Why no "delta updates" or why do a 2GB game take 2 GB to update?

TripleTopper321 · Aug 3, 2021

I have no idea what's going on here but you think that you'd be able to use the data in your hard drive and then operate on it surgically.

The joke I often give is retyping the entirety of War and Peace just because you put a colon instead of a semicolon in one place.

That's the attitude Xbox seems to have about updates even if one line of code changes load the whole thing again.

I live in a place where my best possible connection for Xbox is anywhere in the United States on my visible hotspot wireless. That's right 5 megabits in 5 megabits out on a cell phone hotspot is faster than any land connection I could get out here.

I have no idea what logic was employed by having you download the whole game again just to turn one colon into a semicolon but that kind of thinking has got to stop.

It's like doing brain surgery, heart surgery, and every other vital organ surgery just to fix a hangnail.

On the subject, why do my games need a 4K update when I don't have the network nor the TV to support it?

I'd rather have a CRT TV that's gamer sized (meaning one person could carry it oneself along clear path) than have a high definition TV that's delayed just by the very nature of high definition pictures.

:)

Just a Volunteer

"Why no delta updates"

Sounds like your console is enrolled in the Delta Xbox Insiders preview. If so, you should check the Xbox Insider Forum on Reddit.

The reason you may be getting large 2GB updates is you missed a preview update and the console will download the complete updated OS specific to the Delta preview.

If your only internet access is a phone hotspot I suggest you unenroll from all Insider previews and return the console to the General release OS for xbox consoles.

For example, my console is enrolled in the Alpha skip ahead preview and I do 3-4 updates to the OS a week. It doesn't take long to use 2GB a week just in OS updates.

Christopher Revoredo

Hi there! Welcome to the community tab! Christopher here, an Xbox fan like you and been on Xbox for years already. I would really love to make your day by helping you out. Well, updates regarding games are not made by Xbox, they are made by the developers and everyone has to download every update, even if some of use do not use the 4k feature. I totally understand the frustration of this situation!

DisturbedOne614

It's installing an update? The PS4 version's patch is only like 2 GB or something like that, I can't imagine why the X1 version would be much more, considering it's taking much longer to download this "update" than it did for the game itself...

Marcin Wrona1

I bought the digital version of ForzaHorizon 5 - it's installed, it takes up over 100 GB on the disk - the game works and it's ok, BUT once a month there is an update of the console system, then to play ForzaHorizon 5 you have to download the game update (the game says it needs to be updated) and so every month it updates 14 GB ... however, the size of the game on the disk does not change.... But why does the game itself have to update after every console update?

Obsessive Power

...they take way too long to install given my internet speed is ok-ish and have now had both these games uninstalled after cancelling...

Hi,

I'm afraid if you cancel an update, the game will be uninstalled. This has always been the case since the time the console was released. Unfortunately, they don't give you a warning this will be the case. This also happens on games on PC downloaded via the
Windows Store.

I understand the logic to the uninstall/deletion - I will explain in a moment - but the implementation is lacking.

So, why do my games get deleted when I cancel an update?

Game patches can be quite large and they don't get added to the end of a game. So, if for example if your installed game is 40 GB and there is a 2 GB update, the game isn't necessarily taking up 42 GB of storage now. It may still be 40GB or it could now
take up 41GB or perhaps less. Updates overwrite other files that make up the game and they may also add new files. If the update needs to go in the middle of the game and you cancel the update you would end up with a big chunk of missing data and game that
no longer works. This is why if you cancel an update you'll delete the game.

Why no "delta updates" or why do a 2GB game take 2 GB to update?