How to Restart Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Full Island Reset Guide)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is highly customizable. You get to choose so many aspects of your playthrough, but with that comes the possibility of making choices you regret. If you want to start over from the beginning, we’ll show you how to restart Animal Crossing.
Depending on how far along you are, there are a couple of methods. We’ll cover them both, as well as how to reset without losing valuables.
What to Know Before Restarting
Before restarting Animal Crossing, it’s important to understand how the reset will affect your progress. Restarting your island is permanent, and several parts of your save data will be erased.
Here are the main changes to expect:
- Your current island cannot be recovered once the game is restarted.
- All progress is reset, including upgrades and unlocked activities.
- Your Bells and stored items will be lost.
- Your catalogue will reset, meaning previously registered items disappear.
- Resident progress is removed if other players share your island, though they can move to another island beforehand.
Restarting also resets most in-game records and collections, including:
- Villagers on your island
- Your character’s progress
- Nook Miles and Nook Miles Tickets
- Critterpedia progress
- All furniture, clothing, materials, and tools in storage
Note: Learned DIY recipes do not carry over after restarting. However, you can leave recipe cards with a friend and collect them again once you begin your new island.
Common Restart Mistakes to Avoid
There are some mistakes that players can make when trying to restart Animal Crossing. Here are the most common issues you may run across:
- Be sure to store valuable items with a friend before you reset
- You’ll need to be the Island Representative who created the island before you can reset it. Be sure you’re using the same account you used when creating the island, so you have the permissions to restart. Also, be sure you’re using the profile account that matches your island, so you don’t delete someone else’s island by accident if you share a console with someone.
- Make sure to actually close the game after deleting it, or the action won’t be initiated.
- If you’re switching to a new console, make sure automatic restoration isn’t toggled on, or it may restore the wrong island.
- If you tried to reset your island but it’s not working, try going through the process again to see if there were issues with corrupted data.
- Don’t accidentally delete your user profile instead of the island. The save data needs to be deleted from the console, not your profile.
- If you have multiple residents on the island, be sure you’re deleting the save file and not just a resident. Otherwise, it won’t work, and the island will still be there just without that resident.
- Temporarily save your favorite villagers to your friend’s island so you don’t lose them forever.
How to Restart Animal Crossing Island without Losing Recipes and Items
There are a couple of methods for restarting Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The easiest one is by restarting on your first in-game day. The other way is to actually clear your save data. We’ll go over the steps for both so you can decide which is best for you.
How to Restart Your Island on the First Day
Certain aspects of the game are randomized at the very start, including the island layout, the types of fruit trees your island has, and the local villagers. If you start your game and don’t like these beginnings, it’s much easier to restart than to play through the game and waste all your time and collectibles. You can keep restarting until you find a beginning you like.
Remember, restarting the game resets your character (Resident Representative), your island, and your belongings. So be sure before you do this. Here are the steps:
1. While the game is still open, push the Home button on your Switch.
2. Highlight the game.
3. Push X to close the game.
4. Re-open the game.
5. Because you were only on your first day, the game data didn’t save, and you essentially started over. This only works on your first day.
How to Restart Animal Crossing
There are a couple of methods for restarting Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The easiest one is by restarting on your first in-game day. The other way is to actually clear your save data. We’ll go over the steps for both so you can decide which is best for you.
How to Restart Your Island on the First Day
Certain aspects of the game are randomized at the very start, including the island layout, the types of fruit trees your island has, and the local villagers. If you start your game and don’t like these beginnings, it’s much easier to restart than to play through the game and waste all your time and collectibles. You can keep restarting until you find a beginning you like.
Remember, restarting the game resets your character (Resident Representative), your island, and your belongings. So be sure before you do this. Here are the steps:
1. While the game is still open, push the Home button on your Switch.
2. Highlight the game.
3. Push X to close the game.
4. Re-open the game.
5. Because you were only on your first day, the game data didn’t save, and you essentially started over. This only works on your first day.How to Clear ACNH Save Data and Start a New Island
If you have already established an island but you want to start fresh, you’ll need to clear your actual save data. Our guide is below.
Restart Animal Crossing by Clearing Save Data
If you want to restart Animal Crossing, your best bet is to clear your save data. Remember, this deletes everything you’ve collected and built, so be sure about it before diving in. If you have valuables you want to save, don’t forget to leave them on a friend’s island beforehand.
Here are the steps:
- Go to your Nintendo Switch home screen.
- Select System Settings from the bottom menu.
- Go to Data Management on the left pane.
- Select Delete Save Data.
- Find Animal Crossing: New Horizons among the list of save data and select it.
- Select Delete All Save Data for this Software.
- You’ll see a warning message about your decision to delete the game. Select Delete.
- Return to the home screen and launch Animal Crossing to start the game over.
Conclusion
You don’t have to restart your game if you don’t want to. If you made design mistakes or want to fix something, the game will eventually unlock the Island Designer ability so you can terraform your island to your liking. If you don’t want to wait that long or there’s just too much to fix, no problem. Now you know how to restart Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so feel free to start fresh.
FAQs
Can I keep my Items or recipes after restarting?
You can access your items if you stored them with another player before resetting, but otherwise, you will not be able to recover them.
What happens to online features after restart?
You can still travel and visit friends, but you’ll have to wait for the airport to unlock (which is only 2 days away). Your Animal Crossing Best Friends list will reset, so you’ll need to add any online friends again. This applies only to the game’s friend list, not your console.
You can trade online, but your actual catalogue will reset, so keep that in mind. You can also reclaim previous villagers if you had them saved on your friend’s island in advance. You will also need to make a new Dream Address.
Once you unlock the design portal, you can download designs from it. However, your saved designs list will have reset along with your island.
How do I troubleshoot restart not working?
If you are unable to restart your island, try the following:
- Repeat the restart process in case there was a glitch or bug.
- Be sure you are the Island Representative for the island you’re trying to delete
- Close the game after the deletion process, then re-open it.
- Make sure automatic restoration is turned off, especially if you’re using a new console.
- Make certain you’re deleting the actual island, and not your profile.
- Try rebooting your console, then go through the restart process again.
How do you “flatten” your island in ACNH?
Some players prefer to “flatten” their island rather than restart it. It’s basically just using the Island Designer app to terraform your island and make it a blank canvas to start rebuilding from scratch. It is a lot of work, but it enables you to redesign your island without losing items, progress, money, or other collectables. There are some limitations, of course, but it is a great way to redo your aesthetics without completely restarting.
