System crashed (twice) now all of my digital PS4 games are locked. Help!

[TimeLordCrow13y]

Title. My system is set to primary, my account isn’t banned, I haven’t shared my account information with anyone. How do I fix this? 

 

ETA: I restarted, and my digital games weren’t locked but trying to launch one crashed my system instantly. I tried launching one of my physical games and had the same issue. 

Edited June 16, 2022 by TimeLordCrow13y

[MidnightDragon]

Try restoring licenses and rebuilding the database.

[TimeLordCrow13y]

3 minutes ago, MidnightDragon said:

Try restoring licenses and rebuilding the database.

 

I already tried restoring licenses. It didn’t help. Going to wait until tomorrow to attempt to rebuild the database. I think all this might’ve happened because the power blinked for a second while the system was in rest mode (it wasn’t storming, so idk why). But I’ve heard rebuilding the database can take hours and don’t want to start that this late AND am worried the power may blink again while trying to rebuild. Thankfully I backed up all my saves earlier today, I guess?

 

Still concerned about being locked out of my own games. AFAIK that’s never supposed to happen if your console is set to primary. 

[Infected Elite]

restore licenses. Rebuild database. Reinstall software. Log out and back in.

 

I had all my digital games locked when i rebuilt database once. Not even sure why i rebuilt it. Just keep my ps5 running smoothly. But yea like 10min later everything was accessible. 

 

Restoring licenses works best tho on ps4

[TimeLordCrow13y]

I have rebuilt the database. Games still won’t launch (I get an error message-CE-34224-5. Then get a different error message when I try to launch a game for the second time). And my system crashes when I try to launch them a second time. 

 

ETA: Every time I reboot my system is says “Checking the system storage status” for several minutes, then restarts normally.

 

Well, this time after it restarted, it automatically started rebuilding the database AGAIN.  

 

And, when trying to load one of my alt profiles, I got the message “The database is corrupted, the PS4 will restart (CE-32996-9). So, it’s rebuilding the database a THIRD time.  

Edited June 16, 2022 by TimeLordCrow13y

[zizimonster]

There might be a problem with the PS4 harddrive.

[TimeLordCrow13y]

11 minutes ago, zizimonster said:

There might be a problem with the PS4 harddrive.

 

I was afraid someone would say that. Looked up my error history (because sometimes the system was crashing too quickly for me to capture the error) and here’s a list of errors i’ve gotten in the past 24 hours (and AFAIK, never before) and I know some of them didn’t record at all because the last error message had several 0’s and an 8 at the end: 

 

CE-30095-7 (twice)

CE-34224-5

E-FFFFFFFD

CE-32996-9

CE-34224-5

[Sunny]

This is hardware failure, when you boot your console and it verifies the hardware every time is a classic sign, I had this with my ps3, good news is that a new HD will probably fix the problem.

[TimeLordCrow13y]

For the record I also have a PSVR. So am wondering if the issue extends to it as well (it is always plugged in) or if the issue is solely my PS4 Pro. It’s going to annoy me if I have to send in the entire thing to Sony when both the system and my headset are under two years old. This is the second time I’ve had a modern PS system fail for no reason (the Bluetooth chip/WiFi on my PS3 slim crapped out for seemingly no reason). My PS2 is still going strong. 

[zizimonster]

You can start by replacing its hard drive first. Unless your PS4 can't turn on, that might be a different problem -- a power supply unit problem, for instance.

 

People on here would suggest you get a solid state drive (SSD) instead of a harddrive (HDD), and I think that's a good suggestion.

[TimeLordCrow13y]

4 minutes ago, Sunnyburrito said:

This is hardware failure, when you boot your console and it verifies the hardware every time is a classic sign, I had this with my ps3, good news is that a new HD will probably fix the problem.

 

How expensive is a new hard drive (or SSD), is it easy to replace myself on a PS4 Pro, could my PSVR also be affected, and will I permanently lose some of my data by replacing the hard drive (trophy images/downloaded games/themes that may no longer be in the PS Store/etc). 

[GUDGER666]

Heard this a few times, multiple different things have solved the issue. These are, unplug the console and wait 5 min then plug back in, why this works sometimes i don't know.  Reinstall the firmware, a file may have become corrupted. Format the hard drive (full) which is the most common fix. If non of this works then buy a new hard drive, they are pretty cheap. 

[ExHaseo]

Before buying a new HDD you may want to try doing a full factory reset, rather than just rebuilding the database. Just make sure you deactivate your account first. It's probably just some packets that got corrupted, so doing a factory reset may fix the problem.

 

This is why you should keep your console (and all electronics that plug into a wall really) off when you're not using them. A slight flicker of electricity can very easily corrupt a file needed for it to run and end up bricking your console. Turning off your console when you're not using it will lower the chances of something like this happening again.

[TimeLordCrow13y]

5 minutes ago, ExHaseo said:

Before buying a new HDD you may want to try doing a full factory reset, rather than just rebuilding the database. Just make sure you deactivate your account first. It's probably just some packets that got corrupted, so doing a factory reset may fix the problem.

 

This is why you should keep your console (and all electronics that plug into a wall really) off when you're not using them. A slight flicker of electricity can very easily corrupt a file needed for it to run and end up bricking your console. Turning off your console when you're not using it will lower the chances of something like this happening again.

 

Why would I need to deactivate my account(s) first? 

[ExHaseo]

1 minute ago, TimeLordCrow13y said:

 

Why would I need to deactivate my account(s) first? 

When you do a factory reset, it counts as a different console. The number of consoles you're allowed to have your account activated on is limited. So deactivating before you format just makes it easier to manage. Otherwise you have to go to the website and deactivate your account on every console it's on, which is a big pain, especially if you have more than one console.

[GUDGER666]

3 minutes ago, TimeLordCrow13y said:

 

Why would I need to deactivate my account(s) first? 

You don't. But doing a factory reset will do it automatically i think. 

Just now, ExHaseo said:

When you do a factory reset, it counts as a different console. The number of consoles you're allowed to have your account activated on is limited. So deactivating before you format just makes it easier to manage. Otherwise you have to go to the website and deactivate your account on every console it's on, which is a big pain, especially if you have more than one console.

This isn't true, your account logs the PS4s serial number, doing a factory reset auto deactivates anyway i think. I've put a new hdds in my PS4s 3 times and didn't deactivate, my account still showed as primary. You can also change which console is primary when your account is activated on another PS4, when pressing activate as primary it says its activated on another do you want to change to this console. 

[TimeLordCrow13y]

Well, after looking on Amazon, I think I’m going to skip the factory reset (just so I can hang on to all my data-even if it is partially corrupted) and order a basic 1 TB or 2 TB HDD replacement for now. I can’t afford a SSD at the moment. 

Edited June 16, 2022 by TimeLordCrow13y

[Raidou Kuzunoha XIV]

As others have already said, sounds like HDD failure unfortunately.

 

My husband's external HDD started failing a few years ago and it had similar issues: Games crashing upon starting, games hanging on the splash screen upon launching and it essentially soft locking the console, games deleting themselves (and potentially reinstalling themselves, sometimes they didn't), etc.

 

Hooked it up to my computer and it had a number of issues in its S.M.A.R.T stats that indicated it was most definitely failing. If you're able to do that with your PS4's internal HDD, it might be worth it just to confirm it is indeed dying, but it'd require a bit more work than simply plugging it into the USB port like with an external HDD.

 

59 minutes ago, ExHaseo said:

 

This is why you should keep your console (and all electronics that plug into a wall really) off when you're not using them. A slight flicker of electricity can very easily corrupt a file needed for it to run and end up bricking your console. Turning off your console when you're not using it will lower the chances of something like this happening again.

 

Not sure how true that is. Files can generally only corrupt if they're being changed (not just accessed, but actively written to) when there's a power failure. It's why when a game is saving or the console is updating, there's usually written emphasis on not turning off the power during the process. There are some file formats more prone to corruption than others however, like FAT32. The PS4 uses its own propriety file system called PFS which I believe uses "journaling" like NTFS does (aka, it's not as easily corruptible as FAT formats).

 

I've had my PS4 improperly shut down about 6-7 times since 2013 due to power outages, half or so of those were when the console was on, the other half it was in rest mode. Nothing ever came of it however, same goes to everything else that's ever suffered a sudden power outage while they've been on. Aside from a single incident I can recall back on my PS1 when a game was autosaving when the power went out, and my save was gone when I next turned on the console, which is unfortunately to be expected. Just glad that's only ever happened once for me.

 

Power outages could wear on the HDD over time due to the heads suddenly parking improperly, but it's very rare for significant damage to be done unless there's an actual surge and you don't have any kind of surge protection (which is rare for any modern power sockets nowadays, afaik, don't really know about North America though), in which case, it's more likely your power supply will be fried anyway.

 

Not to say it isn't a good idea to keep consoles off when not in use, especially if you know you may be prone to blackouts/brownouts for whatever reason, but it's not like hardware wasn't designed with the odd sudden power loss in mind.

 

Also, I don't think a power outage is even the issue for OP, just that their system crashed.

[TimeLordCrow13y]

30 minutes ago, Raidou Kuzunoha XIV said:

Also, I don't think a power outage is even the issue for OP, just that their system crashed.

 

I’m thinking that too-although, I’m probably going to avoid putting my console in rest mode in the future anyway. I already did it rarely and usually for 30mins or less. And I do have all of my systems plugged into surge protectors. 

 

Looking back, I did have occasional problems (especially recently-constant messages to uninstall something because there wasn’t enough space to install something else, when I knew there was over twice the space needed free on my hard drive-and also with an online game, severe lagging and controller drift that I’d blamed on the server probably being unstable, but now I have to wonder...)

 

Anyway, I just hope the drive I ordered fixes the problems, my PSVR is okay, and I don’t lose access to anything I’ve previously downloaded. 

Edited June 16, 2022 by TimeLordCrow13y

[ExHaseo]

25 minutes ago, Raidou Kuzunoha XIV said:

As others have already said, sounds like HDD failure unfortunately.

 

My husband's external HDD started failing a few years ago and it had similar issues: Games crashing upon starting, games hanging on the splash screen upon launching and it essentially soft locking the console, games deleting themselves (and potentially reinstalling themselves, sometimes they didn't), etc.

 

Hooked it up to my computer and it had a number of issues in its S.M.A.R.T stats that indicated it was most definitely failing. If you're able to do that with your PS4's internal HDD, it might be worth it just to confirm it is indeed dying, but it'd require a bit more work than simply plugging it into the USB port like with an external HDD.

 

 

Not sure how true that is. Files can generally only corrupt if they're being changed (not just accessed, but actively written to) when there's a power failure. It's why when a game is saving or the console is updating, there's usually written emphasis on not turning off the power during the process. There are some file formats more prone to corruption than others however, like FAT32. The PS4 uses its own propriety file system called PFS which I believe uses "journaling" like NTFS does (aka, it's not as easily corruptible as FAT formats).

 

I've had my PS4 improperly shut down about 6-7 times since 2013 due to power outages, half or so of those were when the console was on, the other half it was in rest mode. Nothing ever came of it however, same goes to everything else that's ever suffered a sudden power outage while they've been on. Aside from a single incident I can recall back on my PS1 when a game was autosaving when the power went out, and my save was gone when I next turned on the console, which is unfortunately to be expected. Just glad that's only ever happened once for me.

 

Power outages could wear on the HDD over time due to the heads suddenly parking improperly, but it's very rare for significant damage to be done unless there's an actual surge and you don't have any kind of surge protection (which is rare for any modern power sockets nowadays, afaik, don't really know about North America though), in which case, it's more likely your power supply will be fried anyway.

 

Not to say it isn't a good idea to keep consoles off when not in use, especially if you know you may be prone to blackouts/brownouts for whatever reason, but it's not like hardware wasn't designed with the odd sudden power loss in mind.

 

Also, I don't think a power outage is even the issue for OP, just that their system crashed.

I'm aware. However, unlikely isn't impossible. Yes, most of the time it's fine, but I dont think it's worth the risk to leave something on when you're not using it when you could end up out of hundreds of dollars, or thousands in some cases. You never know what's going to happen, so it's always safer to just turn things off. 

[TimeLordCrow13y]

Also, quick question. When I get the new HDD, do I need to deactivate my accounts on my current HDD before installing the new one? 

[GUDGER666]

11 minutes ago, TimeLordCrow13y said:

Also, quick question. When I get the new HDD, do I need to deactivate my accounts on my current HDD before installing the new one? 

No, they are tied to the console not the HDD. If you're concerned just deactivate them, takes about 10 sec per account. 

[TimeLordCrow13y]

Well, got a new HDD in, followed the instructions on the PS4 site (and the instructions that came with my HDD) exactly and the initialization will start, but at some point always says “The update file is corrupted. (SU-30645-8)” I’ve tried downloading it and transferring it to my USB twice. 

 

....Sigh. I honestly don’t know what to do anymore. 

 

ETA: For some reason, when I tried it for the fourth time, it worked....so, maybe I’m good??

Edited June 19, 2022 by TimeLordCrow13y

[TimeLordCrow13y]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I’ve since tried multiple new hard drives, and still can’t get any games to launch (though they no longer appear locked). I’ve also ruled out corrupted system/save data as an issue (tried and failed to launch a game on my account after a fresh install of the system software on a brand new hard drive-hadn’t restored any other data at all). 

 

I’m either going to take it to a local repair shop or send it in to Sony, but does anyone know of literally anything else that could have happened from a freak power failure with the system in rest mode? 

 

I can watch Blu-rays with no issue, launch the store, stream Spotify, download digital and physical games. I just always get an error code (usually a different one every time-followed by the system forcefully shutting down upon the second or third attempt to launch a game) when I try to launch any digital or disc-based games. I’m at a loss-and it’s incredibly frustrating to have this happen to a system that is less than two years old. 

Edited August 29, 2022 by TimeLordCrow13y

[zizimonster]

7 minutes ago, TimeLordCrow13y said:

I can watch Blu-rays with no issue, launch the store, stream Spotify, download digital and physical games. I just always get an error code (usually a different one every time-followed by the system forcefully shutting down upon the second or third attempt to launch a game) when I try to launch any digital or disc-based games.

What's the error code?

 

Your system might be overheating. Games are more demanding than the other activities you've mentioned.

 

If you can, try opening the console up, clean it and re-paste the CPU/GPU, or have somebody do it for you.