7 Actions You Can Take When Your PS5 Is Running Slow

PlayStation 5 (aka PS5) is the most popular game console in history as reports stated. It boasts powerful and amazing features that no game console currently can beat. However, as everything cannot be perfect sometimes this great game console challenges its users, like when its performance weirdly slows down and the whole system is running at a slow speed.

Don’t panic though, when your PS5 is slow it doesn’t usually mean a big issue. Any average PS5 user can find a way out of this situation and get their PS5 system running fast like the first time they used it.

Reasons for PlayStation 5 Running Slow

Please note that there’s not only one reason why your PS5 is running slow, but rather a number of them. The most common reasons why the PS5 is slow are:

• PS5 system software (firmware) bugs and issues;
• Faulty or full storage device;
• Slow or instable internet connection;
• Clogged cache;
• Poor ventilation;
• Cluttered database.

Take the following actions to figure out what could be the cause of your PS5 running slow.

Action #1: Check Your PS5 internal storage device

When you feel your PS5 is too hot at the side in which the internal HDD is placed, your PS5 internal hard drive might be malfunctioning/failing which can cause the PS5 system to slow considerably.

If you have recently added a secondary internal storage device to your PS5 and you’ve noticed this slowness in your PS5 afterward, the new storage device might be the reason. It might not be fully compatible with the PS5 system or it’s already defective.

Another reason might be that the PS5 main storage device is full. You should keep at least 15-20GB of free space in the PS5 main internal storage device in order to maintain optimum performance.

In case you suspect it’s the secondary internal storage device of PS5 that’s causing the whole issue, try to reseat it and replace it.

In this situation, follow the listed steps below:

1. Turn off your PlayStation 5 console completely by pressing the power button for at least 7 seconds until you hear two beeps which indicate it has been completely turned off.
2. Disconnect the power cable and other cables attached to your PlayStation 5.
3. Slide the PS5 internal storage bay cover out and away towards the left of the system to remove it.
4. Check the PS5 expansion SSD to make sure it is properly seated and screwed to the board.

After setting and screwing your PS5 secondary storage device to the board, run games on PS5 again to check whether your PS5 is running slow. If it still runs slow, please read the following content.

Action #2: Free up Your PS5 secondary SSD Space or Replace It with a New One

We already have stated earlier that one of the causes of the PS5 running slow is the PS5 internal storage device is full or does not have enough free space. In other words, low space on the console creates a smaller room for the system to operate.

Therefore, the first action you can take is to free up the PS5 main internal storage, which may help improve the speed of your system.

How to free up the hard drive installed in your PlayStation? Here is the tutorial.

1. From the PS5 main screen navigate to Settings > System Storage Management and then select any of the categories below to view more information:
   • Applications
   • Capture Gallery
   • Application Saved Data
   • Themes
2. Select the content you would like to delete.
3. Press the Options button and select the Delete option.
4. After deleting, check whether your PS5 is running slow.

Once you have successfully freed up your PS5 main internal SSD and got at least 15GB of free space, your slow PS5 is supposed to run smoothly and fast like before. If not, please try the other methods outlined below in order to fix your slow PS5.

Action #3: Rebuild the PS5 Database

Once you have verified that there’s no storage shortage in your PS5 and that the PS5 main internal SSD does have around 15GB or more of free space, it might then be time to rebuild the PS5 database.

But why do you really need to rebuild the PS5 database when your PS5 console is running slow? The truth is that the PlayStation 5’s database begins to clog over time which makes it inefficient and slow, thus it impacts whole system performance and prevents it from operating seamlessly.

Therefore, rebuilding the PS5 database will significantly boost the performance of your console and reduce freezing or lagging that your PS5 system is undergoing.

To rebuild the PS5’s database, please follow the steps below.

1. Power off your PS5 by holding the power button for at least seven seconds to ensure it’s completely off.
2. Boot into Safe Mode by pressing and holding the power button for about 7 seconds until you hear a second beep.
3. Because Bluetooth is inactive in Safe Mode, you should connect your DualSense 5 controller via USB cable to your PlayStation 5.
4. Scroll down and select the Rebuild Database option in Safe Mode, which scans the drive and creates a new database of all content.

Note: The PS5 rebuilding database operation may take a long time. that solely depends on the type and number of data items.

Action #4: Optimize the Internet Connection

If you experience PS5 slowness when you play online games only, yet when you play offline it works fine, then it might be your internet connection that causes the slowness issue. Therefore, the PS5 running slow issue can be ascribed to a slow internet connection.

So, follow these tips below to improve your PS5 running speed during gaming sessions.

• Tip 1: Use a Wi-Fi signal if the signal is very weak or move the console closer to the router.
• Tip 2: Use Ethernet connections over Wi-Fi if possible.
• Tip 3: Use a faster DNS (Domain Name System).

Carry out the steps below to optimize the internet connection on your PS5 console:

1. Download and run Google’s Namebench on any PC (Please note that you should not try to have any other download going on as you do this, as it could affect the result.) It will benchmark all the available nameservers and find the ones that are closest and faster for you.
2. Now put your attention on your PS5. While on it, go to Network > Set up Internet Connection and select Use Wi-Fi or Use a LAN Cable depending on whether you’re connected via Wi-Fi or an ethernet cable.
3. In order of the steps select Custom, Automatic, Do Not Specify, Manual.
4. Enter the numbers provided by the Namebench application in their respective order. Then, select Automatic and Do Not Use.

Note: You might want to periodically repeat this process as the quality of connection to nameservers varies over time.

Action #5: Update the Firmware

Once you have tried all the methods above and figured out that neither the PS5 internal storage device, the slow internet connection nor the database is the real reason for your PS5 slowness, you might have a sort of data corruption or incompatibility issue. In order to fix that, you need to update the PS5 firmware to the latest version.

You must regularly update your PS5 system to the latest version as a firmware update usually provides performance improvements and fixes to your PlayStation console.

Follow the steps below to update PS5 firmware:

1. Prepare a USB with more than 400MB of free space.
2. Wipe the USB and create a folder called PS5 and a subfolder called UPDATE.
3. Download the last PS5 update and copy and paste it to the UPDATE folder on your flash drive.
4. Turn off your PS5 and then slot the USB into one of the PS5’s forward-facing USB ports.
5. Press the power button for at least 7 seconds to boot into Safe Mode.
6. In Safe Mode, select Update System Software and follow the directions from there.

Once done the PS5 system will restart and the slowness issue might be resolved for you. If that even doesn’t work for you, you better factory reset the PS5 and reinstall a fresh new copy of the PS5 system software from scratch.

Action #6: Factory Reset the PS5

For those unfamiliar, a factory reset is exactly what it sounds like. It resets your PS5 console to its default factory settings as if you were opening it and booting it up for the very first time. If your PS5 running slow issue is because of data corruption/conflict issues, this method will definitely fix it.

Note that you’ll lose all of your game data, save data, and personal account data that are stored on your PS5 — basically anything on the system’s main internal storage will be erased.

Because of this, it’s recommended you first backup any files you don’t want to lose for good. You can do this by transferring your files to an external hard drive or using the PS Plus cloud service. Once you have properly backed up your files, you can begin the factory reset. Thankfully, Sony makes this fairly easy on the PlayStation 5.

How to factory reset your PlayStation 5 (PS5)

Now it’s time to learn how to factory reset your PS5 in order to fix the PS5 running slow issue:

1. Go to Settings -> System
2. Select “System Software”
3. Select “Reset Options”
4. Select “Reset Your Console”
5. Select “Reset”

Once you confirm the reset, your PlayStation 5 will restart and go through all of the initial startup steps. At this point, the console hard drive will be completely erased and all of the settings will return to their factory defaults.

Action #7: Contact PS5 Support

If nothing has worked fixing your slow PS5, there might be a hardware failure in your console that you can do nothing about. What you can do here is to contact PS5 support center or take your PS5 to a professional technician.

Bottom Line

Have you found out the reasons for your PS5 running slow? And have you known what to do when your PS5 is running slow? If you have any questions after reading this article, please do not hesitate to contact us by commenting below or use the contact us form.

PS5 Running Slow FAQ

Why does my PS5 run so slow?

The possible reasons include:

• Firmware bugs and issues;
• Faulty or full internal storage device;
• Slow internet connection;
• Clogged cache;
• Poor ventilation;
• Cluttered database.

How do I fix the lag on my ps5?

• Check your internal storage device to see whether there are some issues.
• Free up your hard drive to get free space or upgrade it to a larger one.
• Rebuild database.
• Optimize internet connection.
• Update the firmware.