Solved: USB Storage Device File System Is Not Be Supported by PS4

▶ My USB storage device file system is not supported by PS4 ▶ The two file systems supported by PS4 ▶ 2 ways to solve “file system is not supported by PS4” ▶ Conclusion

My USB storage device file system is not supported by PS4

“I have got a 2TB USB external Seagate hard drive, formatted with NTFS, and I want to employ it to backup my PS4. However, when I plugged in the USB hard drive to my PS4, I was prompted by the message that “The USB storage device cannot be used. The file system is not supported.” Since the current file system of my USB drive is not supported by PS4, what file system should the USB hard drive apply? How to make the USB hard drive format compatible with PS4? Is there any suggestion?”

The two file systems supported by PS4

PS4, the short name for Playstation 4, also the successor to PS3, is a kind of home video game console released by SONY Interactive Entertainment. It is unable to support NTFS but to support FAT32 and exFAT file system.

• FAT32, an old file system, is first introduced in 1998. It is widely used on USB flash drives as this file system is compatible with various devices, including PS4 and PS3. Nevertheless, it is with significant defect – file size limit. It can’t store individual files whose size is beyond 4GB.

• exFAT, the file system optimized for flash drives, was first released in 2006. It makes up for the limitation of FAT32 in file size. It breaks the limitation of file system and allows you to save individual files beyond 4GB.

Although both FAT32 and exFAT are suitable for the USB storage device for PS4, exFAT is the better choice for PS4 as FAT32 is with file size limitation and there might be individual files over 4GB in PS4.

2 ways to solve “file system is not supported by PS4”

From what described above, we can realize that if you want to solve this "USB storage device file system is unsupported by PS4” problem, you need to change the file system of your USB drive from NTFS to FAT32 or exFAT. And you will get step-by-step instruction on how to format USB storage device for PS4 in the following part.

When you only need to transfer certain video inv smaller than 4GB, FAT32 is not a bad choice. You can use AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard to convert NTFS into FAT32 without losing data. When you need to save an individual file beyond 4GB on the USB for PS4, FAT32 is not a suitable file system and you can format it as exFAT. Free download it and see how it works.

Way 1. Convert USB from NTFS to FAT32 [without data loss]

Step 1. Connect the PS4 USB drive to your computer running Windows and make sure that it can be detected by your OS.

Step 2. Install and run it.  On the top pane, choose “Convert” > “Convert to NTFS/FAT32” in turn.

Step 3. In the pop-up window, choose NTFS to FAT32 and click “Next”.

Step 4. Choose the USB drive partition that you plan to convert. Then click on “Next” icon.

Step 5. Review the operation and click "Proceed" to execute the operation.

After a while, the conversion from NTFS to FAT32 will be completed.

PS: You can use AOMEI Partition Assistant to format the USB drive to FAT32 if you don’t want to keep the data on the USB storage device.

Way 2. Format USB external drive to exFAT [with data loss]

Step 1. Attach the USB drive to a working computer and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. Right-click the partition and choose "Format Partition".

Step 3. Choose exFAT among the listed file systems and click “OK”.

Step 4. Here you can preview the operation. Confirm it and click “Apply” to execute the pending operations.

PS: Format will erase all data on the USB drive, thus it’s necessary to backup your important information to safe places like cloud storage before formatting USB.

Well, it is available to format USB external drive to exFAT via Diskpart utility as well. Then you can know how to format a USB storage device like USB hard drive in the next part.

1. Run Command Prompt as administrator (Press “Windows + R” keys simultaneously, input “cmd” and hit “Enter”).

2. Input “format h: /fs:exfat” (where “h” is the drive letter of your USB partition). Then hit “Enter”. If it asks you for confirmation, input “Y”. And then you can add volume label to the partition if you want.

After formatting, type exit to close this window.

PS: The process of Command Prompt formatting can be long if your USB drive is with large capacity, thus you need to keep patient.

Conclusion

Obviously, you can settle the issue that the USB storage device file system is not supported by PS4 effortlessly under the help of AOMEI Partition Assistant. In fact, this great disk management tool enjoys more helpful functions like disk clone and OS migration. It is able to assistant you to manage disk more conveniently.