How to use your Crucial External SSD with your Playstation 4

Now that you have a Crucial portable SSD, you may want to use the drive with your PlayStation® 4 to expand game and app storage. PlayStation® allows only one external drive to be used at a time with a minimum capacity of 250GB and maximum of 8TB. Storing your content has never been easier. It only takes a few easy steps to expand your console's storage.

Step 1. Plug your Crucial Portable SSD into your PlayStation 4

To get started, plug your Crucial portable SSD into the console. Plug one end of the USB C cable into the drive. Plug the other end of the USB C cable into a USB A adapter and then plug into your PlayStation 4.

Note: Make sure when using the USB-A adapter that the alignment marks on the adapter match up with the alignment mark on the cable. If these marks are not aligned, read and write performance of the drive is reduced.

Step 2. Format your Crucial Portable SSD

Power up your console. Once the system is on go into settings. Select “devices,” and then select “USB storage device.” Finally, click “format as extended storage.” You have now formatted your Crucial drive to work with your PS4. Now, you will you need to configure your download options.

Step 3. Change your PS4 storage settings

Your Crucial Portable SSD won't store anything until you change your PS4 settings to establish its data destination. It’s important to set up where your information is downloaded to ahead of time. Go into settings, select “Options,” then select “Application Install Location,, finally click “Extended Storage.” Your downloads will now go to your external SSD.

Step 4. Move applications between your external SSD and your PS4

Now that your drive is formatted and the download location is set to “Extended Storage,” you can move applications, games, and save files between the external and internal drives. Go into the settings of the PS4 and select “Storage.” Select the storage that has the application you want to more (either the system or extended). Select the app that you want to move, press the options button on your controller, and select either “Move to Extended Storage” or “Move to System Storage.” Once selected, click “Move” button and select either “OK” or “Cancel.” Applications, games, and save files on both the extended and system drive will appear in the content.

Step 5. Properly disconnect your portable SSD

When the time comes, you will need to safely disconnect and remove your external SSD from your PS4. Disconnecting your SSD improperly can cause data corruption or complete file loss. Never disconnect the drive while the system is in the process of shutting down or in rest mode. Go into the “Quick Menu” and select “Sound/Devices.” Select “Stop Using Extended Storage.” Once you select “Ok,” it is safe to disconnect your drive from your PS4. If your drive was removed incorrectly, you likely will receive an error message.

Conclusion

As newer console games require more storage, the need for an external storage device such as the Crucial X9 Pro Portable SSD has never been higher. Using your Crucial portable SSD is a fast and effective way to expand your PS4 gameplay and system storage capabilities.