What’s up with the PS4 copying the update slowly after installing? It defies conventional wisdom (a 500 MB update might take 15-20 minutes to copy over), and can lead to some pretty frustrating wait times. You might just well be praying for a PS4 slow copying update fix, such is your anger and tendency to twiddle your thumbs. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as that, but we can at least explain why the PS4 copying update notification takes a lot longer than you might be expecting.
Why is my PS4 slow at copying updates?
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why, and it’s never been officially revealed by Sony, but it appears that, when updates copy on PS4, it’s simply that the whole game is being transferred back over. Of course, with the game install having been already downloaded to your console (or external) hard drive, it won’t take hours to copy over and apply the update, but it at least explains why games, especially larger ones, have a problem with PS4 slow copying.
Is there a PS4 slow copying update fix?
Anecdotally, it seems that downloading games and copying updates to your PS4 while the location is set at an external hard drive makes the whole process that much quicker, especially when compared to the vanilla PS4. That’s something you should absolutely take into consideration.
If you like, you can also put your PS4 into rest mode when downloading updates by holding down the PlayStation button on your console and hovering over the Power section. This should marginally make the slow copying of updates easier to bear, with updates having already been downloaded ahead of time.
Finally, while this is less of a fix, you should help prepare for PS4 slow copying times by taking into account that larger games will take longer to copy updates, no matter how big the update download size is. So, when it appears that an update might be stuck, it’s merely just chugging its way through the steps needed to copy the update back over for the likes of games with near-100 GB sizes such as Destiny 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, and more.
