How To Keep PS5 Games On A USB Flash Drive
External USB drives can be used to store PS4 and PS5 game files. This, although, is not as simple as you may expect. Here’s how. Players can now transfer PS5/PS4 games to a USB flash drive with a console update from Sony’s PS5. Before, you could only move PS4 games from internal system storage.
What are the best ways to do this? What are the options for storing PS5 on an outside USB flash drive? Let’s just have a look at it.
Why is an External Drive Required for PS5?
Although the PS5’s SSD built-in is fast, it is still very small incapacity. This is due to how many PS5 games take place. After you have updated the software, the PS5’s storage capacity actually amounts to 667GB.
Clank & Ratchet: The download size of Rift Apart is 33GB. Final Fantasy VII Remake on PS5 Digital Edition has 85.4GB and Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War has a massive 133GB.
After installing just a few games, your PS5 console will soon fill up with storage space.
PS5 System Upgrade
The new PS5 system update makes it possible to transfer PS5/PS4 games to an external USB or USB-C hard drive, as well as to a portable SSD hard drive.
While you can now save PS5 games to a USB flash drive, they won’t work until you transfer them to the PS5 internal drive.
On the other side, you can play PS4 games directly from an external storage media, which allows you to free up more space for your PS5 console.
USB Storage Requirements to Use with PS5
An external USB drive can be used to extend the storage space on your PS5 by meeting several requirements:
- 250GB minimum capacity and 8TB maximum capacity
- SuperSpeed USB 5Gbps or Later
- It is not possible to connect more than one USB flash drive at once
- You can’t use a USB hub
Sony cannot ensure that all USB devices will work. The above notification will be issued if you try to use a USB stick as USB extended storage.
To format a USB drive for USB Enhanced Storage, follow these steps.
Before you transfer any games to or from your external USB drive, it is important that players format them. Any data that has been saved to the USB drive will be deleted when you format it.
Previous USB flash drives will not need reformatting if they are USB extended storage.
- Connect your external USB stick to the USB port on your PS5 console
- Navigate to Settings > Storage
- Select USB Extended storage > Format as USB Extension Storage
PS5 owners who have multiple USB flash drives attached to their consoles can choose the Select Another USB Drive option to select which USB flash drive they wish to format.
How to Transfer Games from PS5 to an External USB Drive
- Navigate to Settings > Storage
- Select Console Storage > Apps and Games
- Select Items that You Can Move using the tabs above the game list
- Choose which apps or games you would like to save to your USB external drive
How to Transfer Games from USB Extended Storage To PS5
- Go to the Game Library
- Select the games you wish to play
- The Options button can be found on the PS5 controller.
- Copy the selected game to your console storage
How to Save PS4 Games to USB Flash Drives
- To distinguish between PS4 games and PS5 ones, and to save your time, navigate to Settings > Storage > Extensive Storage to select the checkbox “Always Install PS4 Games to Extended STORAGE”.
PS4 owners that already have an external drive can plug them directly into their PS5 to start playing games.
How to Delete Data from a USB Drive
It is easy and quick to remove games from your USB extended drive that you don’t want or make way for newer games.
- Go to Settings > Storage
- Select USB Extended Storage > Games & Apps
- Navigate to the “Delete Content” tab
- Select the games and apps that you wish to delete, then click on Delete
The games of PS5 can now be loaded on an external drive.
After several updates and new features, the PS5 console has become more popular. Make sure your PS5 is updated with the latest software version to take advantage of the free updates.
