How to Solve PS4 Running Slow without Data Loss?

Why  my PS4 running slow and freezing?

The fast running speed of the game is a necessary condition for all PS4 game players. If the game runs slowly, it will seriously affect your gaming experience. When your PS4 appears freezing and lagging, it may be caused by the following situations:

► Internet connection is slow: Internet speed is very important to gamers. If your PS4 runs slower online but is good offline, it is likely that your Internet speed is a problem.
► The database is damaged:  When some games or applications that you install on PS4/PS5 may be damaged by improper operation, the running speed of PS4 will slow down. In addition, the failure of the game or application update may also be the cause of this situation.
► Hard disk fragmentation: Repeated downloads and deletions will cause the hard disk to become fragmented, which will make it take longer for the disk head to read data, making the PS4 slower.
► Insufficient free space on PS4 hard drive: No matter it is a computer or a PS4, insufficient storage space on the hard drive will cause the device to run slowly. You should keep a certain amount of free space on the PS4 at all times.

4 ways to fix PS4 running slow

After you have a basic understanding of the causes of PS4/PS5 system running slow, you may wonder how to solve this problem? Don't worry, I will tell you four ways to solve PS4/PS5 freezes and lags, and I will also introduce you to a very useful third-party software—AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. For more details, please see below.

▎Method 1. Optimize internet speed

Reconnect the router: There may be a problem with the router. Please turn off the router and reconnect. This operation can be repeated.

Turn off other devices on this network: If you connect multiple devices on the same Internet, resulting in a slow network speed, it is also likely to cause your PS4 to run slow. All you need to do is to close the connection between other devices and the network so that PS4 maintains a smooth network speed.

Move the PS4 closer to the router: If your PS4 is far away from your router, you’ll experience unstable performance. Try to move your system as close to the router as you can and see if that improves anything.

▎Method 2. Rebuild PS4 Database

Rebuilding the database can help you repair some errors caused by data corruption, it won't fix all errors, but it can fix many errors. In fact, you should rebuild the database every 3 months to ensure the best performance of the console.

Specific steps are as follows:

● Make sure that the PS4 is completely powered off and the Dual shock 4 controllers is connected to the console via a USB cable.
● Start PS4 in safe mode, press and hold the power button until you hear two machine sounds.
● After launching the PS4 in safe mode, you will enter a menu with various options.
● Select the "Rebuild Database" option.

Note: The screen should turn black while the rebuilding process is in progress, so don’t worry if this happens. Depending on the amount of data on the PS4, the reconstruction process may take some time, please be patient and do not close the console while the process continues.

▎Method 3. Perform Schedule Defragmentation

As mentioned above, the degree of fragmentation of the hard drive will directly determine the PS4 running slow. So we can defragment the hard disk to reduce the degree of fragmentation.

There are many defragmentation tools on the market for you to use, but I suggest you use AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. Whether you plan to defragment PS4 /PS4 Pro/PS5, it can help you complete it. The most important thing is that it supports schedule defragmentation. After the setting is completed, the software can automatically defragment at the time you set, which greatly improves the efficiency of PS4 use.

Please note that, if your PS4 are using SSD, you can't perform Disk Defrag, because the SSD does not need to be defragmented, doing so will damage the life of the SSD.

 Step 1. After downloading and installing AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro, open it on the desktop. Find the PS4 hard drive on the main interface, right-click the disk, and choose “Disk Defrag”.

Step 2. On the home screen of Disk Defrag tool, click "Schedule" to open the Schedule Settings editor. Or, you can click "Not Enabled" to edit schedule for corresponding drive.

Step 3. In the schedule settings, you can select drives, and the time mode to defrag the target drives, you’ll have 5 options about time mode.

Step 4. Tick “Conditions” and click “Define”, you can set the rate of fragmentation to trigger the schedule to defrag your disk. And there is “minutes” for idle time, this is to make sure the program won’t hurt the data of other programs. Click “OK” to save all settings.

▎Method 4. Optimize PS4 by upgrading HDD to new HDD/SSD

If schedule defragmentation still does not solve the problem, then you can try this method. Since the free space of PS4 is not enough, you can delete some infrequently used games to free up space. But if you don't want to lose any data, I suggest you upgrade to a bigger HDD or SSD. In order to have better performance, I recommend upgrading to SSD, because its read and write performance is better than HDD.
However, most users think this step is troublesome. Fortunately, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional can also help you with easy steps. It can safely and quickly help you clone a hard drive to a solid state drive without losing data. 

Ready to work:
1. Push the host hard disk cover (the cover on the upper left when it is flat) to the left to remove it.
2. Then there is a white device, unscrew the screw and take out the hard disk bracket.
3. Remove the hard drive on the bracket (fixed by four Phillips screws), and you will get the old hard drive in PS4.
4. Connect the old and new hard disks to the computer to perform the following operations.

Step 1. Installing AOMEI Partition Assistant, in the main interface, click “Clone Disk” in the right menu.

Step 2. Choose Disk Clone type, here we choose "Clone Disk Quickly".

Note: AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro provides you with two methods for cloning hard disk:

Clone Disk Quickly" only copies the used space of the disk.
Sector-by-Sector Clone" will copy all sectors of the disk no matter whether it is used or not.

Step 3. Choose the old hard disk(takes Disk1 as an example that you need to clone and click "Next"

Step 4. Select the new disk and then click "Next".

Tip:You can select "Optimize the performance of SSD" to improve the reading and writing speed of SSD.

Step 5. You can edit partition size on the destination disk here according to your needs.

Step 6. In the main interface, click "Apply".

After clone, you only need to insert the new hard drive into PS4. Then restart, you can use the new HDD/SSD on PS4.

Conclusion

Now, I believe you have a certain understanding of why my PS4 running slow. This article provides four ways to improve the performance of PS4. These include rebuilding the database, adjusting the network, disk defrag and replacing the HDD. You can choose one according to your actual situation.