How to use Xbox Quick Resume

Microsoft’s next-gen consoles are finally here and amid speedy hardware, there are also some neat features that help to set them apart from their similarly named Xbox One predecessors. Both the
Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S have a focus on low-latency gaming with zippy loading times care of the custom internal storage.

But one of the better features that may be initially confusing is Quick Resume, which is incredibly convenient and has some depth to understanding how it works.

While the next-gen Xbox user interface will look incredibly familiar to anyone who’s used an Xbox One in recent years, Quick Resume is an automated feature designed to let you easily pick up where you left off. Quick Resume will automatically remember where you were at in the last few games you played, letting you jump back into a game in under 10 seconds.

Quick Resume can technically support about 12 games, but it was closer to four to six games in our tests. It’s not available for all games, though, and you’ll notice that online-only games like Sea of Thieves and Ark: Survival Evolved won’t drop you back to where you left off, though they will get you back to the main menu faster. Assumedly this is because online games can’t be paused in the same way that offline games can be.

Whether you’re in the instant-on (low power) or power-saving state, Quick Resume will drop you back to where you left off with the last handful of games that you played. In the past, these type of quick-resume features on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 meant putting the console into a low-power or hibernating state. With Xbox Series X, you can completely power down and even disconnect the power and still pick up where you left off with Quick Resume.

Developers and Microsoft ultimately choose which games are supported in Quick Resume, but it was every game (outside of the online-game disclaimer above) that we tested for our Xbox Series X review. The trick is to ensure that the last handful of games you played are the ones you want to Quick Resume. If you’re treating game switching like scrolling through Netflix titles, the games you opened first likely won’t be ready to Quick Resume.

Yes, but the main limitation you may come across on Xbox Series S, though, is the smaller internal storage. For Series S owners, you may not be able to take advantage of it on as many games (compared to the Xbox Series X), depending on how many larger games you have installed on the internal storage.

It does. Whether you’re using the official Seagate Storage Expansion Card or a compatible USB 3.1 external drive, Quick Resume will still work for games stored here. The only disclaimer is that next-gen games require next-gen storage, so only supported Xbox One, Xbox 360, and original Xbox games will be playable (and Quick Resumable) from a USB 3.1 drive.