How To Add More Storage To Your Playstation 4
Here’s how to get a bigger hard drive in your PS4, plus a few tips we learned along the way.
Luke Lancaster
Associate Editor / Australia
Luke Lancaster is an Associate Editor with CNET, based out of Australia. He spends his time with games and comics .
Dan Graziano
Associate Editor / How To
Dan Graziano is an associate editor for CNET. His work has appeared on BGR, Fox News, Fox Business, and Yahoo News, among other publications. When he isn’t tinkering with the latest gadgets and gizmos, he can be found enjoying the sights and sounds of New York City.
Storage space is at a premium with game consoles. Even if you’re more inclined to pick up hard copies than download full games, patches, DLC and installs can fill up the standard hard drive on your PlayStation very quickly.
On the bright side, it’s very easy to add more storage to your console. You can either replace your current hard drive with a new one or, since software update 4.50, simply connect an external one.
Ps4 Extended Storage Error Codes
Use a USB External Storage Device that fulfills the following requirements:
- 250 GB minimum, 8 TB maximum capacity
Use a USB External Storage Device that fulfils the following requirements:
- USB 3.0 or later
- If your HDD is definitely USB 3.0, connecting it too slowly might cause this error message. Connect the USB External Storage Device quickly and firmly, but carefully.
Add External Drive To A Ps4 Or Ps4 Pro
For users who have an earlier model PlayStation 4 system, they can save only about 12 to 15 games onto their PlayStation . Though users can upgrade the hard drive inside PS4 to improve capacity and speed, some of them still want more storage on external.
In this case, connecting an HDD to the PlayStation is a good choice. Please dont worry its not difficult, even easy, to install the external hard drive to your PS4 or PS4 Pro.
You need to know the following things before you start to install an external hard drive.
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How To Get More Xbox One Storage
If youve got an Xbox One X, an Xbox One S, or the original Xbox One, you can check on the consoles remaining storage by going to System, then Storage from the Settings screenthe graph on the right shows how much room youve got left.
Straight away, the Xbox presents you with two options for freeing up some room. The first is Clear local saved games, which removes the local copies of games youve got saved in the cloud. Accessing game saves locally can save time, but if you want to free up space, you can safely get rid of them.
The other option is Make more space, which lists temporary files that can be deleted from your Xbox console without affecting the playability of any of your games. These files have either been left behind by games youve uninstalled, or arent strictly necessary to play a game .
David Nield
Select the storage graph on the right, then View contents, for a more detailed breakdown of whats on the internal drive, or Uninstall things to remove games and apps youre not using or can live without. Youll need to reinstall any games you removefrom a disc or the cloudbut your saved data will remain intact in the cloud.
Screen captures and video recordings live in a different place: the Capture & share menu under your avatar. These are automatically uploaded to the cloud , so theres no option to move them anywhere else, but you can free up space by deleting them via the Delete option underneath each one.
David Nield
How To Choose The Best External Hard Drives For Ps4 And Xbox One For You
The primary thing to consider when purchasing one of the best external hard drives for PS4 and Xbox One is storage space. If youâre running a bit short on space but donât buy games all that often, a 2 TB hard drive â or even less â will do just fine. On the other hand, if you find yourself with some huge new game every week or two, only an 8 TB model is going to keep pace with your library.
You should also consider brand name. As computer parts go, hard drives are relatively prone to failure â Iâm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but itâs true. As such, itâs important to have a major manufacturer backing its product up, rather than a no-name company thatâs going to disappear as soon as something malfunctions. A reliable hard drive manufacturer also makes it less likely that your device will fail in the first place, which is quite important, considering that youâre entrusting a hard drive with your games and save data.
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Too Many Games Not Enough Hard Drive Space Get More The Easy Way With A Usb 3 External Hard Drive For Ps4
Is your PS4s internal hard drive holding you back? Would you like to have more games installed but lack the space to accommodate them? Youre not alone. More of us are buying our games digitally these days, and even those that ship on Blu-ray disc can install 50GB or more of files. Monsters like Red Dead Redemption 2 can consume up to 105GB of your precious hard drive, which is a problem when the standard model only has 500GB to play with, some of which is already occupied by system software. Even the 1TB hard drive of the PS4 Pro struggles when confronted with the files required by todays most graphically intensive games.
Of course, you can always replace your PS4s existing internal hard drive with a higher-capacity 2.5in HDD or even an SSD or hybrid drive if you wanted slightly faster loading times. However, you dont have to switch drives just to get more capacity, as the PS4 also supports external USB 3 hard drives for use as extended storage. Just plug one in and youre good to go. You dont need to transfer any data or lose your existing space.
How To Manage Ps4 Storage Space
Learn how to manage your PlayStation®4 storage space and game save data using PS Plus online storage, PS4 system storage and USB storage.
To manage your PS4 Save Data, go to Settings > Application Saved Data Management.
If you would like to access an application’s PlayStation Plus online storage save data from the content launcher or Library, highlight the application, press the OPTIONS button and select Upload/Download.
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How To Get More Storage On Ps4 Here Are Top 5 Solutions
With the increase of game files, you have to take some measures for PS4 storage expansion. How to get more storage on PS4? If you are trying to expand PS4 storage, this post of MiniTool is what you need.
For an earlier PlayStation 4 system, it can only save 12 to 15 games on the PS4 storage. However, the game file sizes are getting bigger and bigger. For instance, requires 175GB hard drive space at least and Red Dead Redemption 2 requires 150GB storage space.
If you want to install many popular games on the PS4, you need to create more storage space. What is using your PS4 storage? How to get more storage on PS4? Now, lets start exploring these questions.
Western Digital Elements 1
Check PriceWHY WE LIKE IT: Pros
- Up to 5TB of storage space
- Product is small, making it truly portable
- 2-year warranty
- Included USB cable is not secure
- Could use sturdier casing
The Western Digital Elements Portable External Hard Drive is the perfect HDD for those of you who like to play PS4 in a variety of different locations. It fits in the palm of your hand, while still offering an obscene amount of storage space, up to 5TB. The 5,400 RPM drive is not the fastest on this list, but it does the job reliably, delivering on its promise of 100 MB/s as soon as we plugged it into the PS4. Gameplay was also extremely smooth and hassle-free. Speaking of smooth, check out the best gaming monitors under $200.
Related: If youve got an Xbox One then take a look at the best external hard drives for Xbox One.
While the HDD itself is well built and attractive, we couldnt help but wish for a sturdier, perhaps aluminum, casing for safety reasons. We also found the included USB cable to be short and not of the best quality and, as such, your best bet will be to use one of your own. You could also choose the best NAS hard drive for your storage needs.
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Solution 2 Delete The Unwanted Games And Apps
Deleting unwanted games and apps is one of the straightest ways to free up PS4 storage. If there are some games that you dont play frequently, you can consider deleting them to free up PS4 storage space.
Heres how to do that:
Note: It is recommended that you delete the games you own on a disc instead of the digital games. This is because you can directly download the games from the inserted disc again, while the digital games will take much longer time to download.
Step 1. Select the System Storage Management in the PS4 Settings window
Step 2. Select Applications, and then check the games that you want to remove from the list and click on the Delete button.
Solution 3 Delete The Saved Data In System Storage
Another simple method on how to free up space on PS4 is to delete the saved data in system storage. To do so, follow the steps below:
Step 1. Go to the PS4 Settings window, select the Application Saved Data Management option.
Step 2. Select Saved Data in System Storage in the pop-up window, and then tick the saved games that you want to delete from the list and click on Delete.
Tip:Settings > Application Saved Data Management > Saved Data in System Storage > Copy to USB Storage Device
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Two: System Of Playstation 4 Should Be Version 450 Or Later
The system of your PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 4 Pro must be updated to version 4.50 or later. That is simply because Sony added the external HDD support to PS4 when the 4.50 version was released early in 2017.
If you have an older system on your PS4, youll need to update it to the latest version before you can add a PS4 hard drive externally.
Ps4 External Drive Usage Tips
We’ve covered most of what you need to know about PS4 external drives, but there are still a few points to keep in mind while using one.
First is that you can connect external drives to your PS4 without formatting them for game storage as above. This is an option even for devices that don’t fit the above requirements, like USB 2 drives and small flash drives.
When you connect a drive like this, your PS4 can play videos and music stored on the drive. In addition, you can move replay clips and save game data to these drivesâperhaps for backup purposes.
If you disconnect your external drive, any games stored on it will still appear on your PS4. But when you try to select one without the external drive connected, you’ll see a message that it’s not playable until you connect the drive.
Be aware that you can only have one external drive used for games connected at a time. Even if you have two compatible drives connected, you have to choose one of them to use as extended storage. If you need even more space, it’s also possible to replace the internal hard drive of your PS4. This is slightly more complicated, but still an easy process.
Finally, if you experience an error with your external PS4 drive, see the PS4 extended storage error codes section of Sony’s PS4 external hard drive support page. Most of the error codes are fixable by formatting your drive again or disconnecting and reconnecting it. Be sure to restart your PS4 if you run into trouble, too.
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Option : Wd 4tb My Passport Portable Gaming Storage
Western Digital have specifically designed their portable external drive with PS4 in mind, offering either 2TB or 4TB of storage within a relatively sleek design. Its small enough fit into the palm of your hand meaning that its easy to take with you anywhere, and this particular external hard drive is notable amongst many for its high shock tolerance and long-term reliability.
Moving Games Between Storage Locations
To move a game between your storage drives, go to Settings > Storage and select the device that contains the game you want to relocate. Choose Applications from the data types.
Now press Options on your controller and select Move to Extended Storage . Check all the games you want to move, then hit Move and confirm.
You can have add-ons for a game installed on your external drive, even if the main game is on your system storage.
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Best Budget Hard Drive For Ps4
Seagate Barracuda 2TB
If youre on a tighter budget then you can ditch the hybrid portion of the hard disk and opt for a conventional drive. This wont deliver much of a performance boost over the PS4s normal hard disks, but Seagates drives are certainly no slower.
Theyre available in loads of capacities, but 2TB is as high as you can go before the drives become too thick to fit inside Sonys consoles. The prices on offer are tempting: a 1TB model costs just $50, and the 2TB model is the best-value option thanks to a price of $77.
Choose Where You Want Games And Apps To Be Stored
Once your external hard drive has been connected and recognised to your PS4, its worth telling it where you want anything new it downloads from thereon out to be stored. You can do this by once again going to PS4s Settings, going to where it says
Storage
and then press the Options button on your Dualshock 4 controller. Youll then see the
Application Install Location
option, where you can choose what gets stored on
Extended Storage
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Scenario : External Hard Drive Isn’t Working With The Ps4 From The Beginning
- Connect your External HDD to your PC and check for any damages. If it is working there perfectly fine, check the other point and make sure whether it needed to be replaced at this point itself.
- As the PS4 system doesn’t recognize wireless external hard drives, make sure PS4 external hard drive has a wired connection.
- Cross verify that your external hard drive is compatible with PS4 standards.
- You need to cross-check whether the external HDD is connected directly to the PS4 via one of its USB ports which apply to hub USB external hard drives also.
- You need to check whether the drive was previously formatted for external storage. PS4 will only recognize one external storage drive at a time
- Last but not least, you need to check whether you are running the older version of PS4 system software. If yes, update the same to its latest version and recheck the issue whether it is fixed or not.
- It is advisable to use another USB port which may act as a resolution, sometimes.
Replace The Ps4 Hard Drive
Now, you can replace your PS4 hard drive with the new one that you just backed up to. Heres how to do that:
Step 1. Turn off your PS4 completely and disconnect any power cables.
Step 2. If you are using a PS4 Pro, remove the case on the rear or on the top left chassis on a PS4.
Step 3. Take out the hard drive bracket using a screwdriver.
Step 4. Remove all the screws holding the hard drive in the bracket and replace the current hard drive with the new one.
Step 5. Make every part restore to its original positions.
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The Best Ps4 External Hard Drives 2022
The My Passport drive from Western Digital is one of the most reliable, convenient, and versatile HDDs you can buy. Anyone looking for a standard, reasonably priced PS4 external hard drive will be fine with this. It’s USB 3.0 compatible, importantly, and only requires a quick reformat the first time you use it. It’s small and sturdy too, about the size of a larger smart phone like the iPhoneX or the Galaxy S9 Plus, and the My Passport series is even styled to look a little like the PS4 console itself, so you should be able to slot it right into your set-up. The new aesthetic is arguably even more pleasing and brings further style to a quality HDD.
We’d go for the 4TB version, for several reasons. Right now, you see the biggest savings on the 4TB, and you tend to get better value the bigger the storage capacity. With 4TB, you’ve easily got space for 50+ AAA games, and loads more indies and smaller downloads from the PS Store. Essentially, this HDD will last you for about 2-3 years before you ever need to manage your storage, and that’s with heavy use and loads of games installed on it. Definitely the best PS4 external hard drive today.
While you will pay for the performance and privilege of using the P50, it absolutely justifies the investment and will not let you down. It really is right up there when it comes to the best PS4 external hard drives.
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