Topic: PS4 is very slow!

@Th3solution Its an idea to rebuild the database more regularly if you are frequently installing and deleting games. HDD's are like a Pizza with every 'slice' being a sector and whilst you may have 100GB's of space, that isn't necessarily 100GB in one block but maybe 10GB here and 5GB there. What Defragging does is pull all the data together so that all the 'free' space is together.

Another way to look at it is like a bookshelf and each game, patch, DLC you install fills up the shelf (the bigger the game, patch, DLC the thicker the book) but that may mean you get fragmented games. By fragmented, I mean that the game is in one area, patch in another and DLC in various different areas too. Each game you delete, doesn't close up the gap in the disc where it was installed but leaves that 'hole' where the game was. Defrag would make sure that the game, its patches and DLC are all pulled together in one complete block (thus making it easier and quicker to locate rather than having to jump from one area to the next to the next to find it) and all the 'gaps' closed up so all the free space is in one big block. Data isn't fluid like water in a jug where say 400ml is all together with another 100ml of space at the top so defragging optimises the disc and also the ease to find everything thus making loading times better.

@BAMozzy Well, hey, .. I learned something new today! Thanks, that makes sense. I’ll get into a habit of rebuilding the database periodically I guess. I thought perhaps that when the PS4 is powered off and booted back on that some of that reshuffling of the memory was done automatically

@BAMozzy I'm wondering if you know if rest mode makes the console slow? Caus it's been like a week since I turn off my ps4 for some hours! I use rest mode cause like I said in another post my controllers barely charge, I have to put the cable in the right position, so I can't play and charge!

@AFCC I can't say - I never use Rest mode myself on either console. I do game pretty much every day but I can't guarantee that I will be playing on a certain console for weeks or months - besides I prefer to keep my power consumption at its lowest possible and not happy to keep my consoles on - even in 'low power' mode.

I have heard that some have had slow down issues by using rest mode but I don't think its 'widespread' enough to be verified - more rumour/hearsay than anything...

@BAMozzy because rest mode and buying Far Cry is the only different things I've done that I can relate to the slowdowns that are occuring!

@AFCC I personally wouldn't leave your console rest mode all of the time as you're wasting energy, wasting electric bill money, and if you lose power for some reason it's like just pulling the plug on a PC (which everyone knows you shouldn't do). If you aren't actually actively taking advantage of the rest mode features on that day, why risk it? The thing basically goes from off to on in almost no time anyway (at least mine does), so it's not like you're saving much time except for when the odd update needs to install.

As for charging your controllers you can use any compatible USB charging point, like one for a mobile device to charge em. You don't have to use the PS4 to charge em.

@BAMozzy @JohnnyShoulder Hey guys, I was going to do a database rebuild / maintenance defrag as we were discussing and I first wanted to ask: Should I disconnect my external hard drive before doing the rebuild? Or is it better to leave it connected, and will it be rebuilt also?
I have the launch 500 GB vanilla PS4, and a 2 TB Seagate external drive that is pretty much constantly plugged in to the 2nd USB port because most of my games are on it. (I transferred most of my games over to the external HD thinking it would keep the PS4 running better not having all that data on the console) The PS4 hard drive is probably 60% full though with games, pics, apps, etc. The external drive has about 500 GB or so and as far as I know it only has games on it. (I believe even the save data for games on the external drive is saved to a place on the console memory, right?) I have only ever used it with this PS4.
Forgive my ignorance on these things. I’m pretty basic as it related to tech.
Anyways, I was worried if I rebuild the database with the drive connected that it would “confuse” the PS4 into deleting or moving files and maybe making the situation worse. Yet, it the PS4 “knows” the difference between the two drives, then it may potentially make it much more effective if it will rebuild both databases together. I just don’t know and I thought I better ask someone who knows what they’re talking about.

Edit: Oh jeez, I just realized after reading the news article for the day that I asked this question on April Fools Day. Please don’t prank me into bricking my system. 😅

The database rebuild leaves your games unaffected. It only affects the firmware and its cache, which are all on your main hard drive.

Rebuilding your database is pretty carefree and something you can do every few months. It's not like defragmenting your computer at all, which considers all files.

@Th3solution Just don't press "initialize"!

@Kidfried I thought it affected game DLC files and such as well. Like helps to put DLC files in the same “place” with the other game files or something. I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure I’m overthinking it. 😅
And I definitely won’t press “initialize” no matter what April Fools jokester tries to tell me to do that! 😂

@Th3solution I'm pretty sure it will be fine, nothing will be moved from your internal hdd and external hdd. It will just tidying up everything in the drives.

Let us know how you get on as I've got an external hdd (4tb) and I've not rebuilt my database since upgrading my internal hdd to a 1tb hybrid a couple of years ago. The only thing that puts me off is that the amount of time it could take as there is a soft warning of it taking a few hours. But I hear some people say it doesn't take that long.

@JohnnyShoulder Welp, it appears to not have bricked my console at least. I did leave the external HD connected during the rebuild and I think that all worked out okay. The whole process took only about 10 minutes or less to go through, even though the warnings does pop up that it could take several hours. Buuuuut ... no one seemed to warn me that it apparently deletes all your folders. I had a semi-intricate system of folders where I had games organized by whether they were actively being played and if not, where I have them in order on my backlog, as well as according to expected length of the game. Now, the games are all just placed randomly on the XMB. Doh!
Well, it will all be worth it if it makes the console a little zippier to navigate ....however I can’t tell that yet because it also has automatically made me download some update files for a few random games! Grrr.. Like 7 or 8 games are having to download updates now, probably to the tune of about 50 GB of downloading needed now, so this is the part that will take hours. 😪. My internet connection is good, but not spectacular.
It’s weird the games that are automatically doing an update download. Some are games I’ve played recently, some are games it has been ages since I played, some I’ve never even actually played yet. Some are digital, some are physical games. Strange. The only thing I can think is that maybe these games updating are ones that I used to have on my console drive and then later moved to the external drive. Perhaps the update files stayed on the internal drive and the core game data moved to the external and now this process deleted the update on the internal drive so it could be redownloaded onto the external drive with the rest of the game data? Who knows.
Anyways, that is my fair warning. Evidently it’s probably the right thing to just leave your ext drive plugged in and just be ready for a lot of update downloads after you rebuild the database. Oh yeah, and expect to lose your folder system and have to redo your folders. And I’m not April Fools joking. 😋

@Th3solution It's resetting the folders? Wow, that's a dumb kind of flaw to be honest. I don't use folders, so I wouldn't know. And about the updates: yes, that can be part of the deal for a few games. I should have warned you about that.

And there's still quite a chance it hasn't made your PS4 any faster. The reason for that is probably the internal hard drive. Seeing as you have an OG PS4, it could just be worn out. The only solution for that problem is a new hard drive.

But let's just hope this at least helped your console get faster at least a bit!

When I'm talking about the PS4 like this, it almost feels like a pc... :/

@Kidfried Yeah, the folders I found are still there at least, they were buried at the end of the XMB and the rebuild process emptied them except for a game or two. Again, no rhyme or reason as to which games were left in the folders and which were taken out. Weird.
On a related note — you should look into organizing your games in folders. It’s a pretty handy thing. Some people put them together by genre, but I group them by other criteria.
As far as speed, I actually haven’t really noticed my PS4 being terribly slow, just a little bit. I did this more as an attempt at maintenance. The increased speed will be a nice bonus though. Fortunately my PS4 is hanging in just fine after all these years. I have been tempted to buy a Pro, but now, I think I can hopefully just keep this one until PS5. Only a year or two away, right? 😉

@Th3solution Thanks for the heads up. Yeah I've read about the updates, sorry I assumed you were aware of that. 😯
Interesting about the folders, I've got a couple setup but only for apps and not games.

If you do decide to upgrade your internal hdd, I recommend going for a hybrid ssd/hdd as I think ssd's are a bit expensive. It is super easy to replace too and takes about 5 mins.

@JohnnyShoulder No worries. I just left the unit to download all the files since I had other things to do today. I wasn’t planning to play on it until later. I now feel satisfied that I have done some spring cleaning of my hard drive. As long as I steer clear of Far Cry 5 apparently, my PS4 should continue to work like a charm.
My external HD has made it so I doubt I’ll need to upgrade the internal drive before next gen reaches us. Best accessory ever.

@JohnnyShoulder I have to use rest mode cause I have like 5 cables that don't work correctly on my ds4s...I read somewhere that it's supposed to be compatible but it really isn't since different cables and different phones may use different power to charge! Don't know if it's true or not...
But yeah my cousin was here this weekend and his cable (the original one) worked perfectly on my controllers without having to search for a perfect position to charge...
I just have to buy a new cable

@Th3solution
The Vita/PSTV does something similar when swapping memory cards (which is why I stopped swapping cards between Vita and PSTV). So if anyone is doing that/database rebuilds on Vita/PSTV - keep that in mind.

There was a way to negate it... though I forget exactly what that was. I think it was setting out the 'bubbles' in exactly the same arrangement regardless of what was actually installed.

@KALofKRYPTON yes, I have experienced when I switch out from one memory card to another on my Vita that it mixes all the icons around. But when I put the other card back in, they go back to where they were, I think.
The PS4 just randomly dumped my apps out of their folders. It’s fine though, I’m just thrilled my PS4 works well.