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For some games, save file transfer from PS4 version to PS5 version requires you to upload your save from within the PS4 version.

Hail to Starscream

Hail to Starscream

Member
Oct 27, 2017
420







I suspected that the reason why some games don't have save file transfer on PS5 is
that devs need to implement their own save file import/export solution. This seems to confirm that.

This also means if you have already sold your PS4 (like I did) and want to use your PS4 save with the PS5 version of No Mans Sky you have to download the PS4 version onto your PS5, upload your save from within that version and then download the PS5 version and import the save.

PS4 to PS5 transition continues to be a mess.


EDIT:

DONT PANIC

if you already sold your PS4. You should be able to download the PS4 version of any game to your PS5, then upload your save, then download the PS5 version and import your save.


EDIT 2:

For clarification: This is only in regards to PS5 upgrades/versions of PS4 games. Regular PS4 games can read the saves just like they used to, can be downloaded from PSN cloud, no extra steps needed.


If people have suggestions on wording/formatting of my post feel free to suggest it. English is not my native language and this is my first Era thread.


EDIT 3: more tweets
 
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Ashhong

Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,654
Isn't this what Insomniac is doing for Spider-Man? Their release says they will be adding an export option.
 
udllpn

udllpn

Member
Oct 28, 2017
152
This might be the case of cross-gen gen exclusively, so this needs to be confirmed or clarified.
 
Dphex

Dphex

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,811
Cologne, Germany
So, no Spider-Man save transfer for me, i´ve already sold my PS4 copy.

Sony really fucked this up, they should have communicated earlier how this works and the sudden turnaround for Spider-Man was also nonsense, they could have announced this in september already instead of going "no, you have to start from the beginning in the remastered version because there is no cross save"

i won´t buy an used copy of Spider-Man PS4 just to export my save file, this is ridiculous.
 
Hagi

Hagi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,950
That's how Valhalla seems to do it so I'd expect it from any Ubisoft games at least.
 
jaffaro

jaffaro

Banned
Mar 16, 2018
197
Oh great. I made a back up of my saves on USB drive and sold my PS4. So now they're useless anyway?
 
NewDust

NewDust

Visited by Knack
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Oct 25, 2017
6,605
Ashhong said:
I think the PS4 games are being patched to include an export save option or something. But what if you sold your PS4 ?
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Download/install PS4 version, download cloud save on PS5, or USB, launch PS4 game, upload save in game, delete PS4 version, download PS5 version, download save within game.

If you sold your PS4 copy, you'll have to lend it from someone or something.
 

Rafroel

Member
Oct 28, 2017
185
I can confirm that PS4 saves that were saved on a USB HDD can't be transferred over to PS5.

Source: me just now realising all my PS4 saves are lost/useless because I sold it months ago :(

EDIT: Nope, I'm wrong. I just didn't save my data properly :(
 
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Izanagi89

Izanagi89

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,632
Yeah, I've done this with PS3, Vita and PS4 games like FFX and Trails of Cold Steel. Seems like a separate export import functionality is needed to do this yeah. They should've hired Hideo Kojima to get some Transfarring up in this bitch lol
 

Dis

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,960
This was known right? At least we talked on here about it before, it's how ps3 to vita to ps4 worked, most games that had that option had a set slot in the save files that would be your "cloud" save loud to use for uploading or downloading. This is why people were told that not all games supported it because the devs didn't want to put the support in their games. As others have said this is probably to get around forcing the need for ps+ on people who don't have it, like me, or for people who get ps+ from family or friends accounts and can't upload their saves. If you plan on trading in a ps4 for ps5 in future make sure your saves are uploaded in any game that supports it before doing so.
 
OP
OP
Hail to Starscream

Hail to Starscream

Member
Oct 27, 2017
420
Rafroel said:
I can confirm that PS4 saves that were saved on a USB HDD can't be transferred over to PS5.

Source: me just now realising all my PS4 saves are lost/useless because I sold it months ago :(
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You should be able to download the PS4 version of a game to your PS5, then upload the save within the game, then download the PS5 version of the game and import the save.
 

Rafroel

Member
Oct 28, 2017
185
Richter1887 said:
What do you mean by this? They said you can use them on PS5 using USB.
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They did! That's why I sold my PS4 after backing everything up to a hard drive. Today, while setting up, I tried transferring over save data from USB (the option DOES show up), but I kept getting a message saying "no save data found in USB."
The data is there, for some reason the PS5 can't read it...
 

Ashhong

Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,654
Hail to Starscream said:
No, you can download the PS4 version to your PS5, then upload your save, then download the PS5 version. I updated my post.
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The option to download the PS4 version is available on the PS5 store?
But what if you sold the physical disk? Damn that sucks. This export/import needs to be just baked into the PS5 version, not the PS4.
 
NewDust

NewDust

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Oct 25, 2017
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Rafroel said:
They did! That's why I sold my PS4 after backing everything up to a hard drive. Today, while setting up, I tried transferring over save data from USB (the option DOES show up), but I kept getting a message saying "no save data found in USB."
The data is there, for some reason the PS5 can't read it...
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Did you only copy save games or make a full system back-up?
 

Deleted member 16876

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
39,148
Rafroel said:
They did! That's why I sold my PS4 after backing everything up to a hard drive. Today, while setting up, I tried transferring over save data from USB (the option DOES show up), but I kept getting a message saying "no save data found in USB."
The data is there, for some reason the PS5 can't read it...
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Hmm

In that case I would be sure to leave them on the HDD for now. It is probably something stupid like renaming a folder and putting the saves there.
 
Cels

Cels

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,785
seems like a pain in the ass. why can't they use the PS+ cloud for people who have it?
 
OP
OP
Hail to Starscream

Hail to Starscream

Member
Oct 27, 2017
420
Ashhong said:
The option to download the PS4 version is available on the PS5 store?
But what if you sold the physical disk? Damn that sucks. This export/import needs to be just baked into the PS5 version, not the PS4.
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Yes you can always download the PS4 version of a game, no matter if you have the upgrade or not. It is listed seperately in your library.

You always need the physcial PS4 disc in order the play the PS5 upgrade, if you chose to upgrade from a physical disc version of a game.
 
Fliesen

Fliesen

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,256
Another one of those "I'm quite sure it won't matter to me" issues where i completely realize that it'll be a huge pain in the ass for people whom it matters to.

Like, i don't think there's any PS4 game that has save games i care about. If i ever go back to certain single player games, i'm just gonna replay the story, because that's the fun part after tall. But for anyone who really got into - like - No Man's Sky, or Minecraft or whatever - that kinda sucks.
 

Ashhong

Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,654
Hail to Starscream said:
Yes you can always download the PS4 version of a game, no matter if you have the upgrade or not. It is listed seperately in your library.

You always need the physcial PS4 disc in order the play the PS5 upgrade, if you chose to upgrade from a physical disc version of a game.
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Touché! Didn't think of that. So anybody complaining actually has no basis for it, considering this was known.
 

Ashhong

Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,654
Cels said:
seems like a pain in the ass. why can't they use the PS+ cloud for people who have it?
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Doesn't matter if the save file is in the PS4, the cloud, or Jim Ryan's ass. Seems some are simply incompatible with PS5 and need to be converted by the original game.

woops double post. Embarrassing.
 
OP
OP
Hail to Starscream

Hail to Starscream

Member
Oct 27, 2017
420
Ashhong said:
Touché! Didn't think of that. So anybody complaining actually has no basis for it, considering this was known.
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I think it still is insane that you have to download/install a game twice in order to get your save transferred if you already uninstalled it from your PS4 or sold your PS4. Especially considering the limited SSD size.
 
Eeyore

Eeyore

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Ashhong said:
Doesn't matter if the save file is in the PS4, the cloud, or Jim Ryan's ass. Seems some are simply incompatible with PS5 and need to be converted by the original game.
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What I gather from your post is, the PS5 version wouldn't have access to the decryption layer to make sense of these PS4 save files. Is that what you mean? It just seems like a real mess.

Hail to Starscream said:
I think it still is insane that you have to download/install a game twice in order to get your save transferred if you already uninstalled it from your PS4 or sold your PS4. Especially considering the limited SSD size.
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Certainly it seems poorly designed if we're being charitable. Another issue is how bad the communication is on this. I'm not sure before Jeff talked about it that this was known?
 
Cels

Cels

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Oct 26, 2017
6,785
it really just sucks from a user perspective that they have this cumbersome system. just look at the way play anywhere titles work across PC/xbox. it should work like that.
 
Eeyore

Eeyore

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Cels said:
it really just sucks from a user perspective that they have this cumbersome system. just look at the way play anywhere titles work across PC/xbox. it should work like that.
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I'm actually curious how this works with non Smart Delivery XB1/Xbox Series games.
 
TooFriendly

TooFriendly

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Oct 30, 2017
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But you can also just download the saves from the cloud right?

I tried downloading all my saves, but it was taking too long to calculate the download time so I cancelled it and just downloaded the save file for SFV.
 
Eeyore

Eeyore

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TooFriendly said:
But you can also just download the saves from the cloud right?

I tried downloading all my saves, but it was taking too long to calculate the download time so I cancelled it and just downloaded the save file for SFV.
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For certain games I'm sure you won't have an issue. For the games mentioned here, it seems that it doesn't use the PS+ cloud version as it needs to be converted.
 
Eeyore

Eeyore

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^ Right but we're gonna see more and more PS4 to PS5 native conversions I'd say.
 
SixelAlexiS

SixelAlexiS

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Oct 27, 2017
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Rafroel said:
I don't remember... which is the bad option?
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Oh my, you should have just copied the saves as regular files, I suspect you made a backup that can be read only by another PS4 notlikethis.jpeg

Do as someone else told you and see if the PC read the HDD and tell us the folder format, if you can't read the HDD then your only option is to have access to another PS4 that is basically new, not even one of a friend since (correct me if I'm wrong ppl) the backup can't be added to existing data but need a fresh PS4/previous data will be wiped out.

IF this is the case, I think your best option is to buy a PS4 on Amazon, do the trick and ask a refund.
 

Ashhong

Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,654
Hail to Starscream said:
I think it still is insane that you have to download/install a game twice in order to get your save transferred if you already uninstalled it from your PS4 or sold your PS4. Especially considering the limited SSD size.
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I agree with you. Sony has a long way to go with setting up cross gen. But at least it's a one time thing and at least it's possible.
 
NewDust

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Rafroel said:
Yeah, I fucked up haha
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Looks like you'll have to find someone crazy enough to let you restore your data on their PS4 (and overwrite their data in the process)... That's most likely the only way to get to your saves now. Or do as SixelAlesiS suggests, buy and return a (second hand) PS4.

TooFriendly said:
But you can also just download the saves from the cloud right?

I tried downloading all my saves, but it was taking too long to calculate the download time so I cancelled it and just downloaded the save file for SFV.
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Eeyore said:
For certain games I'm sure you won't have an issue. For the games mentioned here, it seems that it doesn't use the PS+ cloud version as it needs to be converted.
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PS4 saves for PS4 games only. PS4 saves are wholly incompatible with PS5 software, most likely due to all the extra system level hooks (activity cards, trophy progress). So any game that offers save transfer would have to either be uploaded from within the game or already keep track of data server side (think multiplayer-only games)
 
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Rafroel

Member
Oct 28, 2017
185
NewDust said:
System back-up... If you connect it to PC, does it show the folders 'PS4->SAVE DATA'?
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SixelAlexiS said:
Oh my, you should have just copied the saves as regular files, I suspect you made a backup that can be read only by another PS4 notlikethis.jpeg

Do as someone else told you and see if the PC read the HDD and tell us the folder format, if you can't read the HDD then your only option is to have access to another PS4 that is basically new, not even one of a friend since (correct me if I'm wrong ppl) the backup can't be added to existing data but need a fresh PS4/previous data will be wiped out.

IF this is the case, I think your best option is to buy a PS4 on Amazon, do the trick and ask a refund.
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So I definitely made a full backup and lost my saves. Not too fussed, only one that hurts is Bloodborne... I'll just have to replay it.
Thanks for the help, though!
 
toastyToast

toastyToast

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Oct 26, 2017
3,337
I was under the impression I could just pull all my saves from the cloud

This is gonna suck since I'll be trading my Pro when I get the PS5. Won't ever have both on hand.
 
DodgeAnon

DodgeAnon

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Oct 25, 2017
805
Can you put your saves into the cloud if you don't have PS+?

I have PS+ on my main account, however my brother who plays on the same PS4 (on his own account) doesn't, won't he be able to upload his saves?
 
iamsirjoshua

iamsirjoshua

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Oct 28, 2017
1,026
Can someone with more technical know-how explain why this isn't an issue on the Xbox OS? This is absolutely not meant to compare one platform unfavorably against another (they all have their quirks, we can all appreciate that), I'm just genuinely curious as to what's different about the implementation.

I've been trying to upload my Borderlands 3 save from within the game since they added the option in the latest patch 2 days ago and have been getting a "save upload failed" message every single time. Hoping that gets fixed soon.
 
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