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How to Take a Backup of Your PS4 Games

The guide contains information on how to back up your PS4 games. If the console is something important to you, you definitely have your settings and many games that you care about. In order not to accidentally lose data, it is worth making a copy of your PS4 from time to time. It is not difficult, you only need to see how to do it once, and then you can repeat the whole operation, especially with the help of MiniTool Shadow Maker.

It is true that the PS4 console is stable equipment, but you never know what may happen. An accident or even a mechanical damage to the console can destroy what you have created for yourself. Saving PS4 settings or saving PS4 games are things that I hope you won’t have to use, but it’s worth being prepared for such an eventuality.

Before create a backup

If you are backing up locally, make sure you have the appropriate disk ready. Any flash drive or external hard drive will work as long as it is formatted with the FAT32/exFAT, which apply to pendrives and external drives. Other formats like NTFS don’t work with PS4. Since FAT32 has a maximum partition size of 2 TB, you shouldn’t use a drive larger than this – although you shouldn’t need nearly as much space.

How to backup PS4 game files

The console allows you to back up selected or all game save files on a USB device – e.g. on an ordinary USB flash drive or on an external drive.

Just start the console, and then on the main screen connect the USB flash drive or an external drive to the console using the front USB input in PS4. Then select “Settings” in the top menu bar.

From the list of settings, select the menu named “Application saved data management“. This is where all the files from the individual games we play are stored. On the next screen, we choose the data we want to view. We can view the data that is stored:

⦁ in the system mass memory (i.e. on the local hard drive of the console)
⦁ on the Internet drive (i.e. in the PS Plus cloud)
⦁ on a USB device

We want to copy the saves that are in the console memory, so choose the first option “Saved data in system mass memory“. On the next screen, we have the option of creating a copy of them in the cloud (“Upload to online drive”) and copying to USB. Select the “Copy to a USB mass storage device” option.

Now a list of all coupons and promo codes for which we have saved will appear. We select the game and then mark the states of the games we want to move – if we want to move everything, choose “Select all” option. At the end, we confirm the saving of the saved saves from the selected game by pressing the “Copy” button. The saves will be saved on the connected pendrive or USB drive.

Backup PS4 with MiniTool ShadowMaker

If you have a subscription to PlayStation Plus, you can save your saves in the cloud. But what if you don’t have it? Fortunately, there is another way – a copy of the saved game states on a pen drive or USB drive with the help of a standalone backup program named MiniTool MovieMaker.

MiniTool ShadowMaker is a free program with which you can back up important files, folders or files system settings. The program is very easy to use, even non-professional users can handle it easily.

In MiniTool ShadowMaker, you can schedule regular backups by configuring a backup of the entire disk, selected folders and files. A copy can be saved to an external device or in a network location. The graphic interface of the program is pleasing to the eye and provides easy access to the most important functions of the program.

The unpleasant truth is that a disaster can happen at any time and threaten your PS4 files. The right backup software can save your day quickly. Create a PS4 backup with MiniTool ShadowMaker is no problem at all.

Final words

Just like your computer, it’s usually a good idea to have a backup as game consoles are more prone to failure than before. If you’re in the habit of backing up your PS4 game files or important data regularly, somewhere on an external drive, network NAS, or in the cloud, and you will be applauded.