Some PS5 consoles have serious problems — what you need to know

PS5
(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Every piece of new technology has some teething problems when it first launches, including games consoles. The PS5, which launched earlier this week, is no exception. And people are discovering some problems already.

Specifically a small number of PS5 consoles appear to be suffering from software corruption issues when you try and load a PS4 game from an external hard drive.

For the most part the PS5 is doing just fine, but a common error people are experiencing is the 'Rebuild Database' bug that sometimes occurs when the user tries to boot a PS4 game from external storage. Apparently a console affected by the bug will power down, and upon reboot declare that: “The database is corrupted, it will now rebuild." 

PushSquare noted that following the on-screen prompts sorted out the issue. But obviously it’s not the kind of thing you want to see after all the difficulties people have gone through to get hold of a PS5.

Other users have reportedly dealt with similar issues when putting their PS5 into rest mode while playing Spider-Man Remastered, and while performing data transfers from their PS4s. 

Since there’s a lot riding on this launch being a success, there’s no doubt Sony (and Spider-Man developer Insomniac) is aware of the issue and working on a fix as we speak. Hopefully it’ll be ready soon, ideally in time for the European launch of the console on November 19.

The Xbox Series X also has no shortage of problems after its recent launch, including early issues logging into Xbox Live, the inability to remotely play games from your PC, and a plethora of issues with the disc drive; these include strange whirring and clicking sounds, and some that won’t accept discs at all. There have also been reports of the console emitting smoke during use, though these have largely been debunked as a hoax.

If the PS5 does pop up a database-related error message, remember not to panic. Just follow the on-screen prompts and let the system sort itself out. If it keeps happening, then maybe avoid doing whatever it is that caused the problem until Sony can roll out a fix.

Tom Pritchard
UK Phones Editor

Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.