[Answered] Does Restarting Your PS4 Delete Everything?

Part 1. Will I lose anything if I restart my PS4?

As the successor to the PlayStation 3 (PS3), PS4 has attracted many home game lovers since its first release in 2013. After continuous gameplay, your PS4 suddenly freezes, failing to save your latest game progress.

How to fix it? When it comes to solutions, many users immediately think of performing a factory reset.

However, the factory reset process will wipe your PS4. So you can restart your PS4 to address the above issue.

Does restarting your PS4 delete everything? Of course not. Let’s show how it works.

Step 1. Press the PS button on your controller and select Power.

Step 2. Select Turn off PS4 or Restart PS4 as you prefer. No need to Enter Reset Mode.

After restarting your PS4, try to play a game. If this solution fails to work for you, you’d better factory reset your PS4.

Part 2. How to factory reset my PS4 without losing data?

The factory reset is the best choice for those users who’re going to sell their PS4. That’s how we protect our data. If you only want to fix the freezing, crashing, or saving errors, you must want to keep all the existing data. 

Wondering how to factory reset my PS4 without losing data? Make a disk backup before the factory reset. 

Phase 1. Make a disk backup via AOMEI Backupper

These steps depict how to make a disk backup via AOMEI Backupper.

Step 1. Download and install AOMEI Backupper on your Windows PC. After running this tool, connect your PS4 hard drive to the computer.

Step 2. Under the Backup button, select the “Disk Backup” option.

Step 3. Click “Add Disk” to choose your connected PS4.

Step 4. Specify a saved path to save this backup and click the “Start Backup” button.

Step 5. After the backup process, click “Finish” to exit this window.

Phase 2. Factory reset your PS4 after making a disk backup  

How to factory reset my PS4? Please refer to the following steps.

Step 1. Open settings on your PS4. Locate Account Management and press Enter.

Step 2. Select Activate as Your Primary PS4 > Deactivate > Yes.

Step 3. Sign back into your PlayStation account, then open Settings > Initialization > Initialize PS4.

The second part describes how to wipe a PS4 after making backups. If you need, please refer to the above content.

Part 3. How to recover data from PS4 hard drive on Windows computers?

Restarting your PS4 or performing a factory reset indeed can help you solve the freezing and crashing issues, but these ways cannot help you recover data from PS4 hard drives.

Without backups, if you’re going to recover deleted files from portable devices like PS4, you have no choice but to seek help from professional data recovery software.

Designed for document recovery, MyRecover has established a good reputation among users because of its powerful functionalities and friendliness design.   

★Tips:

Recover the deleted/lost Word, Excel, PPT, PDF, Photos, Videos, Audio, folders, compressed files, and other 200+ types of data from HDD, USB, SD cards, etc.   

Get the original path, filename, and format for the deleted files.   

During scanning, you can search your desired files by typing their filenames in the search bar or wait to find all the deleted and other lost files on your computers after Quick Scan and Deep Scan.

Support NTFS, exFAT, FAT32, and ReFS file systems.

Download MyRecover on your Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, or Windows Server computers to recover data from PS4 hard drives.

Step 1. Connect your PS4 hard drive to the computer. Hover the mouse over the drive, and click Scan.

Step 2. Search or wait to see all the deleted and other missing files of your selected PS4 hard drive.

Step 3. Go to the Deleted Files/Other Missing Files folder, then click “Recover x files” to restore your chosen files. Please store these recovered files in a new path.

Wrapping up

Does restarting your PS4 delete everything? What happens when you restart your PS4? Please don’t be concerned because your PS4 data will not be wiped until you factory reset your PS4.

Obviously, only safety precautions can prevent you from data loss. So you’re suggested to make a disk backup before you’re going to restore factory settings.

If you haven’t cultivated the good habit of creating regular backups, but you’re eager to recover data from PS4 hard drives, you can use data recovery tools to recover files.