PS4 beta firmware 2.50 brings external HDD support

New rumors have surfaced from twitter user isaparrot about a few other features in the 2.50 update, which are worth mentioning. One of them being External HDD support.

[Nitrowolf2]

Not sure how it'll work as in judging from the screen it's just backing them up, not actually being able to run them.

Still a welcome feature since if our ps4 is wiped we don't have to redownload all the games and eat our internet

[GribbleGrunger]

Yeah, I think it's just to back data up. Still welcome though.

[HammadTheBeast]

Very welcome, I spent the last couple days reinitializing my PS4, and it took years to download everything back.

[MasterCornholio]

Especially for people who have bandwidth caps. It's a nice feature.

[christian hour]

I didnt even think bandwidth caps were still a thing in this day and age until I was talking to a friend who mentioned his ISP limited them to 30gb a month and cahrged a euro for every gig they go over after that.

Ridiculous, bandwidth limits do not make sense in an age where every device is wifi enabled and people are buying their entertainment digitally more and more often, not to mention streaming services, free to play games and demos.

[Eonjay]

Yeah I think you are right as this feature was teased before. This would be great especially for PS+ members.

[mikeslemonade]

My PS4 usb ports still don't work!

[Skizelli]

@christian hour

Comcast has a 250GB/mo cap last I checked. While 250GB/mo is plenty for most, it's still a ridiculous restriction in this digital age we live in.

[Muzikguy]

AT&T also has 250GB data cap. It's crazy how fast that can disappear. I'm glad Charter doesn't have one

[Saijahn]

@Skizelli, comcast suspended their data cap. I've been with them maybe 2 years now and there's no data cap anymore.

DEC I used 293 GB
JAN - 214
FEB - 380

lol, this digital age of gaming / tv streaming is ridiculous.

[Skizelli]

@Saijahn

You're correct.

"On May 17, 2012, we announced the suspension of the enforcement of our 250 GB usage allowance and that we would trial and launch new data usage plans. We continue to trial different data usage plans in certain markets. In the trial markets, a monthly data usage plan was implemented where any usage which exceeds the monthly data plan amount is subject to an additional charge. For non-trial markets, we will continue to contact the very small number of excessive users about their usage, which can be indicative of security or related issues."

How did I not hear about this? :\

Edit: It's a good thing, too, because I somehow exceeded 350GB last month. I'm not sure if that's accurate, however. It also says I used less than 1GB in December, which definitely isn't the case.

[christian hour]

Personally for me this is the best feature of the update (I don't see myself suspend/resuming all that often).

I've bought all my games digitally because I console share with a friend so we get eachothers purchases.

I'm always deleting and re-downloading games (recently I re-downloaded Diablo 3 which was a pain in the neck) so having them there for a quick transfer instead of downloading 30+ gigs on a connection that averages 500k/1mb a sec is greatly welcomed.

[rainslacker]

suspend/resume will be really beneficial with remote play, particularly if your doing something where you may have to stop playing quickly...like say work.:)

At home, I usually just hit the home button and go do whatever it is I have to do then come back when ready.

[t-hall785]

You'll use it more than you think. Trust me. A total stranger yes but trust me anyway lol.

[mochachino]

Back up is all I care about. Makes upgrading the HD much less of an onerous process.

[t-hall785]

Yeah definitely a greag start. Maybe a future update will let you run them. Really hoping microsoft allows the x1 to use internals sooner than later but i know it's highly unlikely

[Syntax-Error]

Should've done it right out the box like Xbox One, but if it's implemented well I am all for it. I ran out of storage after 6 games, so I am excited if it works well. I have a 4TB external on my XB1 and I D/L games now instead of shopping at GameStop. I enjoy direct access better than hauling or searching through discs.

[Gamer1982]

This is going to save Sony millions in bandwidth and something they should have done years ago because of that. Every time you download a game it costs Sony a tiny bit in bandwidth. This way you save having to re-download and they don't have to give you the game again just the updates.
I prefer this option to playing off an external HDD for PS4 as I got a large HDD inside and only need a few installed at once as you do get bored. Xbox works better with being able to play off the external thanks to a locked down HDD.

[nitus10]

@christian

Maybe in the USA and then you pay for it since the service is not free. Most countries do have limits which are usually calculated as the sum of your downloads and uploads. It is possible to get unlimited but then you find that your bandwidth is limited.

In Australia I have a 120GB monthly limit (broadband and up-to 8 MB/sec) although there is no charge for steaming movies from my carrier service. For Australia this is not that bad and we are supposed to get a fibre roll-out which would be at the least an order of magnitude better although I am not holding my breath and I have no idea how much extra that is going to cost.

While I don't have a PS4 yet although I do have a PS3 I would rarely get a digital download especially one that is in the order of 10GB and up. For me I will stick to media which usually drops in price (even new) much more quickly than the equivalent digital download game.

I would probably consider digital downloads if someone would actually pay for my internet service and no! I am not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen :-)

[adis4gr]

interesting to see how things out of Europe works for downloading

[Majin-vegeta]

Pls Pls be true.This is all I care for.Since I'm out of space on my PS4 already >_<

[badz149]

that's what you get for not upgrading early. I swapped a 1TB right after I bought mine because I knew all games are gonna be installed.

[Gamer1982]

out of space?? Delete those shared videos then.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

Wow This next update is going to be really awesome.

Sony an take all the time the want to release updates for all I care as long as the updates come packed with many useful and great features.

keep it up!

[JMaine518]

Nice that we can back thm up but I wonder if we can play them from this external hard drive

[Brooklynbully123]

Now this is what iam talking about, no one cares about switching x and o button around

[pwnsause_returns]

It's a welcome feature though..

I still remembered the days when mgs1 and 2 used the circle button to confirm.

[TyBREAKR]

I went back and played that, it took me a while to get out of the menu because of it.

[kingPoS]

I'm sure many importers care. Believe it or not, some people would really like to swap X for O and O for X. Heck, with these kind of options, you can even customize a button layout for games with few control settings in-game. The only thing that would make it better were if it had six presets to start with.

Gateway MT6706 2008

[Gamer1982]

I'm also interested to see if in game prompts come up with new buttons lol.

[TheBrit]

if it is just for backup then that's worthless. You guys need to be able to play from the drive like we can on the xbox one. The data transfer rate is perfect and there is no reason sony shouldn't do this for you

[T2X]

WEll, it's not really worthless. You would just back up something or everything to the external HDD (Preferably 1TB) Then, Install a 1TB HDD internally and then throw whatever you want back on to the internal. See? Now you shuttle stuff back and forth and have access to 2TB without needing to "Run" anything off of the external.

[Spotie]

The data transfer rate is limited by it having to run from external HDD to USB to the hardware inside the console. That's far from perfect, and will never be as fast as reading from the internal HDD.

You guys need to be able to upgrade your internal HDD like we can on the PS4. That means one less thing to plug up and/or carry around to play games.

[kingPoS]

Wait?! I though the USB 3 standard meant that it could push a lot of data as well a decent amount of power. To my understanding the ps4's internal hdd controller is managed by a sata2 chip. If anything, backing up or restoring a ps4 hdd with an adequate usb3 drive should should be relatively painless compared to how it is on the ps3.

Gateway MT6706 2008

[ShowanW]

What.. The PS4 & One both haven internal Sata 2 drives that spin at 5400rpms.

And USB 3.0 external device 7200rpm will in fact be faster. The USB ports on the PS4 and One are integrated into the MOBO and not just case add-ons

But if backing up is part os the PS4 update, I more than welcome it. I'm all digitall on my PS4 and One

[Bigpappy]

Nope! The transfer rate of USB3 is faster than your internal serial drives. But the backup feature offered here is obviously very useful for restoring your internal should you need to upgrade or replace the drive.

Having the option to play from the external is a very good option to have though. Don't let the console war thing cloud your judgment on that.

[Syntax-Error]

Exactly. The USB 3.0 is faster than the internal. You can even watch YouTube videos on it. I have a 4TB external on my XB1 and it's amazing. I just point and click and the game starts immediately. Not only that, I can jump out the game at anytime and do something else within the console(watch netflix) and pop back in right where I left off. It's very intuitive. Hopefully my PS4 gets these features because they should've been implemented out the box considering Sony only focuses on raw power and lacks features. Why doesn't Sony have apps like Pandora or Vevo is beyond me.

[AndrewLB]

Syntax-Error: Unfortunately you are all incorrect. Connecting a SATA 2.0 drive directly to a SATA 2.0 port which is controlled directly by the system bus, is always going to be faster than connecting a SATA 2.0 drive to a USB 3.0 bridge chip, sent over the cable to another USB 3.0 bridge chip where the data is converted back to it's original SATA 2.0 protocol so it can be understood.
Each time the data goes through a bridge chip, it introduces latency and while the USB 3.0 protocol does indeed have a maximum throughput higher than SATA 2.0 by a tiny bit, the latency by both bridge chips and the fact that data cannot be sent faster than the HDD's SATA 2.0 internal interface or the integrated controller chip's connection to the system BUS. It's like connecting a fire-hose to where your garden hose is hooked up. only so much water can come through the tap, so a huge hose is useless.

A lot of the problems with USB 3.0 is they only utilize a single PCI=Express lane, which also kills performance.

[NicSage]

This is turning out to be a massive update.

[AutoCad]

Well that would be a waste if you cant run it off the external..

[StormLegend]

Yes! plz be a lot more in this update!!! and I mean a lot more!!!

[lutfarssmc]

I want video playback from external HDD. Don't know if game will be supported,as PS4 HDD is upgradeable. Sony may use it as an excuse or may not.Time will tell.But hope for the best.

[Summons75]

I could see them doing since upgrading the ps4 hard drive is very time consuming and annoying. Plus then they could market being able to upgrade both for unlimited save space. 3tb here 2tb there boom never going to need to worry about space for a long time.

[LordMaim]

Upgrading the PS4 HDD isn't time consuming or annoying. I did it immediately upon buying my PS4 at launch. Took literally 2 minutes.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Very time consuming? It takes a handful of minutes. The installation process afterwards would be the same as if you didn't change the disk in the first place.

[jznrpg]

It is very easy to switch them out, I have a 1.5 tb drive that I put in at launch,but I am going to switch to 1tb hybrid and use a larger external hard drive for all my backups when it becomes available.

[bleedsoe9mm]

i'm a happy man if this update has instant resume and external HD support

[WeAreLegion]

Oh, thank God!

[ps5fanboy]

Excellent news.

[Summons75]

Yes, please be true. I'll be a lot more comfortable with all these crazy high file size games if I could put them onto an external. I have a nice 1tb hdd that could use some love.

[nix]

As long as it is used for backup and clears the inbuilt hd space - I'm happy with it.

[bleedsoe9mm]

i hope it works like the xb1 , you get an option to move games to the external . if you can't play games off the external is kind of useless and not really External HD support .

[uth11]

Not really. When you are done playing a game, you can move it to external in case you ever want to play it again, and keep space on your main HD for the games you are playing now.

Perfect use is all those free ps+ games you aren't playing but want to keep just in case

[uth11]

Is this backing the full games to external HDD, or just the save data?

If full games, that will be awesome, it will make upgrading the HD easier, as I won't have to spend days redownloadjng everything!

[Re-versed]

the photo shows full games...

[pwnsause_returns]

One thing that catches my eye here is the auto syncing trophies.. Does that mean mean that when I unlock a trophy, it automatically syncs right after the unlock? That makes it similar to like how microsoft handles it, if so, then good.

[Re-versed]

thats a question for me too...It is really important for me to get a trophy and sync it automatically & immediately...

[rainslacker]

I was thinking that's what it means because the PS4 already auto-syncs when you go to your profile or trophy list after getting one. otherwise, I can't imagine what else it would mean.

[Re-versed]

yes ps4 only syncs when you go to trophies...Thats a problem cause it makes notifications to the others about your trophies in a different time than the time you get it if you dont sync them right after...

This is an ancient problem didnt get solved in sonys new console...This is a ps3 problem too...I wonder why...If i remember correctly this was part of a of feature list that sony's blog ask us to vote about the importance of them back the in the 2009 or something...This was nearly in the top of the list along with party chat...Still they dint implement it...

Xbox handles this matter the right way...I hope sony make it happen now...

[pwnsause_returns]

A lot of great features in the update, still a lot. More to go, and that's a good thing, the ps4 is evolving

Got to say the same about the X1. Hopefully they become more constant

[voodoogts]

PS4 still can't support dnla? And ps3 you can? That's sad .

[Tsar4ever01]

'Coarse it can support it, all it need is a firmware patch to make it work. It's a not working based on a design decision by sony bosses. They want PS gamers to support and buy in to that Sony "Music Unlimited" so buy restricting you from using your own MP3 music collection or DNLA support, the ONLY WAY it'll work for you is to suscribe into Music Unlimited and rebuy all your wanted songs.

But the ruse is already back firing on Sony, Very little to no gamers are even bothering with MU, and IF PS gamers just keep on ranting about why Ps3 has MP3 & DLNA support and not Ps4, Sony with have to bite their lip and just give gamers what they want in the end.

So hit the Sony furums and KEEP RANTING!!

[TWB]

I would prefer to instal and run my games from the external HDD (considering how fast USB3 is)

I still buy all my games physically so this feature doesn't really benefit me at all.

[magiciandude]

Yeah, but you'll have to re-download all the patch data the next time you install a disk game so backing up retail game installs to HDD is still something to look forward to, as you'll also be keeping your patch data in the process. Patches for many PS4 games are in the GB's of size and I prefer not downloading them again.

[jznrpg]

They download really fast, unless your out in the boonies

[marcindpol]

Friends notifications..

[TekKing]

If Music Unlimited is gone on March 28th then shouldn't this update also include Spotify?

[TheTwelve]

Yes, it will --- and that's what I'm most excited about.

[user78405]

you know that means, more HDD PS4 models comming close, wait for this E3 for more info, Ultra SLim anybody

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Background trophy sync? Hhhrrrrnnnng

[Cra2yey3]

Huge update if true. These features all seem to be legit in some way. Just wish friend notifications was thrown on there wirh the option to choose who you want to see log on.

[Yetter]

Well I really hope they can actually run off the ext HDD like they do on the XB1 because this is needed. If its just a back up I can't see me ever using it, my games are already backed up on PSN

[Killzoner99]

It's much easier to run off HDD with the Xbone compared to the PS4 due to the PS4 being a much more powerful console . PS4 games are HUGE compared to the Xbone games which lets face it , aren't exactly that demanding. It will take a lot of research and development to figure out how to run PS4 games through an HDD. Give Sony time and they will figure it out. Either way this is an amazing update that boosts the performance of the PS4 to the next level.

[marloc_x]

Lol..nice spin zoner, HaHa!

[SnakeCQC]

Running games off a hdd when you can extremely simply upgrade the hdd is kind of sill imho.

[Yetter]

see this doesn't make sense to me. The ext HDD works great and I don't have to crack open my console. And what happens when I fill up my 2 TB HDD I installed in my PS4? I have to crack it open and put in another one?

[SnakeCQC]

You aren't going to fill your 2tb hdd.....also games will run faster when your hdd is connected directly to the sata port rather than the usb port.
It really isn't pulling apart the console its VERY easy to do. I changed my one for a 1tb sshd and love it.

[CRASHBASHUK]

But big updates are all ways out by the end of the year so we have to wait that long? So its a bit early to testing this update now? Or is this normal to test big updates this time of year? E3 is in 3 months so you never know

[chaosx]

Great way to save having to download digital titles again, but surely you can play from the external , unless the PS system itself is limited to reading the internal drive only. Could be a security feature to help Sony from having the PS4 hacked.

[tweet75]

smart move, sony lost alot of money from me because i quit buying games when my hard drive got full on ps3. I would have bought the games if i could have kept them all on the hard drive at once.

[SnakeCQC]

On the ps3 and the ps4 its sooooo easy to upgrade the hdd. This feels like trolling tbh.

[tweet75]

nope my 1 tb is full on ps3 I still need more space and have the max 2 tb of ps4 will fill up fast.

[Neo_Zeed]

That's actually a great feature.

I still can't understand why everyone whines over Resume. Most games autosave every 2 minutes or you can manually save whenever. Also Resume can't work in online games.

[IrisHeart]

Neat. This will come in handy when those games I'm waiting for drop.