How to Free Up Storage Space on Your PlayStation 5: A Personal Account of Mistakes to Avoid
Don’t Repeat My Mistake: Freeing Up Space on Your PlayStation 5
Published 18:30 7 Sep 2025 GMT+1
If you’re a proud owner of a PlayStation 5, you know how quickly storage space can vanish—especially with the growing size of modern games. It’s not just about uninstalling the titles you’ve finished or are taking a break from. There are smarter ways to reclaim that precious gigabyte or two!
Recently, I found myself in a storage bind, juggling heavyweights like God Of War: Ragnarok, Death Stranding, and Atomfall. As I stared at the nearly full screen, frustration mounted. Surely there had to be more efficient ways to clear up space beyond simply axing some of the smaller indie gems like Hollow Knight: Silksong.
Discovering a Goldmine of Space
In my quest for space, I stumbled upon a surprising solution: my accumulated game captures and screenshots. After a painstaking and somewhat nostalgic journey through my captures from the past year, I realized I had unknowingly hoarded an astonishing 200GB of storage. Yes, you read that right!
It turned out that many of my captures came from the now-disabled Automatic Captures feature—which takes a screenshot or video every time you earn a trophy. While it initially seemed like a fun way to commemorate achievements, it ended up being a stealthy thief of precious storage space.
Tips to Reclaim Your Storage
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Disable Automatic Captures: If you haven’t done so, turn off automatic captures. It’s unlikely you’ll need a video clip of every trophy you earn. To do this, navigate to your settings and toggle the feature off.
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Clean Up Your Captures: Go back through your library of captures. You’ll likely find duplicates, outtakes, or just clips that no longer hold significance. Don’t be afraid to delete the ones that don’t matter to you anymore.
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Backup to the Cloud or an External Drive: For those clips you want to hold onto, consider transferring them to the PlayStation app for cloud storage or an external hard drive. This way, you won’t lose your favorite moments but can still clear up space on your console.
Why This Matters
With the increasing size of new titles, managing your storage effectively is crucial. Games can easily exceed 100GB, making it vital to stay on top of your available space. You might find you have far more room than you thought, simply by managing your captures effectively.
So, before you resort to deleting entire games to make room, take a moment to assess your captures and clear out what you don’t need. It’s a simple yet effective way to ensure your PlayStation 5 remains a thriving gaming hub.
In Conclusion
Learning from my experience, I hope you won’t make the same mistake. Spend a little time cleaning up your captures and you might just save yourself the headache of storage woes down the line. Happy gaming!
Topics: PlayStation, PlayStation 5, Sony