PS5 Stalled? Fix Common PS5 Problems and Learn When to Factory Reset

While the new Sony PlayStation 5 Pro is the talk of the game-console town at the moment, there are many people with a standard PS5 who feel the need to upgrade, despite all the new tricks of the Pro. That said, it’s not uncommon for you to run into problems with the PS5, even if it’s “in the final stages of its life cycle.”

Software issues and storage corruption can make it frustrating to work with or unusable to the point where you’ll need to go into advanced settings or completely reset it to solve your problem. Fortunately, there are a number of options at your disposal to restore your PS5 to working order. Below, we’ll explain some of the ways you can repair your PS5 and reset it if needed.

Given that both the standard and Pro versions of the console share a lot of the same DNA, the steps described below may work for the Pro, but we’ll have to dig into its settings a bit first.

For more, here’s how to backup and restore your PS5 data.

How to reset your PS5 from the settings menu

The easiest and most common way to reset your PS5 is to do so from the console settings.

1. From the PlayStation home screen, navigate to Settings menu top right.

2. Select The program.

3. Select System Software.

4. Select Reset Options.

5. Then, confirm the selection Reset your console.

If you don’t have a navigation controller in your PS5’s system UI, you can connect peripherals like a mouse and keyboard to reset your console that way. You can even connect your mobile device to your PS5 using the Remote Play app for iOS or Android to control your console with your phone and reset it that way.

If all else fails, enter PS5 Safe Mode

Safe Mode gives you many options to use even before you need to reset your PS5. For example, if you have storage problems, you can modify the console storage to try to solve it. Errors or system UI problems? Performance drops? In safe mode, you can try the clear cache and database option to rebuild a new database for all console content without having to start from scratch. Or try, at least. And if necessary, you can reset the console

If your PS5 won’t boot up fully, you won’t be able to reset it like you would since you won’t be able to get to the settings menu, so you’ll need to boot into Safe Mode and reset the console that way.

How to enter PS5 Safe Mode and reset it

Note that resetting your PS5 in Safe Mode will result in the loss of all data stored on the console, so make sure you back everything up properly before proceeding.

1. When the PS5 is turned off, press and hold the power button and release it after you hear two beeps (one beep occurs with the first press and a second follows 7 seconds later.)
2. Connect your controller with a USB cable and press the PS button on it. (If this does not boot you into Safe Mode, turn off the console and try the above steps again.)
3. From the Safe Mode menu option select Reset or Reset (Reinstall System Software)

A reset will delete all user data and return your PS5 to its original state. A reset (Reinstall System Software) will delete all user data and, you guessed it, reinstall the system software.

How to reinstall PS5 system software manually

If you needed to reinstall your PS5 system software and it failed, you can try to reinstall it manually, using a USB drive.

To get started, you’ll need a USB drive with at least 1.2GB of free space on it, and it’ll need to be formatted to EXFAT or FAT32 using a PC or Mac.

1. Create a folder inside the USB drive called The PS5 and another folder inside the one called UPDATE.

2. Visit the PS5 software download page and download the reinstallation file. (There are two on the page, so make sure you select the reinstallation file and not the update file.)

3. Once downloaded, save the file to UPDATE folder inside your USB drive and rename it to, “PS5UPDATE.PUP“

4. Now that your USB Drive is ready, insert it into your PS5 and start the console up in Safe Mode using the steps above.

5. Select Reset (Reinstall System Software) and the console should see the USB with the update file on it and install the software image from there.

If for some reason this fails, try the same procedure using another USB port on the console.

For more, check out Microsoft expects a new Xbox and PlayStation console in 2028.