How to Delete & Restart Your Animal Crossing New Horizons Island

Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out in March 2020 and quickly became incredibly popular. People loved designing their own perfect islands, planting gardens, making friends, and inviting new neighbors to visit. Players worldwide enjoyed creating a relaxing and peaceful island life.

Starting a new island can seem daunting for players wanting a fresh start. Given the existing, complicated process for moving between islands, many worry starting over will be just as difficult. But don’t worry! This guide will walk you through everything you need to know.

How to Delete Your Current Island in AC New Horizons

Although New Horizons can be complicated in some ways, deleting your island is surprisingly easy—once you know where to look. You can’t delete it from inside the game itself; instead, you need to go to the Switch’s System Settings to do so.

First, ensure the game is closed, and you’re at the Switch’s home screen.
After that, click on System Settings.
Go to Data Management.
Scroll all the way to the bottom and select ‘Delete Save Data.’
Select the game in question (in this case, Animal Crossing: New Horizons).
Select ‘Delete All Save Sata for This Software.’

That’s all there is to it! When you launch the game now, you’ll begin as a brand new player, ready to experience your island adventure from the very beginning.

How to Delete Another Player From Your Island

If you’re looking to remove another player’s character from your island – whether because of a breakup or simply to free up space – it’s not a straightforward process. But don’t worry, we can help! You’ll need to do this inside the game itself, not through any external settings.

Start the game, but don’t go to your island yet. On the main screen, find the minus button (-) next to your profile and click it to talk to Tom Nook. He’ll show you a menu of options, and you should choose the ‘save data’ option. From there, select ‘delete user registration,’ and Tom Nook will ask if you want to delete your save data.

Okay, so this method does need an active Nintendo Switch profile. If you’ve already deleted the profile, it’s a little more work. Basically, if a character isn’t linked to any profile, you have to create a brand new Switch profile, start the game, and it’ll ask if you want to connect that new profile to an existing, unlinked character. Once you do that, you can go back to Tom Nook and delete the user registration like normal, and this time, he’ll actually be able to delete the character. It’s a bit of a workaround, but it works!

2026-01-07 00:36

How to Delete Your Current Island in AC New Horizons

How to Delete Another Player From Your Island

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