At home, I would eagerly fire up my console to play Final Fantasy XIV or a few matches of Apex Legends, when suddenly a new 500-gigabyte update would end my enthusiasm, like summer rain on a weekend at the beach. I live in the countryside, so my internet isn’t what you call good, therefore the update would take such an overly long time that I would put my PlayStation into sleep mode and spend my free time reading a book instead. If only there was a way to ensure that your PS4 automatically downloads game updates when they become available… oh yeah, there is! So to avoid frustration like mine, I will teach you how to setup automatic downloads, so when you turn on your PS4, it is already prepared, scented, and waiting for you like it’s a Valentine’s Day celebration.
How to Update Games on PS4 Automatically
First, turn on your PS4. Easy part! Second, you need to have an active Playstation Plus subscription to allow download in rest mode. If you don’t, it will only automatically download updates if the PS4 is turned on. Here’s a little walkthrough on how to set it all up: That should be it! Just keep in mind your PS4 needs to be on rest mode to automatically download updates. If you shut it down, don’t expect it to magically turn on by itself and download updates. If that happens, call Ghostbusters. To put your PS4 into rest mode, the fastest way is to press and hold the PS button on the controller, and then select “Enter Rest Mode” on the Quick Menu that shows up.
How to Update Games on PS4 Manually
When you buy a digital game, it is downloaded with all updates to date - at least it should be. However, if you don’t have automatic downloads active or haven’t played the game for a long time (more on this below), you can kindly ask the game to check for new updates.
Troubleshooting - My PS4 Didn’t Update My Games
Unfortunately, the above system isn’t perfect and there are a few caveats we need to understand, in order to fully enjoy the automatic update feature. Even though there’s no official statement from Sony about this issue, as an avid PS4 gamer and proponent of improvements to its download process, I know for a fact (and searches of Reddit will prove the same) that the PS4 sweeps for updates once a day. In my case, it’s at the crack of dawn (GMT-3), and I can’t confirm whether it changes according to your timezone. Another slightly annoying feature is that the PS4 automatically updates recently played games only. And what does it consider a non-recent game? No clue. It may be two-three months in solitary or even more. But if you want to play CoD Warzone after a few months having left it in the dust, expect a 60GB update before being able to throw stones in the Gulag. There are a few workarounds to search your entire game library for updates. One of them is to download a free theme on the PlayStation Store while it’s in rest mode (like this one). It forces your PS4 to boot up and download the theme, during which time is also checks for more updates. However, that’s not a guaranteed technique. One workaround I know is effective, and I discovered it by accident, is to rebuild your PS4’s database. Rebuilding the database has a lot of advantages. It removes corrupted data and reorganizes your files, improving your system’s performance. Also, oddly enough, it fully sweeps your entire library in search of updates. The last time I rebuilt the database, my internet almost blew up with the number of updates downloading. There’s just one slight problem to this though - if you organize your games by folders and have an external drive, expect it to be messy since it will delete all the folders and spill games all around.
How To Rebuild The PS4’s Database
Rebuilding your PS4’s database may take minutes or hours depending on how full your console is and how often you install and delete games. When PS4 powers on the dashboard, it will load game by game, at which point it will look for updates in each one.
