The PlayStation 4 will soon support external storage thanks to firmware update 4.5.
Update 4.5 adds support for USB 3.0 HDDs which can add up at 8 TB to your PS4’s storage. Straight out of the box, PS4s only have 500GB or 1 TB drives. Without external HDD support, upgrading a PS4’s storage space required owners to open up their console and install a new 2.5″ drive.
Installing anything beyond an additional 2 TB drive was prohibitively expensive and tricky due to the PS4 housing. Any HDD thicker than 9.5mm won’t fit inside the PS4.
Thankfuly, this will soon be a thing of the past. When firmware update 4.5 is released, just follow this process to use external storage.
Get yourself a USB 3.0 compatible drive
There are plenty of hard drives available, but you’ll need to make sure the one you buy is USB 3.0 compatible. In our searches we’ve found the price to range from around $150 AUD to $300 AUD. It’ll all depend on where you shop, what brand you prefer and if you pay shipping or not.
Connect your device to your console
Once you’ve chosen your HDD plug it into one of the USB ports on your PS4. After it’s plugged in, go all into settings and then scroll down and select Devices. You should be able to select USB Storage Devices and the hard drive you’ve plugged in should appear.
If you’ve not formatted it or used it before, it should be named after its brand. If you have used it before and renamed it, the drive will be named as set by you.
Format the drive and set is as default
When you select your drive from the list, you can select ‘Format as Extended Storage.’ This formats the drive for use on the PS4 and once the format is completed a green icon will be displayed next to the drive’s name. This icon indicates that the drive is now a compatible storage device.
With the drive formatted and the green icon in place, highlight the drive and press the Options button. The PS4 will ask if you want to set the external drive as the ‘Application Install Location.’ Select confirm and your external drive will now be the location for downloaded games, updates and so on.
Firmware 4.5 is currently in beta and specially invited users are currently using it, but the firmware will be rolled out to all users shortly.
If you’re running out of space or planning to expand your digital library then now’s the time to source an external drive and get prepared for the update.
