Ps4 games wont download onto external hard drive

Full power down, nothing. Now, even if you buy a new external hard drive from the same brand and model, it will still NOT recognize it for that reason. This happens sometimes due to some hidden errors in operating systems. What you can do about that is to reset PS4 system to factory settings. I think this will work. I cannot assure you that, but most probably NOT. O tried restart and reconecting but nothing works.

Can you please send us some screen shots of the messages you get on your PS4 so we can better help you. Firstly I wanna thank you for the comprehensive information posted here! I have came across many comments to which you mentioned that leaving the extended hdd plugged in may lead to electric shock and deem the hdd unreadable. I would like to know if I have to safely disconnect the extended hdd every single time before turning the ps4 off or can I leave the extended hdd plugged in?

Is this advisable? Or would it be safer to just safely unplug it when i am done gaming? My concern is 1. Thanks for your nice compliment, I appreciate it.

This will do the job perfectly and maintain your external HDD lifespan. Just like computers, the power supply may mistakenly send a high voltage electric shock to the USB ports once the system boots up.

Although this is rare, but it happened to a few guys who lost their external hard drives. Though, you have made a valid point here concerning spoiling the USB ports. They are shockproof devices that you can fully trust here. Either your PS4 system needs to be reset to factory settings, or you need to update PS4 system software to the latest version, or your hard drive has bad sectors and needs to be fully formatted on PC.

My 2TB external hard drive was stolen , I had 2 games on it. I bought another external hard drive reformatted it. On the the game I play it gives me the message. To start app. Connect extended storage device it is installed on. I can see my weapons and gear on my phone app. Just went let me play the game.

If your game saves are still available, you can easily fix that problem by re-installing those games on a new external hard drive. Mine will not even light up when it is plugged in. The PS4 shows no indication that it is even connected. Any tips? So my drive, like others, worked for a long time then suddenly stopped being recognized today.

Is there anything I can do now besides getting a new drive? I also am not comfortable with trying to rebuild my PS4 database nor do I wish to reset to factory settings. I can always just redownload m games as all my save game management is saved to my system storage. Just wondering if I had any other options you may know about?

Please check this article to learn how to properly format your external hard drive on Windows. Again, thanks for the help and responses! Have a look on this post. Please I need help with my external hard drive. Please connect it to a PC and check whether your PC recognizes it or not.

If your PC recognizes it, come back to us and I will walk you through different methods to fix that issue. Please help me fix this.

I did already plug it in to a PC and the PC confirmed that the drive was working just fine. It seems your PS4 system needs to be reset to its factory settings, as it undergoes some internal conflicts. Make sure to take a copy of your game saves and all other files that you can back up, then perform the factory setting reset.

Once the process is complete, turn off PS4, connect your external hard drive, plug the external hard drive into PS4 and finally turn on PS4 while the external hard drive is connected. So my new external hd has been in for only a week. Hardly enough time to get all my games on it and my ps quits out on me by not shutting down properly and making me eventually have to hold reset and power just to get it to shut off. Finally the next day i turn it back on and of course… You guessed it.

I must repair my ext. Hd to use. So i read this… Nobody had any valid info so i chose to turn off my ps4 correctly again and then turned it back on.

This time it says it is repairing my hd. It did and the games still had the exclamation marks on them so i tried one anyway… It took a minite but it played so atleast that is a positive note.

No unplugging of any sort was needed and believe me… If i had to reformat and redownload all the games again i would not do it. Because this will happen again. It is a better bet to just get an 8tb internal if possible… Is it? Or is 2tb max? Anybody know because i might still go that rout in the future.

My ps does that stupid sheet all the time and its a brand new pro so wtf. Lucky me i guess… And yes… First i bought the seagate 8tb hd plus hub but was able to return it to staples for full refund even after opened so this isnt my first visit through here to read all of these so i hope this helps someone.

Have a great and wonderful day everyone! Thank you Brandon for telling us your experience that might help someone here having the same problem. Expanding the PS4 storage by upgrading the internal hard drive is a more reliable solution than going for external hard drives. If you have a PS4 Pro, the maximum compatible internal hard drive available is 2tb.

If you like an SSD, the maximum size is 4tb, but it is way too expensive. Hey, great and insightful forum! However, when I try to format it as extended storage, I get the error code CE Any suggestions? That means the format feature of the PS4 system is not working properly. You can verify that by trying to format another external hard drive if possible.

If the same message comes up, it means you either need to rebuild PS4 database to fix that error or fix the PS4 internal hard drive. You can do that either by directly connecting it via SATA cable, or just buy an external hard drive enclosure and connect it externally to a PC.

I have a 8TB WD external hard drive that I am trying to connect to watch media through the media player, but the PS4 will only recognise the smallest portion on the hard drive that can not be erased. How do I get it to recognise the data I have stored on there? Or is the hard drive not supported for PS4? If it is possible to connect your external hard drive to another PS4 to check whether it works there or not.

Most probably it will work fine. The latter will delete all stored data on your internal hard drive, so be careful and take a backup. I see now what your problem is. You have a NAS external hard drive, not a regular one. Have majority of my games installed on it. Just recently my PS4 stopped recognizing it. Just says there is no storage device connected. The light on the hard drive works. Have you tried it first on a PC and check whether it works or not?

In most cases this will fix that error. I will try on my pc and see if I can find another PS4. I will get back to you with my findings.

Thanks in advance! This will help many people who encounter the same problem. So it would appear that my computer reads the External Drive just fine. I cant access anything obviously because of the formatting the PS4 did prior. I have to re-initialize the PS4 itself now? After reinitializing, head directly to update the system to the latest version before trying to use the external hard drive.

Just wanted to update. Reinitializing my PS4 has worked and gotten the system to read my hard drive again. Thanks again for all your help! May your experience help someone with the same case. Thanks to you as well. Usually reinitializing PS4 can totally resolve that problem.

If I format it on laptop will that format it to use on PS4? Maybe my lads dropped it and not saying so it is broke. BUT, even though it cannot be opened without a format, other systems Windows for example would recognize the drive and show its icon. If you happen to format the external hard drive on your MAC, probably it will work again on PS4, you can give it a try.

Otherwise, the best test you can do is to connect it to another PS4 if possible and check whether it works there or not. If it does, then you have to factory reset the PS4.

If verified, you have to perform a FULL format to eliminate any potential bad sectors that cause this issue. I am sorry to say that if your external hard drive works fine on a PC, some conflicts are occurring within the PS4 system that prevent it from recognizing the external hard drive.

After successfully accomplishing this operation, you have to directly update to the latest system software. Probably bad sectors. You have to check that on a PC. Additionally, you can further test your external hard drive by connecting it to another PS4 if possible and check whether it works fine or not. This will dramatically help you determine the real cause of the problem. Hi, I have recently bought a 2TB external hard drive to use as extended storage but my PS4 will not recognise it, it is currently formatted the FAT32 and has been previously formatted to exfat both have been full formats but the PS4 will not recognise the HDD.

Should I reinitialise the PS4 if so will this wipe all the data I have?? Firstly, check whether this external hard drive works properly or not by connecting it to a PC. If it works, then your PS4 needs reinitialization. And yes, reinitializing your PS4 will wipe all stored data. So make sure to take a backup before carrying out that process. Please help.. Thanks in advanced!! Most probably your external hard drive is suffering from bad sectors.

You can check it on DOS mode, if this problem persists, then your external hard drive needs replacement. The drive is working perfectly well, I checked on my pc and PS3.

Could you please enlighten me on what the problem is? Usually this issue is caused by application conflicts within PS4 system. This will most probably resolve this problem. My ps4 all of a sudden wont recognize my Seagate 2tb external hard drive. Your external hard drive is suffering from a serious deficiency.

You better consider a quick replacement for it. The best solution is to reinitialize the PS4 and reinstall the system software. You can only if it works. You will need then a disk clone software to back up your data.

I am always running out of storage space on my PS4, which means I have to either delete unused apps or saved screenplay videos in order to update apps.

Do you know why it would say so much less than my laptop does? Or how I can fix this? Once again, all I want is to extract my saved capture gallery videos to create more space. The only way to resolve this is by formatting the external hard drive. HDD was formatted with a mb partition. I had to connect to my MacBook, remove the partition through Terminal it was pretty simple; followed a youtube video , and then when I reconnected it to my ps4, the ps4 formatted it to ExFat in about.

Best, Colton. Thanks for telling us about your experience. I truly appreciate that. May this help someone resolve their problem. As for the first console on which you were originally playing the game, the PS4 system learned that the game files were on an external storage, and when you try to play the same game from the disc, it will keep requiring the external storage on which the game was installed.

What you can do is to uninstall the game from your PS4 then reinstall it from the Disc. This should resolve this issue on the first PS4. As for the second console, PS4 system prevents fully copying a game to another console with the same license. You will always need the original external hard drive to play the game, or just buy a new license. Got a 6Tb seagate usb3 external.

I have tried restarting the ps with external plug in and nothing. I have tried reformating from pc and tried ito in the ps and still nothing.

Can some one please tell me what next. A friend has the same external and has no problems. Hey anyone who has a 2.

Never heard about this tip before. Thanks for sharing. May someone benefit from it. Hey had bought a seagate usb 2. Will this really solve my problem?

Also if I do format it this way, what should be the allocation size? How much time will it take to actually do this for 1TB? Is there any other way which is faster? I have done chkdsk healthy drive , looked for bad sectors none found , formatted it with command prompt to exFAT quick , right clicked on drive and then formatted it. After formatting it with cmd, exFAT option appeared. Clicked options button and then formatted it again to exFAT only to fail.

Used tape to cover the middle two USB pins to force 3. Failed again as PS4 never reads the drive and light on external drive blinks slowly. What should I do? I think you should know it is not a new drive, I used to store my data on this before, I deleted all the useless stuff and moved the worthy stuff to my other GB Seagate Expansion Drive external and have performed all this on this Seagate external drive too.

Guess what? There are a lot of questions in my post, please answer all. The only thread which is alive in ! Your external hard drive is apparently defective. The full format process takes between minutes only on a 1tb drive. If it takes way too long, your drive is dying and needs replacement. The average time for transferring 1gb file is 1 minute only. If the process goes fast flawlessly, try to transfer larger multiple files simultaneously say 10gb.

You should eventually realize then that the external hard drive itself is deficient. Please come back with your feedback on this solution so that may others benefit and you get further assistance if needed. If your laptop shows that the external hard drive works fine, most probably your PS4 needs to reinitialize. You can locate the source of problem by connecting your external hard drive to another PS4 if possible.

If it works fine, then surely your PS4 needs reinitialization. Otherwise, it needs a slow, full format on PC. I have been using an external hard drive for well over a year now, and it works great, except that I have to repair the device any time its wire is even SLIGHTLY bumped. With the wire for the EDD being so short, this was hard to avoid. Only the wire was changed… not the EDD. How do I get it to recognize it? Connect it first to a PC and see whether it recognizes it or not.

That means also all your stored data will be entirely deleted. Game saves, screenshots and trophies will be lost and are not downloadable unless you back them up to your cloud storage on PSN.

On the other hand, you can only back up your game saves on an external USB storage device. Mine has worked fine for multiple months now and all of a sudden it is saying that the hard drive is unsupported. It is a seagate 4tb. If possible, connect it to another PS4 and check whether it works fine or not. You need to reinitialize your PS4 and things will go right with you. I accidentally yanked the lead out of my 1tb seagate whilst playing a game it kicked me off and then I tried reconnecting it but it will still not show up as a device on my PS4 or Mac it has the light on the seagate to show there is power but it will not recognise my extended storage.

I have updated PS4 version 6. Is that the issue after I install the new PS4 version? Yes, this issue happens a lot when updating to a newer version. You have to initialize PS4 and update it to the latest version, then re-install all your games. Just bought a HDD 3. Read this post , it may help you. If not, the only solution you have then is to initialize the PS4. So i bought this Seagate 2TB plugged in with a cable and it has started beeping as of late and not being connected to the ps4. Connect it to a PC first and verify that it works fine.

If so, the problem then is with your PS4. Follow the instructions on this article. The comments are moderated on this website until the approval of the webmaster. So, you need some time to get them published. I have now tried to download a game on to the hd but it says that it cannot use this device and that it requires a usb 3.

How can I upgrade my hd to a usb 3. Since Sony first released the support for external hard drives to use as extended storage, it announced that it had to be USB 3. So, rest assured that your external hard drive is USB 3. The only solution you can try is to initialize PS4, then immediately install the latest update after the completion of the process.

Afterwards, try to connect the external hard drive again to your PS4, and check whether the issue has been resolved or not. My PS4 is not recognizing the external storage device. Have you tried it on a PC to check its health?

Probably your external HDD is defective and needs replacement. If it works fine on a PC, the problem then is with your PS4. Eventually, if none works with you, you need to initialize PS4. Seagate expansion 2 tb was working great but one day it ade some beep voice and ps4 did not recognized it I connected it in laptop and the same happened laptop could see that something was pluged in but could not recognice and the window did not popped in my pc.

I am sorry to say that. You need a technician to check that for you. Connect your external hard drive to the other PS4, does it work fine? If yes, your second PS4 needs to initialize. Mostly this is the solution to go for.

Otherwise, come back and give us your feedback in order to help you further. Beeping noise indicates hardware failure. Most probably your external hard drive has been damaged.

But before judging, connect it first to a PC and see whether it gets recognized or not. On the other hand, if you can check it on another PS4 that would be even better. Accordingly, your external hard drive is defective. If you can, dismantle it and remove the hard drive from its enclosure and connect it directly to a PC. Check now whether it works or not. If not, then it is dead. My seagate 4tb hd has worked well for quite some time.

Excuse me, can you elaborate more on the reaction of your computer to the external hard drive? What exactly happens? When I connected it for the first time I started to synchronize and from one moment to another it appeared that I have I have restarted the console and I have not achieved anything.

I also tried to connect it to the PC and although it does recognize it, I do not have the option to format it. I have the screenshots but I do not know how to pass them. I need your help, the Game Drive is completely new and has not dropped water or fallen. You have to return the external hard drive. The PS4 external hard drive is fully encrypted and the data cannot be detected by a third party system.

Only PS4 system can detect the data. Boards PlayStation 4 Can the ps4 play games off of an external hard drive? User Info: Snoogie. Oh, this is just senseless.

Who commits suicide with a bow and arrow? Bows are for, like, long distance killing, not up-close killing! Didn't you know that? User Info: tobydammit. User Info: gnomefromnome. Short answer: yes long answer: Yeeeeeeesssss Oh my God That was the dumbest collection of dumbosity I've ever seen! Yes, and it was about damn time too. I was maby half right. The PS5 supports a huge variety of external storage options, be sure to check out our best PS5 external hard drives guide for our picks of the most reliable performers.

Don't forget though, while you can now store PS5 games externally, you can only play them once you move them back onto your PS5's internal SSD. PS4 games on the other hand can be played straight from an external storage device, freeing up even more space on your PS5 itself. Transferring games on either platform is certainly faster than redownloading them too. In this menu, tab over to "Items You Can Move" by hitting R1, and then either select the games and apps you want to transfer to your external hard drive, or simply hit select all to move all appropriate content.

To save you having to constantly monitor your installs it's worth checking the tickbox that says "Always Install PS4 Games to Extended Storage" in:. Well y dont you post what external devices work for the ps4 sony its your JOB to do that unless we use the wrong external device and our ps4 goes wrong then its your falt sony.

Hopefully have an answer for you soon! Rhys, thanks for trying to answer as many of the questions here as possible. I have a question that you may not know the answer to immediately but it would be great if you could find out and get back to me:.

Will it cause issues having games and their DLC on different drives? If I download new DLC for an old game should I manually copy the installed game to the external drive too, so that everything is on the same drive? Or is the PS4 able to cope with bits of the same game being spread across different media? What happens if I wanna upgrade to PS4 Pro? Can i move the games from my old PS4 to external hdd and then play them on my new console?

I have many games and dont want to redownload the whole library. Does it make any difference in terms of speed if you buy an external drive with seperate power source? I have found an old harddrive that i plugged into a USB3 enclosure and its currently formatting. So my friend is asking if its possible to copy my games to a hard drive then give it to him to where he can download the games on the hard drive, is this possible?

Can I move the games back to a ps4 from the external HDD? I assume so, but I have not seen that specific information. Are the 2 usb ports of my PS4 3. So the new games get installed on the new hard drive, but if you want to play an old game that is downloaded on the internal drive, will the PS4 automatically open it, using both drives, depending on where the games are saved?

Or do you HAVE to move any game you still want to play to the new drive? I just recently bought an 8tb hard drive to go with my ps4 pro, but the capacity shows 8. Anybody have ideas on how I can fix this without having to downgrade to a 6 or 7tb? Even while my HDD is being used? Since adding an external hard drive, disc based games that i had installed on the internal drive wont start.

Update: I tried moving two of the installed games to the external drive Horizon and Yakuza 0 but neither would run still. So far got Yakuza 0 running by deleting the data and reinstalling. Will I need to do this for all of my disk installed games or will this be patched?

So today i bought a seagate 3. I plugges it in and formatted it. I then installed about 30 disc copy games i had deleted of my internal hd awhile ago to save space. My game saves were still there. However, when i load the games ive re installed onto my new external hard drive i cant access any of my saves. Ive platinumed some of these games and id like to pick up where i have left off. When i launch the games though it shows no gake saves and i have to start back at square one.

Please help. If I download and install my games on to the external hard drive, can I play them directly from it? Or do I have to transfer them to the internal hard drive first? Please advise. Thanks in advance! Projects, music, homework. Things of such? You must be logged in to post a comment.

We use cookies to personalise your experience and ads on this website and other websites. For more information, visit our Cookie information opens in a new window page. Skip to content Skip to cookie notice. Like this Share this on Facebook opens in a new window Share this on Twitter opens in a new window. Minimum HDD spec The most important thing to remember before you buy a new storage device — or try to use one you already own — is to make sure it meets the minimum requirements for use with your PS4: Connection : USB 3.