Xbox games update all the fourth dimension, and so you probable want these updates to run as apace as possible to minimize interruptions. One of the all-time means to practice this is by closing your current game, but sometimes that's not an option. Maybe yous're in the eye of something important and tin can't quit at the moment.

Thankfully, at that place's now an piece of cake fashion to speed upward Xbox game and app downloads while keeping your electric current game agile. Here'southward how, plus some extra methods for speeding up downloads.

How to Speed Up Xbox Downloads by Suspending Your Electric current Game

Whether yous have an Xbox One, Xbox Serial X, or Xbox Series South, yous can take reward of a handy function that allow y'all suspend your electric current game to prioritize active downloads. This is thanks to an Xbox update that Microsoft released in March 2022. On Xbox Series X|South, you can even take reward of Quick Resume to pick up at the moment where you left off.

To suspend your electric current game, you of course must accept a game open on your Xbox. With another download running, hitting the Xbox button on your controller to open the guide. From there, go to My games & apps, so choose See all > Manage > Queue.

Alternatively, if a game that's downloading appears in the guide list, you lot tin can select it and cull Run across full queue to jump to the same page.

Xbox Manage Queue

On the Manage Queue page, yous'll see what games are downloading. As a side note, if you accept multiple downloads running, you can pause some of them to prioritize what'south most important to you.

More importantly, under the You lot've got a game running. Append it to help better download speeds text, cull Suspend my game. This will freeze your game in identify, allowing the download(s) to take priority.

Xbox Manage Queue Suspend Downloads

After the downloads finish, select your game to bound right dorsum into information technology where yous left off. Proceed in mind that if you were playing an online game, suspending will most likely kick yous off the servers, and then y'all'll need to reconnect subsequently resuming.

In example you weren't aware, your Xbox prioritizes network activity for the game yous're currently playing. Thus, having a game open will always throttle the download activity in the background. The traditional solution to this is to close all running games, but that tin cause you to lose progress if you haven't saved. This is a smoother solution to that.

Remember that to install and apply updates for a game that'southward running, you must close the game. And so this only comes in handy when you desire to install a new game, or run updates for a dissimilar championship.

Other Tips for Speeding Up Xbox Download Times

If you lot desire your Xbox downloads to get even faster, at that place are some other tips you lot can put into place. Let's consider a few.

1. Restart Your Console

If y'all haven't washed a full shutdown of your Xbox lately, it's a good thought to ability it off fully and let it reboot. Similar any computer, occasional reboots allow a game panel to prepare up any temporary glitches and perform at its best.

To reboot your Xbox, hold the Xbox push button on your controller for a moment. Choose Restart console, and then give it a few minutes to fully reboot. Recollect that a full restart (not only putting it in standby mode) volition close all open games, and then if y'all have a game suspended, exist sure to save it before rebooting.

Xbox Restart Console

In one case it'due south running again, see if the download speed improves. This won't magically increase the maixmum speed of your internet connectedness, only it could optimize how your Xbox downloads. Try this anytime the download speed seems a lot slower than you expect.

2. Check Bandwidth Usage Elsewhere on Your Network

When your Xbox is downloading something, it has to share the available bandwidth on your network with every other device in your habitation. Thus, if you accept other computers, phones, or game consoles using your network too, your Xbox download speeds will suffer.

Next fourth dimension y'all demand an Xbox download to complete equally chop-chop as possible, check other devices in your home. If someone is downloading big files on a reckoner, streaming 4K video from some other Boob tube, uploading files to cloud storage, or performing other network-heavy behaviors, close those out and see if your Xbox download speeds increase.

To go further, yous can set up the Quality of Service feature on your router. This allows you to specify sure devices or types of traffic that receive priority on your network.

3. Use a Wired Connection

If y'all connect your Xbox to your network using Wi-Fi, consider switching to a wired Ethernet connexion. Even if you simply practice this temporarily to download an update or big game faster, it will make a big divergence.

Xbox Series S Connect Cables

While Ethernet connections aren't every bit convenient equally using Wi-Fi, they are more stable and offer faster download speeds. You'll get closer to the download speed that you pay your Internet service provider for with an Ethernet cable than y'all will with Wi-Fi.

If you tin can't movement your Xbox closer to your router, then buying a long Ethernet cable that you use for large downloads is a low-tech solution.

four. Consider Your Internet Speed

While all the above tips will help y'all download Xbox games and updates faster without closing your current game, your internet speed is still a limiting cistron. If y'all only take a 20Mbps download speed from your ISP, zero you lot do will up that speed to 100Mbps.

Use Speedtest.net to check your internet speed

If your entire network is experiencing boring speeds, you should reboot your router and modem, for the same reasons discussed above. Disallowment a temporary hiccup, though, slow speeds are best fixed by upgrading your cyberspace plan.

Visit your profile on your Isp's website, or give customer service a call, to run into what other options are available. Upgrading your speed volition let you download Xbox content faster and provide more than bandwidth for multiple devices to work at once.

Speed Up Xbox Downloads the Like shooting fish in a barrel Way

With this useful new Xbox feature and a few other tips, you tin can speed upwardly Xbox downloads, fifty-fifty without closing your current game. Hopefully, your organisation downloads most updates when the console is in standby fashion, so they don't bother yous at all.

Just next time you demand to employ an update equally fast as possible, you know what to practise. It's not a bad idea to explore other options in your router for a better online gaming experience, either.

Epitome Credit: Miguel Lagoa/Shutterstock

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Ben Stegner (1805 Articles Published)

Ben is the Editor in Chief at MakeUseOf. He left his IT task to write full-time in 2022 and has never looked back. He's been covering tech tutorials, video game recommendations, and more as a professional writer for over 8 years.

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