For all gamers make a backup of your pc, smartphone and other devices ensures that you can recover data in the event of a crash, sudden power outage, or total hardware failure, but not many people are considering doing the same with their game consoles.
Fortunately, the Playstation 5 makes it easy to back up your files to one device external USBand the subscribers of playstation plus they can safely copy their game save data to the cloud.
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Keep in mind that backing up your data this way is different from extending your PS5’s storage with an external drive. Although they technically achieve similar results, the functions of backup Y restoration they’re useful for making data you don’t need readily available on your PS5 and recovering it in the event of a crash or data corruption.
Extending your PS5’s storage, on the other hand, allows you to install (and in some cases, play) games from the hard drive, but it requires specific types of hard drives and USB cables.
How to Backup and Restore PS5 Data Using an External USB Hard Drive
The PS5’s backup and restore feature works with a wide variety of USB storage devices, but you’ll want to make sure you have enough empty space on your external drive before starting the backup process.
- go to Setting> System> Backup and restore.
- Choose «Make a backup of your PS5″.
- connect your HDD to the PS5 with a USB cable.
- Select what data to back up. The bar at the bottom right shows how much space the selected data will take up on the external drive.
- Choose «Following«, later «Backup» to begin the process and wait for the data to be copied. To avoid data corruption, do not move, unplug, or turn off your PS5 or USB drive while the transfer is active.
With the data backed up, you can now unplug the USB device. It will be safely stored in case you need to restore data from the USB drive.
How to make a backup if you ever need it:
- Connect the USB backup drive to your PS5 and turn on the console.
- From the PS5 home screen, go to Setting> System> Backup and restore.
- Choose «Restore your PS5«.
- Select the data you want to copy from the drive to your PS5, then follow the on-screen instructions to begin the transfer.
- Wait for the files to copy. One more time, do not unplug or power off your PS5 or USB drive while the transfer is active.
How to save data in the cloud on the PS5
While USB backups allow you to create a physical restore point of all your PS5 data, PS Plus users can also back up their game saves to the cloud. Doing so requires an active PS Plus subscription and for automatic updates to be enabled on your PS5, but the console will automatically back up your saves once the feature is enabled. Is that how it works:
- On your PS5, go to Setting> System> Energy saving> Functions available in sleep mode and enable «Stay connected to the Internet«.
- Then go to Setting> Saved Data and Game Settings / Applications .
- To enable cloud save backups for PS5 games, select PS5 games> Synchronize save data and enable «Automatic save data synchronization«.
- To enable cloud save backups for PS4 games installed on your PS5, select «PS4 games» and then activate «automatic loading«.
Once the options are turned on, PS5 save data will automatically sync between the cloud and your console, so you’ll always have the most recent save data available in both places. However, PS4 data must be downloaded manually to your console from the game’s home page.