How to add PS4 storage space

Gelo Gonzales

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How to add PS4 storage space
With gamers buying titles digitally, there's been an added need for more storage

PS4 AND PS4 SLIM. Photo by Gelo Gonzales/Rappler

Storage space is at a premium for PS4 gamers as the lockdown forced the majority to rely, more than ever, on digital downloads. 

It’s pretty quick to fill up PS4 hard drives nowadays – especially the standard 500GB ones – with modern games like Final Fantasy VII Remake and Call of Duty: Warzone taking up about 80GB and more than 100GB, respectively. Even if you have the fastest internet connection in the country, it’s still a pain to delete games to make space for new ones, and redownload them at a later date. 

Fortunately, there are several ways now to expand your PS4’s digital shelf. The easiest? Using an external hard drive. Since the PS4’s firmware 4.5 update in February 2017, the PS4 has been able to support external hard drives connected via USB. You can still replace your internal hard drive, but that’s now tedious compared to simply plugging in a USB hard drive. 

Here are the steps:

  1. Plug in your drive to one of the USB ports. 

  2. From the PS4 main menu, make your way to Settings > Devices > USB Storage Devices.

  3. Select your USB storage device and then select “Format as Extended Storage.” 

After the formatting, your external hard drive can now be used to store your games in. The external hard drive exclusively stores games, and cannot accommodate screenshots and video clips, saved data, and themes.

What you can do is to transfer some of your games on the internal PS4 hard drive to the external hard drive. To do so, here are the steps: 

  1. Go to Settings > Storage.

  2. Select the internal PS4 hard drive, and then select Applications.

  3. Press the Options button on the controller, and select the games you want to move. 

When you format an external hard drive, that automatically becomes the default install location for new games. To switch between the external and internal drives, here are the steps:

  1. Go to Settings > Storage.

  2. Press the Options button on the controller, and select Application Install Location, which will let you choose between the 2. 

Some additional tips:

  1. Updates for a game will be downloaded to the location where the game is installed. For example, if you don’t have space in your internal hard drive for a new update for a game, what you can do is to move the game to the new external hard drive first, and then download the update. 

  2. Make sure your PS4 is updated to firmware 4.50 or newer. 

  3. Your external hard drive needs to be USB 3.0 or later, with a minimum size of 250GB and a maximum of 8TB. 

  4. If you’re going to take out the external drive while the PS4 is powered on, make sure to disconnect it properly. Go the Quick Menu by long-pressing the PlayStation button then go to Sound/Devices > Stop Using Extended Storage > Ok. 

1TB external hard drives, priced at around P3,000, may be the most practical option as they’re only slightly more expensive than 500GB ones. Of course, those with a more serious gaming habit can always opt for the 2TB and 4TB ones, but some people don’t like putting all those big files in just one spot – a bit of a headache if the drive gets corrupted. – Rappler.com

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Gelo Gonzales

Gelo Gonzales is Rappler’s technology editor. He covers consumer electronics, social media, emerging tech, and video games.