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“1.45 TB Available but you need space for 42.68 GB”

KartuneDX

KartuneDX

Banned
Jan 12, 2018
2,381
I know this is nothing new to the PlayStation experience but I'm really pulling my hair out here over how egregious the shitty storage optimization is on the PlayStation 5. Day one I was able to download my entire PS4 library to a 4 TB HDD that connected and played no problem with my PS5. Eventually I had to make space, sometime around when Cyberpunk came out, and wasn't too surprised that that big ass game needed some more space on a 4 TB.

Now the issue I have now is that I seemingly can't download anything to my external HDD, despite since moving CP2077 to the SSD. The HDD I once had literally every title on now gives me the typical "'more space required" before I can even download a PS4 game update. Two titles of download updates for old PS4 games won't leave my PS5 crossbar because they're pending downloads and deleting them from the HDD didn't remove them.

I'm just super frustrated with this messy shit when I feel like it shouldn't be anymore complicated than "free space? download initiated"

The hoops you gotta jump through if you have a lot of digital games and want to keep them all on system is somewhat sickening.
 
Patitoloco

Patitoloco

Member
Oct 27, 2017
23,685
You don't download anything to the HDD directly. You donwload it to the console, and then it moves to the HDD. So if your internal drive is full, it won't download.

It's the same in all consoles, Xbox as well, unless it changed recently.
 
OP
OP
KartuneDX

KartuneDX

Banned
Jan 12, 2018
2,381
Patitoloco said:
You don't download anything to the HDD directly. You donwload it to the console, and then it moves to the HDD.

It's the same in all consoles, Xbox as well, unless it changed recently.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I see. I'd been under the impression that the checkbox in the storage labeled "install PS4 titles directly to extended storage" avoided that

ugh didn't mean to dp
 
jwk94

jwk94

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,422
Just keep deleting games until it lets you download what you need. The PS4's storage management sucks.
 
test_account

test_account

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,645
Out of curiosity, what are the hoops that you need to jump through? Isnt it just to make sure that you have enough space? I havnt installed that many games on my PS5 yet, but deleting stuff was the only hoop i had to jump through on PS4 in regards to downloading stuff. I think the storage system was annoying at times though, as in having to free up much space just to download a relatively small patch for example, but it was just to make sure that i had enough space :)
 
Empyrean Cocytus

Empyrean Cocytus

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
18,707
Upstate NY
IIRC how Sony does their updates is they download the package as a separate file, then installs it.

So if an update is 20GB or so, you need 40GB free to install it.

It only gets compounded when you're installing multiple updates at once. So if you're getting low on space, if you're downloading 2-3 updates, the game might say you need more space before installing all of those at a given time. Yesterday as I was downloading a Rocket League update, an FFXIV update started and said I needed to free up 25GB. After the Rocket League update finished, I started the FFXIV update and it downloaded no problem.
 
OP
OP
KartuneDX

KartuneDX

Banned
Jan 12, 2018
2,381
test_account said:
Out of curiosity, what are the hoops that you need to jump through? Isnt it just to make sure that you have enough space?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I want to say practically speaking it's to ensure there's space for future game updates but that often plays out as

download 40 GB game > have 120GB free > space still required > delete 20 GB game > space still required

Reading these comments though I do think it's my internal SSD that's only 30GB free, but I'd have thought it'd been downloading direct to the HDD
 
shancake

shancake

Managing Editor ‑ Press Start
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
485
Yeah, this has been a horrible glitch with PS5. I've had it since launch.
 
gothi

gothi

Prophet of Truth
Member
Jun 23, 2020
4,433
Patitoloco said:
Nope!
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Weird. It's been a while since I fired up an Xbox One so I can't truthfully say I remember this 100% but I'm pretty sure that after I set my external SSD to 'install things here by default' things just installed there and never touched the internal drive at all.
 
test_account

test_account

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,645
KartuneDX said:
I want to say practically speaking it's to ensure there's space for future game updates but that often plays out as

download 40 GB game > have 120GB free > space still required > delete 20 GB game > space still required

Reading these comments though I do think it's my internal SSD that's only 30GB free, but I'd have thought it'd been downloading direct to the HDD
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Understood. It sounded to me like there were more hoops than freeing up space, so i wanted to ask because of that :) I havnt used my PS5 that much yet (at least as far as the number of games being installed on it), so i might have missed something, or forgotten about certain senarions where extra steps were needed to make sure that everything worked as intended. Thanks for the answer :)

I also edited my post and added a bit of text just before you replied, adding a bit more about the free space issue. I agree that the issue with having to free up much space just to install a relatively small patch can be somewhat annoying, indeed. I ran into that myself several of times on the PS4 (i only used the internal HDD, i didnt take the time to get an external HDD), and i will probably run into it on my PS5 once i start to get a good amount of games for it.

By the way, i noticed later on that if a patch download gives an error on the PS4, clicking on the error message shows how much space that is needed. I'm not sure if the same on the PS5. But i also used to delete stuff on my PS4 when a patch failed to install, hoping that it was enough to get enough free space because i didnt know exactly how much free space that was needed. But looking at the error message on the patch will show exactly how much space that are needed at least :)

Hopefully Sony make it so that PS4 games and patches can be downloaded directly to an external HDD. If that wont happen, hopefully adding more internal storage (when that becomes available) will solve the problem to some extend (more space means more games can be installed, naturally :)).
 
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AceStrimmer

Member
Feb 12, 2021
643
gothi said:
Weird. It's been a while since I fired up an Xbox One so I can't truthfully say I remember this 100% but I'm pretty sure that after I set my external SSD to 'install things here by default' things just installed there and never touched the internal drive at all.
Click to expand...
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Same here!

In fact, I often have to move my optimised games over to the internal drive after I download them to the external, not the other way around.
 
AngelOFDeath

AngelOFDeath

Member
Nov 13, 2017
2,374
KartuneDX said:
I want to say practically speaking it's to ensure there's space for future game updates but that often plays out as

download 40 GB game > have 120GB free > space still required > delete 20 GB game > space still required

Reading these comments though I do think it's my internal SSD that's only 30GB free, but I'd have thought it'd been downloading direct to the HDD
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hey I thought games download directly to external myself, as it states in Sony's own website.

I am also not one that fills up either internal or external all the way. I get anxiety when I am below 30% free.
 
headspawn

headspawn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,618
Patitoloco said:
You don't download anything to the HDD directly. You donwload it to the console, and then it moves to the HDD. So if your internal drive is full, it won't download.

It's the same in all consoles, Xbox as well, unless it changed recently.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Where have you seen this on Xbox?

I've never seen a game need to move/copy AFTER downloading.
 
Patitoloco

Patitoloco

Member
Oct 27, 2017
23,685
The Real Napsta said:
Xbox downloads directly to external.
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headspawn said:
Where have you seen this on Xbox?

I've never seen a game need to move/copy AFTER downloading.
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Like I said before, I have seen it, with my own eyes, on my Xbox One X. It does not download directly to external, it might be moving chunks while downloading so it does not need the whole space, but it still had to touch the internal HDD.

It's not a riddle or anything.
 
The Real Napsta

The Real Napsta

Member
Dec 21, 2017
5,126
Patitoloco said:
Like I said before, I have seen it, with my own eyes, on my Xbox One X. It does not download directly to external, it might be moving chunks while downloading so it does not need the whole space, but it still had to touch the internal HDD.

It's not a riddle or anything.
Click to expand...
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There's a setting. You get to pick where the games install.
 
headspawn

headspawn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,618
Patitoloco said:
Like I said before, I have seen it, with my own eyes, on my Xbox One X. It does not download directly to external, it might be moving chunks while downloading so it does not need the whole space, but it still had to touch the internal HDD.

It's not a riddle or anything.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Do you remember exactly how much space you had left on your internal when it wouldn't let you download directly to an external? Are we talking like MB's or a few GB's?

edit: can confirm it's definitely not a thing on Series X at least, I don't have my One X anymore but I honestly don't recall this happening when mine was filled but I can't say for sure.
 
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SpartyCrunch

SpartyCrunch

Xbox
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
2,498
Seattle, WA
Patitoloco said:
Like I said before, I have seen it, with my own eyes, on my Xbox One X. It does not download directly to external, it might be moving chunks while downloading so it does not need the whole space, but it still had to touch the internal HDD.

It's not a riddle or anything.
Click to expand...
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It's really not the case on any Xbox One / Xbox Series console. In settings if you set your external drive as the default installation location, it'll directly download to that location regardless of how much free space you have on your internal disk. There is also no unpacking or copying after the download, just a quick install that takes a few seconds and then it's ready to play.
 
arsene_P5

arsene_P5

Prophet of Regret
Member
Apr 17, 2020
15,438
SpartyCrunch said:
It's really not the case on any Xbox One / Xbox Series console. In settings if you set your external drive as the default installation location, it'll directly download to that location regardless of how much free space you have on your internal disk. There is also no unpacking or copying after the download, just a quick install that takes a few seconds and then it's ready to play.
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Yes that's how I remember it. When reading his post I was like "no, don't remember that. Weird" xD
 
bsigg

bsigg

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,556
Patitoloco said:
Like I said before, I have seen it, with my own eyes, on my Xbox One X. It does not download directly to external, it might be moving chunks while downloading so it does not need the whole space, but it still had to touch the internal HDD.

It's not a riddle or anything.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This is incorrect.
 
arsene_P5

arsene_P5

Prophet of Regret
Member
Apr 17, 2020
15,438
test_account said:
Hopefully Sony make it so that PS4 games and patches can be downloaded directly to an external HDD
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How did the developers think it's a good idea to not program it like this in the first place? To be fair they probably had enough to do with the OS and launch, but let's be real... The patch/download system was a mess in 2013 on PS4 and is a mess on PS5. I am baffled and every patch of FF14 reminds me what a mess this is.
 
test_account

test_account

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,645
arsene_P5 said:
How did the developers think it's a good idea to not program it like this in the first place? To be fair they probably had enough to do with the OS and launch, but let's be real... The patch/download system was a mess in 2013 on PS4 and is a mess on PS5. I am baffled and every patch of FF14 reminds me what a mess this is.
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I have no idea to be honest. I'm not really sure exactly how the patching system work on a technical level on the PS4 and PS5, so i dont know the thought process behind the system, so i cant say too much about it unfortunately, but maybe its due to some legacy code and they havnt taken the time to update it, or this is how patching works in FreeBSD (which the PS4 and PS5 OS is based on). On a side note, is it known which team within Sony that is developing the Playstation OS?

EDIT: I think its a good question though :) It would be interesting to know for sure why the patching system works like it does, if theres any advantages of doing it this way or if there are other reasons behind it.
 
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