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Animal Crossing: New Horizons

How to restart Animal Crossing: New Horizons and reset your island

A fresh start.
This article is over 4 years old and may contain outdated information

If, for whatever reason, you wish to full reset your game of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, there is a way to do it. Maybe you don’t like the inhabitant of the first island, or perhaps you made a mistake picking which island you wanted to start on. If you really don’t like it and want to start again, you can follow the below steps to do just that.

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There is no way to do it from the game, so we will need to venture into the Nintendo Switch menus. Go the Home screen, then select the System Settings. From there, navigate to the Data Management option, and then select Delete Save Data. Go the Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and select it. All the save data for the game will be gone, and you will need to start again, including making a new character and selecting a new island.

You can do this as many times as you like, but hopefully, it won’t take you that long to be happy with how your new island life is going.

If you found this guide helpful, we have other guides you might also like. From whether you can relocate Resident Services, how to get more residents, the maximum number of residents you can have on your island, and how to get your hands on those pesky floating balloon presents. We can also tell you everything you want to know about Nook Miles Tickets, how to get different types of fruit, and how to get your hands on the Pretty Good Tools Recipes.


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Author
Image of Aidan O'Brien
Aidan O'Brien
Aidan O'Brien has been playing games for over three decades and has been writing about them for five years. When not getting stomped on by the creations of Hidetaka Miyazaki, he enjoys spending too much time in Warframe, Destiny 2 and any other ARPG with a solid grind. When not writing, he is doing inexplicable behind-the-scenes magic for GAMURS Group.