PS4: How To Back Up Game Save Files To External Drive! [Hard, Flash Drive]

[@Superman_305]

One thing I've noticed on videos like this one every person who makes a videos showing how to do this have one thing in common and that's they all have a playstation plus membership. And that's really the answer if you have a playstation plus membership you don't have to worry about using a hard drive to save your games data on your ps4 and transfer it to the ps5. If you have a playstation plus membership youre games are automatically on the cloud and you can just go to your ps plus account and download your games that way to your ps5. I know whenever i get a ps5 that's the first thing I'm going buy before i start transferring my data from my ps4.

[@Fix.369]

You're correct that having a PlayStation Plus membership makes transferring game data to a new console easier through cloud storage. It's an effective backup method, eliminating the need for external hard drives. However, for non-members, external drives are still a viable option to back up game save files, so it depends on users' preferences and backup choices.☺️

[@FlavioBaldelli]

Does It also work when switching hard drives on the PS4?

[@nobody8685]

Informations for those who watch this. First, the maximum speed which you can reach on a PS4 Slim through USB (which is revision 3.1 Gen 1) is 5 Gbps which means 625 MB/s. The maximum speed through the RJ-45 Ethernet port is 1000 BASE-T (so 1Gbps). The maximum external storage allowed by the firmware of the PS4 is 8 TB so keep that in mind too. The internal storage also has a maximum speed of 6 Gbps (the usual SATA-III speeds) which means more than 750 MB/s is simply not possible (and that's only the theoretical maximum you'll most likely not reach at all), so I doubt you'll get more than 650 MB/s out of the best SSD on the market. I did try to make a 1TB HDD as my external drive and installed all games on it to make an image for backup on PC, you need a special software to make an image of the RAW data on the HDD, as Windows won't even detect the hardrive as Partition, and if you do make it so it detects it, you'll lose all data on it right away so hours of installs and downloads are gone with one click. There are ways, but be careful to search around to not repeat my mistakes -_-

[@FALLAN_1]

Bro

[@CAKS90983]

Why doesn't this video have more likes ? It was quick and to the point

[@Bobby8451]

use a WD passport 1 tb but I'm wanting to upgrade to a 2 tb. I wanted to clone my drive but my extended hhd is unallocated with no drive letter. How can transfer my games over to a larger drive??? Thx in advance for any useful info.

[@RAMMRODD-ei6jw]

Thx ❤❤❤ solve me an issue . There was a COD update , and couldn’t download on my systems storage . So I transferred the game to external . And there the update was done successfully 😊

[@Fix.369]

RAMMRODD-ei6jw Bro, Thanks for sharing what worked for you.😊

[@caludia84]

Do you need to reformat the USB drive to save game data? The PS4 doesn’t recognize it

[@nobody8685]

Yup, usually when you plug in an USB Drive to the PS4 for the first time, it won't detect it for as long as you don't go to the "Storage Devices" option in Settings and format it from there. Even if you format it right on your PC, the PS4 will have to format it too before you use it.

[@codyortiz4285]

So I bought a ps4 pro off of my friend and sold my old ps4. When I did so I transferred everything to my external hard drive bcuz i thought that it would transfer the saved data as well. So now i try to upload my saved data to the ps4 pro and it shows my trophies but not the saved data. Is there any way to get the saved data from external hard drive, or am i screwed?

[@Azn2424]

You have to use a usb hard drive If you're transferring data from 1 ps4 from 1 ps4 to another

[@nobody8685]

Nope, you need to use an USB Stick of like 8GB or 16GB to transfer the Save Data. Thropies are connected to your PSN account so it makes no sense to NOT be saved as it's an online thing. If you didn't back up in cloud the save data (which can be done if you had PS Plus) then your Save Data is gone unless you can recover it from the old PS4 (only if it wasn't reinitialized with a new install of the operating system).

[@zerovibritannia6216]

Dude, I have the same problem 💀

[@adilsheikh7081]

Should i do this before intialising the ps4, it wont update

[@LowellLucasJr.]

Thank you so damn much!!!!! Extremely helpful!!!

[@Fix.369]

LowellLucasJr Bro, Welcome. Glad to be helpful.😊

[@danielgurnye1357]

It says the usb storage device is being used as extended storage, so it won't transfer safe data...

[@GhostFace29364]

THIS HELP SO MUCH THANK YOU

[@Ettakoko]

What’s your ps4 theme ?

[@mahardikadwicaksono0115]

Bro if that disc game.. Its still can move the data to external??

[@Wasechubby]

Why can't you just save the save data directly to the external hard drive. That would make things so much easier lol

[@seamonkey000001]

Agreed. Sony have made it extremely frustrating to do this even though it’s OUR data

[@LowTierPancakes]

Having the same problem rn. I was able to do this easily a few years back, but it won't let me use those flash drives anymore.

[@Thunder___554]

I need help how can i save my fata to the extended hard drive

[@Thunder___554]

​@@seamonkey000001pls help

[@Thunder___554]

​@@LowTierPancakespls help

[@scoor9935]

When I want to move the application to my Extended storage it’s just keep downloading the the game fore ever i don’t know why

[@MohammadAnas-je8lu]

Can we move disc cam on external ssd?

[@jordanjones9110]

I have a 2TB hard drive and I just need to know if I format the external hard drive if it will delete all of my saved data on the ps4?

[@Ettakoko]

And how do you copy instead of moving your games to the external hard drive, what you did was moving not copying

[@nobody8685]

There's no way to do that. The PS4 will keep on the internal drive pretty much only the Save Data and Shortcuts. Those shortcuts will show if you open the PS4 without the external drive (with the games moved on it) a Warning Symbol, as there's no data for the game on the PS4. So to play those, simply plug in the USB Drive with the installed games, and if you need the disc to play the game, you should insert it too, THEN you can play ;) Play Station won't allow users to make a copy of the games, they made it in the firmware to be only able to MOVE them from a drive to another.

[@jakepophal985]

Because Sony is kinda dumb lol on Xbox you can do that all day

[@BUTTERBEAN2019]

Have to have a usb thumb drive for this ?

[@Fix.369]

BUTTERBEAN2019 Bro, You Should be, but you have to make sure your USB drive has sufficient space. 😊

[@BUTTERBEAN2019]

@@Fix.369 oh yeah like how much

[@BUTTERBEAN2019]

@@Fix.369 I was like a 1tb ssd it won’t work that way

[@Mslasvegas]

I have a seagate ps4 external hard drive that is set to fat32. I copied saved data amd game data over to it. So in the event my ps4 internal hard drive decides to break down and i have to initialize the system to bring it back; will redownloading the games and copying the saved game data from the external hard drive to ps4 work? Would it be like nothing went wrong? Maybe besides losing my videos and screenshots?

[@nobody8685]

Not quite. When you move a game from internal to external drive, the PS4 still keeps shortcuts of those installed game on the internal memory of the console. If by any change the drive dies and you have to reinstall the operating system of the console, you'll have to re-download and install the games again most probably. The save data though, videos and screenshots can be backed up and you just need to move them over back to the PS4 again.

[@Mslasvegas]

@@nobody8685 okay so basically as long as I made a copy of the game data; in the event of initializing the ps4, I would just redownload the games with the discs, hook up my external hard drive and copy the game save data back to the ps4? I'm not moving the games over for more storage. I'm just using it just in case my hard drive crashes again. I lost all my Kingdom hearts games and FF7 hard mode saves. I didn't really care about the rest, but those hit hard. I was trying to get my platinum trophies. I have since replaced it, but I'm just trying to make sure that if my ps4 messes up with the new hard drive I can move my copies save data over and I can pick up where I last copied the save data for the games onto the external hard drive.

[@hyperborean.]

Thank you.

[@darith87]

i have an external hdd that i use to store my ps4 games and ps5 games, and I think save data on there. But i remember that someone said that the save data are automatically store on the cloud. So my question is that i have a problem with the PS5 and PS4 not recognizing the external HDD anymore. I unplugged while the console is turned off and connected to my laptop. When a window pop up, i don't remember what i press, and now the window does not show a drive letter and I'm not able to view anything on there. When i go back to connect the External harddrive to my PS5 or PS4, it is telling me the usb external hdd is unsupported. I was then given the option to format the drive. If I do that, it will erase all my games or save data on there? I'm not sure what to do because I don't want to lost any data on there? what should I do? Thanks.

[@Fix.369]

darith87 Bro, it sounds like you're experiencing issues with your external hard drive, which could potentially lead to data loss. Here are some steps to help you address the situation:

Check the drive on a computer using Disk Management and assign a drive letter if recognized. Back up data if possible. If unrecognized, use data recovery software like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard or Recuva to repair and recover lost data. 

If unsupported on your console, format the drive as a last resort, which will erase all data. Confirm save data is stored locally or in the cloud through Settings > Application Saved Data Management.
 Contact PlayStation Support or a data recovery service for further assistance if needed.☺️

[@hussamrafique2684]

Which monitor is this ?

[@Fix.369]

hussamrafique2684 Bro, We are using Sony Bravia TV.😊

[@zainelshatlawy7034]

Does it need internet

[@Fix.369]

zainelshatlawy7034 Bro, No, you don't need internet to back up your PS4 game save files to an external drive.☺️

[@zainelshatlawy7034]

@@Fix.369 I meant to transfer a PS4 save file to a PS4, but anyways I did it,thanks.

[@samuel_ford04]

does moving the game delete the one on the internal HDD?

[@Fix.369]

samuel_ford04 Bro, No, moving the game to an external SSD will not delete the one on the internal HDD. The game will be copied to the external SSD, and the original copy on the internal HDD will remain intact. This means that you can still play the game from the internal HDD if you want to.😊

[@kingsnurglegurglesonthevik4517]

You don't say what yhe minimum size of pen drive that is needed just to save game saves. This lacks vital information.

[@Fix.369]

kingsnurglegurglesonthevik4517 Bro, PS4 save data doesn't need a specific size USB drive. Pick one with enough space for the saves you want to transfer. A small drive (like 16GB) should be fine.☺️

[@nomercy5422]

Good thanks

[@nf5011]

THANK YOU

[@callmeswag1226]

is there a way I can save my ps4 data to my external hard drive if im stuck in safe mode? Like is there anyway that is possible?

[@FALLAN_1]

No bro there no way