You're dozens of hours into a super-long video game when the power goes out. When you reboot your console and try to load up your save, you find that the power outage corrupted your save data, resetting hours of progress to zero in an instant.
If this has ever happened to you, you know how devastating it feels. It's crazy how hours of time add up to just a few megabytes on your system's internal storage, and how quickly it can disappear.
Don't let this happen to you again. We'll show you how to back up your game saves so that you never lose progress again, no matter what gaming system you play on.
Note: Your progress in online games, such as Overwatch or Destiny 2, is tied to your user account and kept on the game's servers. Thus, you don't have to do anything to back those up.
How to Back Up Your Saves on All Systems
All modern systems have some form of built-in functionality to back up your saves. Here's how to set them up.
How to Back Up Save Data on PlayStation 4
You have two options for backing up on the PS4.
The more convenient one is backing up to your PlayStation Plus cloud account. One of the benefits of being a Plus member (which costs $60/year) is 100GB of cloud storage for backing up all your saves. This happens automatically, so you don't have to remember to run any backups.
To enable it, head to Settings > Application Saved Data Management > Auto-Upload. Check Enable Automatic Uploads to upload saved data for all games to your cloud storage; you can uncheck any games you don't want to automatically upload. The system will back up save data when your system is on or in rest mode.
For uploads to work in rest mode, you must give your system permission to perform internet functions in this mode. Go to Settings > Power Save Settings > Set Features Available in Rest Mode and enable Stay Connected to the Internet.
To upload a specific game save, press the Options button while you have it highlighted on the main menu. Choose Upload/Download Saved Data to compare your local and cloud saves, uploading or downloading if needed.
If you don't have PS Plus or want to back up locally instead, browse to Settings > System > Back Up and Restore > Back Up PS4 to back up to a USB flash drive or external hard drive.
This won't sync your hard-earned Trophies, so visit the Trophies entry on the main menu, press Options, and select Sync with PlayStation Network to keep those current.
