We’ve asked Sony about why this is the case on PS5, and we’ll update this article with any information we receive. That leaves players out of luck if their internet goes down, whereas they’d be able to restore save files from local storage if they could back them up to it. Aside from the fact that PS5 save backup is locked behind the PlayStation Plus paywall, cloud saves require network connections to access. While cloud storage is certainly nice, and likely to be the way that the majority of PS5 users back up their save data, a few things make it inconvenient. Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment via Polygon If you click “Console Storage” on this page, you’ll get to a screen that offers just two options: “Upload to Cloud Storage” and “Delete.” The former has a PlayStation Plus logo next to it - which means it’s restricted to subscribers. Hey, where’d the “USB Drive” option go? Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment via Polygon

Instead, the only things to do with PS5 save files are to manually copy them from the console’s internal storage to Sony’s cloud storage, or to delete them. However, the “Saved Data (PS5)” menu lacks the “USB Drive” option. Note the “USB Drive” option for PS4 save files. The other option is to change the way that the PS5 handles the automatic upload of PS4 save data to cloud storage.

In the “Saved Data and Game/App Settings” page of the menu, there’s a section labeled “Saved Data (PS4).” There, players can choose to copy PS4 save files to a USB drive or Sony’s cloud storage, or delete those files from the console. The PS4/PS5 difference becomes clear in the PS5’s system settings.

Without that option, PS5 owners are at risk of losing their save files if some catastrophe befalls them - like their console getting stolen in a robbery, or destroyed in a flood, or bricked by a firmware update - unless they pay for an active PlayStation Plus subscription. This is different from how it works on PlayStation 4, which allows users to back up save data to a USB drive as well as cloud storage. Instead, the console’s only option for moving save files from one PS5 to another, or backing up save data, is to use Sony’s cloud storage - which is available exclusively to PlayStation Plus subscribers. At the moment, the PlayStation 5 doesn’t support copying save data onto external storage devices.

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