Getting PS4 to Recognize External Hard Drive?

[Cokeyskunk]

Hey guys, seeking help from those more technically inclined than myself. (Yes, that's probably you.)

I have a 3TB external hard drive I reeeealllly want to connect to my PS4. I've watched the videos online of how to do it, but every time I try to format the drive with the PS4, it says "Connection timed out." or something like that.

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Would like to have this up and running before I get a copy of the game.

Thanks in advance.
-Skunk

[Truth]

7 minutes ago, Cokeyskunk said:

but every time I try to format the drive with the PS4

Format it with your computer

Edit: Just realized that made it sound like I knew what I was talking about. To clarify, this was just an idea.

Edited October 19, 2018 by Truth

[Freddie Mercury]

Here's an article found. Hope this helps Skunk.

http://www.qualitybyte.com/ps4-external-hard-drive-not-recognized-the-solution/

[Cokeyskunk]

1 minute ago, Freddie Mercury said:

Here's an article found. Hope this helps Skunk.

http://www.qualitybyte.com/ps4-external-hard-drive-not-recognized-the-solution/

Yeah, I've done all those things.

• It's USB 3.0
• It's in proper working order
• I believe it's formatted in FAT.
• PS4 OS is up to date.

Hence my frustrations.  😣

[Freddie Mercury]

2 minutes ago, Cokeyskunk said:

 

• I believe it's formatted in FAT.

Double check it just to make sure. Other then that.... I have no clue.

Edited October 19, 2018 by Freddie Mercury

[Cokeyskunk]

51 minutes ago, Freddie Mercury said:

Double check it just to make sure. Other then that.... I have no clue.

Yeah, that's my next task. Then, PRAY.

[BropolloCreed79]

21 minutes ago, Cokeyskunk said:

Yeah, that's my next task. Then, PRAY.

I'm actually heading out this weekend to pick up an internal SSD to do a swap.  Probably 1 TB.  The PITA will be dropping everything onto an external first as a backup before swapping out the drives.  I figure 1 TB will give me plenty of space since I don't download movies and I only play about 2-3 games at a time.  

But on a 500GB drive?  100+GBs of data is too much of the space.  Plus, it's the original HD, so I know that'll go sooner as opposed to later.

[DylBandit]

@Cokeyskunk

Sometimes it's not your PS4, it's actually your external hard drive itself, some companies make them really shitty. I know a friend who has one, and his stopped working for some odd reason. 

First I would check to see if the external hard drive is working on another system, then I would probably check if its encrypted by 3rd party which will keep the PS4 from recognizing it. 

Also, make sure the drive is not partitioned, the PS4 will not recognize the hard drive if it has multiple storage partitions, and make sure you have formatted it to FAT. 

If those steps don't work for some odd reason, then I'm afraid to say that maybe that external hard drive is somehow not supported. 

Edited October 19, 2018 by DylBandit