Not everyone has or wants to have one of the new generation consoles, since the PS4 is still a very valid console and for which games continue to come out. The problem is that, let’s be honest, it’s been around for quite a few years now, and unless you bought a brand new one recently, it’s quite possible that its performance has suffered over time. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to get it working optimally again, so let’s take a look at it.
Never let storage fill up
It may seem absurd, but the same thing happens to the PS4 as it does to PCs: if the system disk is full or almost full, it starts to work slower and slower. This is because, although the space that the console shows us is merely that of the games, screenshots, saved games and of course the operating system, it still needs space to store temporary files and, if it runs out of it, performance will suffer. resents
You can check the storage status in Settings -> Storage, where it will show you the system storage and if you have any USB devices as expanded storage. From here you can see what is installed and what is taking up the disk and even delete it to make room. By the way, for this it is not a bad idea to buy an external USB drive to add as expanded storage to the console.
Cleaning the PS4 will improve its performance
Ok, we don’t say “it will improve its performance” but rather “its operation” but in reality it can improve the performance of the PS4. As you know, keeping the console clean inside will help it make less noise and work at a lower temperature, and working at a lower temperature prevents the Thermal Throttling phenomenon from occurring, which reduces performance in order to preserve good performance. temperature.
For these reasons, keeping the PS4 clean inside and out will make it work better, and recover that lost performance.
Regenerate the console database
If you notice that your PS4 is running too slow not only in games, but that it feels slow even when moving through the menus, you may need to regenerate the console’s operating system database. It is a technique that almost no one does since it involves a little work, but really if you do it well it is not dangerous at all and can help you recover lost performance.
To do this, with the console off you must press and hold the physical power button on the console (not the controller) until you hear a second “beep” sound (in addition to the usual initial beep that sounds at the beginning). After a few seconds, you will see that your PS4 starts in safe mode and will show you a menu like the one you can see in the screenshot above.
At this point you must connect the controller via USB to the console (since it will not work wirelessly) and press the PS button to turn it on. As you can see, the fifth option is called “Rebuild Database”, which is the one you must select.
The process of regenerating the console OS database usually doesn’t take too long, usually about 10-15 minutes depending on your storage and so on. This process is safe, no data is deleted except that the console will not “remember” which are the last games you have played, but you will notice that the performance of the PS4 speeds up quite a bit when moving through the menus and options. It’s worth doing it from time to time.
Change the hard drive for an SSD
We have already talked about this before, and it is much easier to do it on the PS4 Pro than on the normal or slim PS4 since in the Pro model you only have to remove a cover and a screw on the back to remove the hard drive . You must keep in mind, however, that if you do not want to lose anything you will have to remove the hard drive from the PS4 and then clone it to the SSD before installing it on the console, or in any case, you will have to do some previous steps to be able to install the PS4 operating system from scratch.
We have a complete and exhaustive tutorial on how to change a hard drive for an SSD on the PS4 that we leave you linked here, so we are not going to go into further details (if you are willing to do so, simply follow our tutorial and you will have no problem), but what is certain is that by doing this you will gain a lot of performance on the PS4, especially in terms of game loading times and installation times.
The truth is that the console works much better with an SSD, and with how easy it is to do it and the price at which SATA 3 SSDs are right now, we certainly recommend it because it is very worth doing.