". You can use the "Filter" function to quickly find the files you want.

Choose Files to Recover

Step 5. Select a safe location (not the original one) to save the recovered files.

Select a Location to Save

When the process is finished, the message "Files have been recovered successfully" will pop out. You can access and check the recovered files by clicking the destination folder.

Recover Successfully

Once you confirm there are no additional files needing recovery, put these lost files back into the Xbox One hard drive. Reinstall the internal hard drive, restart the console, and your games should return to original state.

Summary

By following these methods, you now have a complete understanding of how to recover lost game files from Xbox One. Whether it’s through cloud sync, game reinstalls, or external drives, there’s usually a way to recover your progress as long as you act quickly.

Professional data recovery tools like MyRecover can not only recover data from game consoles, but also over 1,000 types of file formats on Windows computers, such as images, videos, and documents. The Professional version of MyRecover also supports more advanced features, such as recovering unlimited amounts of data and previewing file contents before recovery.

Aria
Aria · Editor
I've been specializing in the data recovery industry for years. I am dedicated to translating intricate software features and functions into plain - language explanations, enabling everyone to understand how to utilize the data recovery software effectively and retrieve their valuable data with confidence. My overarching professional objective is to bridge the gap between complex data recovery technologies and users of all skill levels. Through my work, I strive to eliminate the common anxiety associated with data loss, thereby providing a reliable method for safeguarding digital assets.