How to Delete Animal Crossing Island: Seamless Steps to Follow
The beauty of watching your island bloom off with greeneries and take shape as you erect more edifices may fade away someday, especially when you realize that you don’t like how things are beginning to look on the island.
Annoying residents may inhabit your island, which you may not like. Or you might want to relive those gradual processes of building a new island from scratch. Whatever the case, you’d be glad to know there’s a workaround for deleting your island and starting over.
I’ve detailed the steps in the guide, so keep reading to find out how to delete Animal Crossing island.
How to Delete Your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
The best way to delete your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is to alter the game’s save data in your Nintendo Switch’s system settings. Once you locate the save data and delete it, your island will stop existing, with every edifice and tree you’ve planted ceasing to exist.
It’s a pretty drastic measure, so ensure you’re okay with losing all those things you’ve invested hours of gameplay and money (Bells) to build. Once you’ve made your decision, use the following steps to delete Animal Crossing island:
- Close the Animal Crossing: New Horizons software or power on your Nintendo Switch if it’s off
- Once your Nintendo Switch is on, head to the System Settings
- Navigate to and select Data Management
- Next, select Delete Save Data from the options
- Locate the save data file for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, select it and then select Delete All Save Data for this Software
- You’ll get a warning sign that you cannot reverse the decision. Select Delete Save Data to go ahead with it
Once you’ve completed the steps above, the system erases every bit of your save progress in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. And, by now, you don’t need telling what this means: the island is gone, along with those lovely buildings and friendly residents.
The game literally begs you not to delete your save data, as doing so kills the residents with all the sweet memories created gone. You’ll find all these warnings and pleas when you visit Tom Nook and tell him about your decision to delete the save data.
Important Things to Note When Starting Afresh
To prevent starting a new island and then wishing there are things you could get to choose again, keep note of the following:
- You cannot change your name or birth date
- You cannot change the name of your island once it’s set
- Many things cannot be changed when you’re just starting, but you’ll unlock more customization options as you progress in the game.
- You’ll be using your island layout for a very long time, so ensure whatever you pick has the basics that make it enjoyable, including rivers and lakes.
Related: How to Chop Down Trees in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Final Notes
That’s how to delete Animal Crossing island. Relatively easy it is! Again, before deleting your island, you might want to reconsider how difficult it was for you to get the Bells you’ve spent on buildings and the creations on your island.
