How To Best Manage PS5 Storage Space

Sony's PlayStation 5 is out now, and it features a whole suite of games that show off what's to come with the next-generation of 4K media and gaming. However, with an extensive library of games, most of which are continuing the trend of games with large files sizes, you'll have to be a bit more mindful about managing your data. The PS5 comes with a 825GB SSD for storage, about 667GB of which is free for you to use. With the growing size of games like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War--which sits around 200GB--the available real estate in your PS5 can quickly fill up. That's a problem, because PS5 games must be installed to the internal drive, and cannot be moved to external storage. (Backwards-compatible games can be stored and played externally.) Currently, you cannot expand your internal storage at this time, but Sony has stated that PS5 owners will be able to sometime in the future.

With this issue in mind, we wanted to offer some tips on how best to optimize and maximize your storage space for your new PlayStation 5.

PS5 Storage Management Quick Tips

• Prioritize the games you want to keep
• Turn off auto-updates
• Turn off trophy videos
• Use an external storage device
• Look before you download

How To Manage Storage On Your PS5

Prioritize The Games You Want To Keep: One of the crucial things you'll need to do with your next-gen console is keep an eye on your available storage space. It's never fun purchasing a new game and then discovering that you lack the open storage to download it. Every game you have in your library will take up space in your console's SSD, and this also includes game discs that will need to load data onto your drive. While you may have the urge to download all your most wanted games at once, it's best to focus on the essentials. You will always have access to purchased games in your account library, so even when you delete the game from your drive, you can still download it again later if you want to revisit the game.

Turn Off Auto Updates: Another solid tip is to go into your system settings and disable the auto-update features. Generally, updates for your current set of installed games will be downloaded automatically to your drive when your console is online. These include games you may have finished or may not get back to anytime soon. To optimize space, be sure to switch this off and focus on downloading updates for games you want to play regularly.

Turn Off Trophy Videos: One interesting change that came with the PlayStation's Trophy system is that the PS5 will now save a clip of the exact moment you earn a Trophy. By default, the PS5 will automatically save quick videos of every Trophy you unlock in a game. This innovation can be great for those who want to save a particular moment. However, these video files will add up over time, resulting in a bulky media folder filled with videos of you earning all sorts of Trophies--even the minor ones that don't require much effort. To save on space, we'd highly recommend disabling this feature outright. If you do want to save a moment when you earn a Trophy, then the PS5's upgraded share button will allow you to save video files capturing several minutes from your recent gameplay session. So once something exciting happens, just tap the share button and the moment will be saved as a video. It's always good to keep an eye out for the growing size of your media folder. So every once in a while, it would be a good idea to start clearing out old videos that are taking up too much space.

Use An External Storage Device: The PS5's sophisticated SSD is an impressive storage device, and it also shows off the speed in next-gen loading times. You may be tempted to load everything onto the SSD, but you can also play backwards compatible games via an external drive. Plugged in through a USB, you can download PS4 games straight onto an external device and play them from there (though your load times will vary depending on the drive you're using).

Look Before You Download: The PS5 line-up includes a set of games that are available for the PS4 as well. Along with letting PS4 users experience some of the latest games, these cross-gen titles also allow players to carry their progress to the PS5. However, a surprising quirk that comes from this is that it's possible to download PS4 and PS5 versions of the same game simultaneously on your next-gen console. According to GameSpot staff, this happened after selecting the "download all" option when trying to load the games onto our hard drives. When this happens, you'll take up far more storage space than you intended. To avoid this from happening to you, download the games you purchased straight from your library instead.