Why are basic tasks so slow on the PS4?

[Keatah]

Did you ask your ISP if there is anything special that needs to be done for a PS4? I mean if the rest of the home network is working fine.. Then it's the PS4 eco-sphere, it's programming, some funky unusual setting somewhere, or some bit of hardware interfering, or the modem/router..

 

Like what else could it be?

[+wongojack]

It could be the cable

It could be something wrong with the PS4 hardware (NIC error)

It could be the software on the PS4

​It could be a network variation

 

 

It could be tons of things. I don't really have any concrete details about what is going on. It is helpful that others have noted they don't see any behavior like what I am reporting, but at least one person mentioned going into the store as slowing things down for a while - I think that is what is happening to me too and I originally perceived it is "everything." It seems others may not notice the issues at all if they simply turn on the PS4, play games, and turn it off again.

[Flojomojo]

I don't use my PS4 enough to know what's "normal" anymore, but my hard drive was totally full the other day and it didn't seem to slow down beforehand. I have a 2TB laptop drive in mine from around launch time.

 

Have you tried the advice others have suggested? Maybe leave it in "rest mode" for a while? Add/change the storage device?

 

Any of this?

https://helpdeskgeek.com/help-desk/troubleshooting-playstation-4/

[+wongojack]

Yes - the PS4 is always in rest mode unless the power goes out.

 

It isn't really that big of an inconvenience to me, so I'm too lazy to do something like change the storage. The storage works and is less than half full. Besides, I read in the pages of dumb jackass magazine that if the storage was the problem then I would see more widespread issues. I get my information from that magazine a lot - LOL.

[Flojomojo]

I read that magazine, too! I would try "rebuild database" from the link above. Can't hurt, might help.

[Hatta]

So don't use BASIC. Interpreted languages are always slower.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I just picked up a PS4 pro last night. And before even turning it on, the first thing I did was replace the HDD with an SSD. No complaints about it being slow on my end! Also I'm attaching mine to a 5ghz wireless at %90+ signal strength so the internet and downloads have been quite speedy. I was even impressed with how well the remote play option works on my PC! Pretty cool to be able to read online info about settings and such to set it up while also making said changes remotely. Anyway, I've only got like 3 digital games installed on it and barely played it yet, but it is for sure the fastest console I've got in the house right now.

 

I always felt the Wii U was slow on menus...etc.

[+wongojack]

I read that magazine, too! I would try "rebuild database" from the link above. Can't hurt, might help.

 

It took less than 30 mins to rebuild the database including reading the instructions and holding the buttons down waiting for beeps. It was very easy. I haven't had any 4 min waits since and in general things seem a bit faster.

 

I also read another tip to log out and log back in which I hadn't tried, so I will add that to my list of options.

[zzip]

If/when you do, be sure to select more options in shut down and actually select "turn off ps4" regular shut down is just sleep mode, and while its unlikely to actually damage anything, it will take a minute or two to do its checks and come back on...and b!tch that you didn't shut it down right

 

That's one thing on Xbox I like, you can have the settings opt to actually turn the system off when you turn it off. Unless I missed something, the ps4 requires you to manually select turn off.

The sleep mode will still download updates while sleeping. Everytime I have to wait hours to play a game on PC because it needs to update first, I appreciate that the PS4 prefers rest mode.

[+wongojack]

Years later and my PS4 still gives me random behavior where it just fails to load . . . something.  The PS Store is absolutely awful.  I usually get to look at 4 to 6 things in there before I get a message that it can't display the content or I just get to a screen with the PS symbols changing as if its loading something and nothing ever happens.  Sometimes, I can't even back out of that screen, and I am just forced to wait.  Once that happens, even the PS4 dashboard is slow.  The news feed won't load and the game history window  won't load  (the stuff below the main ribbon).  I can't even click my library once it gets to this point.  The only thing that works is for me is to log out and log back in and that seems to "fix" things.

 

As long as I stay out of the store, things seem to behave as they should.  However, I have lately experienced a problem where the machine just loses its internet connection.  Usually this happens coming out of rest mode.  All I have to do to fix it is go into the settings and uncheck/check the box for the internet connection.  I have always used my PS4 on a wired LAN connection, so this is especially mysterious.

 

This hasn't really prevented me from playing games, but it has made me much less likely to browse the store and purchase anything.  I have to admit that it makes me have a little bit less confidence in buying anything from Sony considering it is their store that seems to give me such problems.

[zzip]

3 minutes ago, wongojack said:

Years later and my PS4 still gives me random behavior where it just fails to load . . . something.  The PS Store is absolutely awful.  I usually get to look at 4 to 6 things in there before I get a message that it can't display the content or I just get to a screen with the PS symbols changing as if its loading something and nothing ever happens.  Sometimes, I can't even back out of that screen, and I am just forced to wait.  Once that happens, even the PS4 dashboard is slow.  The news feed won't load and the game history window  won't load  (the stuff below the main ribbon).  I can't even click my library once it gets to this point.  The only thing that works is for me is to log out and log back in and that seems to "fix" things.

 

As long as I stay out of the store, things seem to behave as they should.  However, I have lately experienced a problem where the machine just loses its internet connection.  Usually this happens coming out of rest mode.  All I have to do to fix it is go into the settings and uncheck/check the box for the internet connection.  I have always used my PS4 on a wired LAN connection, so this is especially mysterious.

 

This hasn't really prevented me from playing games, but it has made me much less likely to browse the store and purchase anything.  I have to admit that it makes me have a little bit less confidence in buying anything from Sony considering it is their store that seems to give me such problems.

How often do you do a hard power-off rather than the default "sleep mode"?   I believe all tech starts to experience trouble the longer it's booted and doing a hard reboot every so often helps.

 

I don't experience these kinds of issues on my PS4, and I try to do a hard power-down every week or two.  I also rebuild the database periodically, and keep the drive from filling up.

[+wongojack]

@zzip do you browse in the playstation store often?

 

 

[Ayreon]

I have to say that browsing the store and watching the trailers sometimes crashes the PS4 when pressing O quickly to get back to the overview. When being patient and wait for things to load before going a screen back it never happens. Other than that I have no problems with the menu's whatever and we hardly ever power down the PS or rebuilt the database 

[Austin]

The PS4 store is absolutely terrible for me too. It'll often times completely lock up during a loading sequence and I'll have to power cycle the system. I don't ever put my system into sleep mode and always do a hard shut down. I thought it was a Wi-Fi issue, but I have zero issues with the Switch or Xbox One at the exact same spot in my room. I've heard many complaints from PS4 users about the unresponsive store. On the other hand, I've found navigating normal system menus to be fine. It's mainly the shop I have issues with. Not sure why Sony hasn't fixed this yet as it's clearly not an isolated issue.

[zzip]

12 hours ago, wongojack said:

@zzip do you browse in the playstation store often?

I usually browse it on the web from my phone or PC

Edited July 28, 2020 by zzip

[+wongojack]

The problem definitely is with browsing the store.  @Ayreon I absolutely have seen that problem with viewing trailers.  I've gotten caught a few times not waiting and gotten stuck.  However, I see the store causing problems with more than just trailers.  Stuff like browsing a long search result or list of sale items seems to do it too.  Just click one of the items and then try to go back to the list.  I only get so much of that activity before the store slows to a crawl, and as I've mentioned, the symptoms carry over to the main menu at that point.

 

I skipped over this in my last post - Hard Power off does fix the problem once it starts, but an easier way to deal with it is to just log out and log back in.  That works great, but ya know - shouldn't be necessary.  I do normally put the PS4 into rest mode, but mostly because I expect to be playing it again soon.  Then I get caught 2 months later (or more) when the PS4 has been hard powered off by a power failure or something.

 

Are any of these things really THAT big a deal?  No they are not.  I can play my games and be happy.  However, it is surprising.  The PS4 is the very latest console that I've purchased, and I didn't expect to have to use a workaround to consistently use the store and main menu.  Besides the Xbox One, the PS3 didn't even have problems like this, so it is a big shocker to find this annoyance as part of the most popular gaming system in 2020.  After using the Xbox One first and dealing with some of its annoyances, I actually expected PS4 to be the opposite and likely clear up all the silly choices MS made to configure its environment.  Well, the menus MIGHT be better in PS4, but having to deal with these problems takes it to a whole other level of annoyance than what I've had to learn to deal with XOne.

 

I guess the way I'm using the device has really colored my opinions as others don't seem to have the same experience, but I'm not really excited about PS5.

[zzip]

Sounds like the problem is with the store then, not the PS4 itself?   I usually view trailers on youtube and make purchases via the web.   You can tell the web store to "Download now",  so if you buy a game while at work, it will already be installed by the time you get home

[+wongojack]

I do tend to use the web to get to their store, but if you look back at the start of this thread, I had a problem checking out on the website and got advice directly from their support to use the console for purchases.  At this point, I've basically just stopped looking for anything but VR digital exclusives on their store.

[+wongojack]

The latest baffling move is the decision to remove the wishlist feature from the store when browsing on the web or on mobile.  What a head scratcher!  I didn't think things could get worse, but now my primary method of browsing the PS Store is eliminating features that are on every other online store.  So weird.

[cimerians]

Can't stand the storefront. I found having a ton of data on the PS4 also slows things down quite a bit, whether it's on the hard drive or an external or whatever but their storefront has always stunk imo.