PS5 External Hard Drive Keeps Disconnecting | Fixed by Experts

A wide variety of PS5 users have reported several functionality issues related to their PS5 external hard drive. However, no matter which brand’s external hard drive you’re using, there’s always a possibility of things going wrong. One of these major issues is that the PS5 external hard drive keeps disconnecting and reconnecting. Sometimes it just disconnects and turns off.

PS5 external hard drive keeps disconnecting

In some cases, when the user connects their external hard drive to their PS5, the PS5 system detects the plugged-in external hard drive, but within a few seconds, it starts disconnecting and reconnecting repeatedly, or it just turns off and won’t connect again. In some cases, the PS5 system may also ask the user to format the hard drive if they fail to open the drive. However, formatting the hard drive directly means losing all your data, which adds to this problem especially if you have important data that you don’t wish to lose.

This is one of the most annoying issues with PS5 external hard drives that can happen to you. In fact, it used to be a PS5 system glitch when the first external hard drive support update was released. But, even after later updates, many users are still facing the same issue, although other users got it resolved with these update patches.

If you have a recent backup of your files, you don’t have to worry about losing your valuable data. However, if you don’t maintain regular backups, then formatting your PS5 external hard drive when it keeps disconnecting would lead to complete data loss. So, to avoid this situation, it’s better to use tricks other than formatting. In this post, we’ve discussed some troubleshooting methods to solve your PS5 external hard drive disconnection issue. But before that, let’s find out why this problem usually occurs.

Why Does the PS5 External HDD keep disconnecting

Why The PS5 External HDD Keeps Disconnecting

As you may know, all external hard drives are made up of three primary components: the hard drive, the enclosure, and the USB cable. You connect your external HDD to PS5 through a USB port. In order to connect to a PS5 system through a USB port, all external hard drives use a USB cable. Your PS5 external hard drive will not connect if there is a problem with either the hard drive, USB bridge, USB cable, or USB port. The following are some of the most typical causes of hard drive disconnection errors:

  • Old or broken USB cable. Here you have to replace it with a new one.
  • Incompatiblity issue with the currently installed version of PS5 system software.
  • Too long USB cable. To fix that just use a short USB cable and check again.
  • Damaged or wobbly USB port ID. This needs a specialist to fix it. Take your console to a repair shop.
  • Corrupted external hard drive that hiders the hard drive from functioning properly. You can visit this page for more details.
  • Not enough power supplied in the USB port due to power shortage or a sort of failure in the PS5 motherboard.

These are the most common reasons why your PS5 external hard drive keeps disconnecting. We’ll learn below how to fix this issue and get your external hard drive working properly as it should.

Fixing PS5 External HDD Keeps Disconnecting Issue

Here is almost everything you have to do when your PS5 external hard drive keeps disconnecting. If nothing has worked for you, you may want to dispose of the external HDD and buy a new one, but hopefully, this is not your case.

1. Disconnect Your PS5 From Everything

The very first step you have to make is to totally disconnect your PS5 from power and peripherals after you turn it off.

So, what you have to do is as follows:

  1. Turn off your PS5 and unplug it from the power outlet.
  2. Unplug any connected peripherals to your PS5, such as a headset, an external HDD, or whatever.
  3. Leave things as they are for 3 minutes then just connect the PS5 to power and turn it on.
  4. Once the PS5 system is fully loaded, connect your external HDD to it. The PS5 system is supposed to recognize and activate it.
  5. Do the normal tasks you used to do on the external hard drive and see whether it disconnects or not.

If your PS5 external hard drive still disconnects from your console, repeat all steps above, but instead of plugging your external HDD into the PS5 after turning it on, you have to plug it while the PS5 is OFF, then turn it on while the external HDD is connected to it.

PS5 external SSD is better than classical external HDD

If that hasn’t fixed your problem, let’s move to the other solutions.

2. Check Your External HDD on another device

This is an essential step if you want to figure out whether the problem is with your PS5 or the external HDD itself. What you have to do here is to connect your external hard drive to your PC or any other device that accepts USB storage devices, even if it’s just another game console.

Now, check your external hard drive whether it gets disconnected from that device or not. If it does, this means the problem is with it. Otherwise, your PS5 is the source of the problem.

Using an external hard drive with PS5

3. Connect To Different USB Ports

Most of the time, your PS5 external hard drive keeps disconnecting due to some physical problems such as a faulty USB port or plugging the device into the wrong USB port.

So, you should first try some basic troubleshooting methods like connecting the device to different USB ports. Whether you’re using the digital or disc PS5 model, both systems have more than one USB port. So, whenever any issue happens, you should first try to disconnect your external hard drive from the first port and try another USB port on your PS5.

If there’s no major issue, then possibly your problem can be simply solved by changing the USB 3.0 port. Otherwise, let’s check other methods.

4. Change the External HDD Enclosure

It might be the USB bridge that connects the external HDD to the USB cable is indeed defective. This is not something unlikely, but rather it happens a lot.

You can verify that your external HDD USB bridge is malfunctioning by first connecting your external HDD to a PC or another device. If it keeps disconnecting, it means it’s either the cable or the USB bridge. If you have already changed the cable, then it is the USB bridge. You will have to buy another external HDD enclosure to fix it.

5. Update the PS5 System Software

Your PS5 external hard drive might not be fully compatible with the currently installed version of PS5 system software. As a result, the PS5 external hard drive keeps disconnecting and behaving weirdly. In this case, you only have to wait for the next firmware update in hope that it will fix this issue.

5. Get a New External HDD for PS5

This is the last resort when your PS5 external hard drive keeps disconnecting no matter what you do. We strongly recommend that you buy an external SSD for your PS5 instead of a classical hard drive. External SSDs are more durable and reliable and have much lower failure rate than classical external HDDs.

Conclusion

When your PS5 external hard drive keeps disconnecting it means something is going wrong with it. Usually, it is a hardware defect that causes this issue, but also it can be a software-level issue. Implement the suggested methods for the sake of resolving this issue, and if none has worked for you, you may then need a new external hard drive for your PS5.

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