How to factory reset a PS4 to fix issues or for resale
23.01.2024 - 10:53
/ digitaltrends.com
/ Phil Hornshaw
As with most tech products, it's sometimes necessary to factory reset your PlayStation 4 console. This can be due to a number of reasons, especially if your PS4 system is acting wonky. Other times, you might simply need to factory reset the machine if you plan of selling it or giving it away.
There are two methods for resetting your PS4:
- From the PlayStation 4 dashboard
- From the PS4's Safe Mode
We’ll be going over both ways in this article. Read on to find out how to factory reset your PlayStation 4 system. If you're looking for information on how to reset a newer system, check out our article on how to factory reset a PS5.
Difficulty
Easy
Duration
2 hours
What You Need
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- The best PS4 games for 2023
- How to upgrade your PS4 games to PS5
How to factory reset your PS4
We'll go into detail about each step later in this section, but here's how to factory reset your PS4 via your console's dashboard:
- Go to settings and select Account Management
- Select Deactivate and select Yes on the following screen
- Sign back into your account and head back to the settings
- From the Settings menu. Click on Initialization.
- Select Initialize PS4. The full reset may take a couple hours or more.
A factory reset is usually done as a last resort to ensure the functionality of the system. Before factory resetting, it’s important to remember to back up all save data you may have before initiating the process. Factory resetting the PlayStation will erase all of your data from your system, and not backing up your save data will result in you having to start your games from scratch.
Things to consider backing up include images, saves, and videos, which can either be uploaded to an external device or to the cloud. In order to back up data using the cloud, you’ll have to have a PlayStation Plus account, which gives you 100GB of storage space. However, you can also use a flash drive to copy saves if you aren’t a PS Plus member.
Before we begin, you should know that a factory reset of your PS4 completely wipes the console’s hard drive and can even remove its system software. It’s a last resort when a software glitch stops your PlayStation 4 dead in its tracks, particularly when booting up or when you want to make sure the console no longer has your data on it.
Below are step-by-step instructions to complete a factory reset on your PS4, whether you’re rocking an original model, a Slim, or a Pro.
Step 1: Start in the settings menu and find the option for Account Management. You’ll want to deactivate the machine as your primary PlayStation 4. That setting allows you to play downloaded games offline by identifying this particular PS4 as yours. Miss this