Video game save data is important to protect because it represents a lot of time spent. You don’t want to lose your progress in a game you’ve almost completed, or an old favorite where you have everything unlocked.

Here’s a guide to backing up the data on your PS5 so you don’t lose everything in case of hardware failure or accidental deletion.

How to Back Up Everything on Your PS5

If you want to back up the entire contents of your PlayStation 5 at once, you should use the built-in backup utility. This allows you to back up all the important data on your console to a USB drive, but there are a few points to consider first.

To minimize the size of your backup, it’s a good idea to manage your PS5’s storage first. Uninstalling any games you don’t play anymore and deleting old captures will reduce the time the backup takes. Visit Settings > Storage to see how much space is in use on your console. Note that the Other category isn’t all included in the backup, since that includes system software files and other data you don’t need to protect.

PS5 Storage Tab

If you have an M.2 SSD in your PS5, its contents aren’t included in the backup. Make sure to move anything you want to back up to the internal storage first (following the guide linked above).

Trophies are the only type of data not backed up with this utility. The trophies you’ve earned will regularly sync with your PlayStation Network account, which backs them up. To run this sync manually, select your profile icon from the top-right corner of the PS5’s home screen and choose Trophies. On the resulting menu, hit Options on your controller and choose Sync with PlayStation Network.

PS5 Sync Trophies

Running the Backup Process

When you’re ready to back up, connect an external hard drive to your PS5, making sure it has enough space to hold everything on your system. Head to Settings > System > System Software > Back Up and Restore > Back Up Your PS5. Here, select the type of data you want to back up. You can choose from the following:

  • Games and apps (select the Pencil icon if you want to back up only certain games)
  • Saved data for games
  • Screenshots and video clips you’ve taken
  • Console settings

This choice depends on your needs. If you have a fast internet connection and don’t mind redownloading digital games, you might choose to back up just your save data. Saved data and captures are irreplaceable; games and settings are less precious.

PS5 Backup Menu

Once you’ve selected the information to back up, you’ll see the size of the backup file. Enter a description if you want to remember anything about the backup, then hit Back Up. During this process, your console will restart a few times. You’ll see Backup complete when it’s all done.

You can disconnect the USB drive now and keep it somewhere safe until you need it.

Restoring Your PS5 Backup

If you need to factory reset your PS5 to troubleshoot an issue (such as the blinking blue light error) or your data is corrupted for another reason, you can restore the backup you made.

Be aware that restoring the data on your PS5 will erase all data currently on the console. If you have any new data on your PS5 that hasn’t been backed up yet, follow one of the below methods to back it up elsewhere before proceeding.

To start the restore, reconnect the same USB drive to your system, then head back to Settings > System > System Software > Back Up and Restore. Pick Restore Your PS5 this time.

Restore PS5

Next, select the data you want to restore from the backup. You don’t have to choose everything, but since the process wipes all data on your console, it’s usually best to restore it all. Like the backup, your console will restart a few times as it restores data. Once it’s done, you’ll see the home screen and are ready to go.

When you use the restore process, your PS5 automatically turns off the Console Sharing and Offline Play setting. This is used for gamesharing on PS5, so if you utilize this functionality, be sure to turn it back on after the restore completes.

How to Back Up PS5 Saves to the Cloud

While having a full backup of your PS5 is great, it’s overkill if you only want to back up a few game saves. One of the benefits of being a PlayStation Plus subscriber is the ability to back up all your saves to cloud storage. The service provides 100GB of space for PS5 saves and another 100GB of space for PS4 saves.

Your PS5 does this automatically, but it’s worth checking to make sure everything is working as you expect. Plus, you can run a manual backup when desired.

To make sure your PS5 saves back up automatically, you need to have a few options enabled. Check the following:

  • Visit Settings > System > Power Saving > Features Available in Rest Mode and enable Stay Connected to the Internet so your PS5 can upload save data while it’s in sleep mode.
  • Head to Settings > Saved Data and Game/App Settings. To protect PS5 saves, choose Saved Data (PS5) followed by Sync Saved Data > Auto-Sync Saved Data > Enable Auto-Sync. Then select Saved Data (PS4) > Auto-Upload > Enable Auto-Upload to protect PS4 game saves.
PS5 Stay Connected Internet

You can check if a PS5 game’s save data has been updated in the cloud at Settings > Saved Data and Game/App Settings > Saved Data (PS5) > Sync Saved Data > View Sync Status. To check this quickly for one title, press the Options button on your controller with the game in focus on the home screen, then hit Check Sync Status of Saved Data to make sure your latest progress has synced.

PS5 Sync Status Cloud

When you want to manually update the copy of the save data in cloud storage, go back to Settings > Saved Data and Game/App Settings and pick Saved Data (PS5) or Saved Data (PS4). For either one, choose Console Storage, then pick one or more games followed by Upload to Cloud Storage. To restore a cloud save to your system later, perform the same process, but select Cloud Storage followed by Download to Console Storage.

PS5 Manual Cloud Backup

Unfortunately, the PS5 does not let you back up individual PS5 save data to a USB drive. This is likely a move by Sony to encourage PlayStation Plus subscriptions. You can move save data for PS4 games to a USB drive under Settings > Saved Data and Game/App Settings > Saved Data (PS4) > Console Storage, checking whatever games you’d like to copy, and choosing Copy to USB Drive.

PS5 Copy PS4 Data to USB

Your only option for copying PS5 save data to a USB device is using the above backup process to back up all save files.

How to Back Up Your PS5 Captures

If you want to back up saved screenshots and video clips outside of the full backup process above, the PS5 allows you to upload your captures to cloud storage for accessing on your smartphone via the PS app. You can also upload them to YouTube or Twitter, which makes it easy to access and back up your favorite captures elsewhere.

See how to share PS5 captured media for help with this.

Protect Everything on Your PS5

With some planning, it’s not difficult to back up all the important data on your PlayStation 5. It’s heartbreaking to lose save data after dozens of hours playing lengthy games like Elden Ring or Persona 5 Royal, so setting up a backup ahead of time is vital. With occasional full backups supplemented by cloud backups, you shouldn’t lose any significant progress.

If you game on other systems, be sure you’re backing up your saves there, too!