Turning off an Xbox is usually pretty simple: you just hit the power button, and it turns off. But some Xbox Series X and Series S consoles keep blinking and beeping for several minutes after they’ve been turned off. Why does Xbox Series X/S take so long to power down?
The Xbox Series X/S console may be taking a long time to power down because it’s doing something in the background, such as downloading updates or indexing your hard drive. The console could also be too hot, and the cooling fans are preventing it from shutting down properly.
Both Xbox Series S and X have multiple options for background tasks. If you use the default option, your system is probably downloading updates and installing them in the background, which may take a while. However, you can simply modify the options to suit your preferences. Let’s look at some of the ways to make your Xbox power down more quickly.
How Do You Turn Off the Xbox Series X/S?
To turn off your Xbox X/S, follow these steps:
- Hold down the Xbox button on your controller until a menu appears, then choose ‘Turn Off Console,’ and the console will go off.
- Alternatively, hold down the Xbox button on the console for about 10 seconds until it shuts down.
There are two power modes in Xbox X and S: Instant-On and Energy-Saving. Both are set to Instant-On by default. With this setting, the console does not totally shut down when you switch it off; instead, it goes off just enough to enter a standby state and quickly start up when you turn it back on.
While it may be more convenient, the Instant-On mode also means your Xbox is using more power and never really powering down all the way.
To turn your Xbox off completely, you’ll need to change the power mode to Energy-Saving. The trade-off is that it will take a bit longer to power back on, but it will save you some power in the long run.
Here’s how to fully turn off your Xbox Series X/S
- Press the Xbox button on your controller to open the guide.
- Navigate to the ‘Profile & System‘ icon on the right.
- Select ‘Settings‘ in the list menu.
- Choose ‘General‘ in the left column.
- Select the ‘Power mode & startup‘ box on the right.
- Select ‘Energy-Saving‘ in the power mode drop-down menu on the next window.
- Complete the action by selecting ‘Confirm‘ in the bottom-right corner.
Now that you’ve changed the power mode, follow the same turn-off steps; long-press the Xbox button and select ‘Turn off console’ in the power menu. This time, your Xbox will fully shut down.
Reasons Why Your Xbox Series X/S Takes a While to Turn Off
When you switch off your Xbox Series X/S, it goes through a kind of downtime where it saves your current game state and console settings. Normally, all this takes less than 30 seconds. But if your console takes several minutes to power down, there are a few possible explanations.
- You’ve enabled the background downloads. This setting increases the shutdown time, even if you don’t have any pending downloads. This is why you may not see any obvious updates, yet your console may take a while to power down.
- Your console is too hot, and the fan is still running to cool it down. In this case, the system will stay on to power the fans until the console has cooled down to a safe temperature.
- One or more of your games has pending cloud saves. This can happen if you’ve played a game offline and then reconnected to the internet. The console will sync local save with the cloud before it powers down.
- If you’ve skipped necessary software updates, the console may override your power-down request and instead install the updates first.
- Your console is indexing your hard drive; this happens after you’ve recently installed or uninstalled any games.
- Some users noticed that a recent update is the cause of the lengthy shutdowns. It makes the console look for available updates right before shutting down, and this can take a while if your internet connection is slow.
How Do You Turn Off Background Downloads?
There are two ways to turn off background downloads on your Xbox Series X/S.
The first method is to switch to Power-Saving mode. As we mentioned earlier, this will stop any background processes and completely power down the console when you turn it off.
The second method is to turn off the background download on the ‘Instant-On’ mode. It’ll still power down the console to stand by but won’t download updates or cloud sync your games in the background.
Here’s how to do it:
- Press the Xbox button on your controller to open the guide.
- Go to ‘Profile & System.’
- Select ‘Settings.’
- Go to the ‘General‘ menu.
- Select ‘Power mode & startup‘ box.
- Select the ‘Instant-On‘ option in the power mode drop-down menu if you haven’t already.
- You’ll see three options just beside the power mode menu, tick the ‘When Xbox is off, turn off storage‘ options.
- Confirm your changes and exit the Settings menu.
That’s it; now your console won’t download updates even when it’s in ‘Instant-On’ mode.
What Should You Do If Your Xbox Series X/S Is Frozen and Won’t Turn Off?
If your console is taking way too long to power down or is completely frozen, you can force it to turn off by doing a ‘Hard Rest.’ This is basically a Power cycle where you completely shut off the power to the console and then turn it back on. Here’s how to do it:
- Press and hold the Xbox button on the front of the console for at least 10 seconds.
- Once you see the light on the power button start blinking, release the button. The console will go through the shutdown process and turn off.
- Unplug the power cord and wait for 30 seconds.
- Plug the cord back in and turn on your Xbox Series X/S.
Don’t worry; you won’t lose any data by doing a hard reset. It only resolves the glitches and may help if your console isn’t responding to the normal shutdown process.