PS5 Queued For Copy: Why Does Copying Take So Long On PS5?

The PS5 queued for copy message seems like an anachronism. A relic of a bygone era, an older generation of consoles. And yet, somehow, despite the PS5 being the fastest, most powerful console Sony has ever produced, it still takes its sweet time when copying. But why?

That's the question we'll be grappling with today, like an octopus fighting a Moray eel. So take a deep breath, as we dive into the choppy waters of PS5 copying queries.

How To Fix The Queued For Copy Message

In certain cases, players are finding that they see a "Queued for Copy" message, but then the progress bar seems to get stuck at 0%. This seems to happen most commonly when players are trying to copy games from an external hard drive to the PS5 internal SSD. It has also been known to happen when installing a game from a disk.

But in good news, it's a relatively simple problem to overcome, should you find yourself in this position. Here's what you need to do.

• Start by simply waiting. In many cases, giving it a few minutes will be all you need to do.
• Disconnect from the internet, then restart the console.
• If you've kept your console on Rest Mode for an extended period, doing a full system restart may be a good idea.

Generally, this is a glitch that is pretty straightforward to resolve. But why is copying still a thing? And why does it take so darned long?

• Read More: How To Share Games From PS4 To PS5

Why Does Copying Take So Long On PS5?

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Let's start with a quick history lesson. Anyone with a PS4 will be familiar with the PS5 queued for copy message. For those gamers, downloading a patch or an update might take seconds, but then. But then. Once it is downloaded, it enters the "copying" phase. And this can take much, much longer.

But why? Well, the PS4 had a specific mechanic whereby it would copy the whole game while adding the new data. This was designed to minimise the risks of file corruption. But the upshot is that the larger the game, the longer everything will take to be copied. And essentially, the same mechanism seems to have been applied to the PS5.

The PS5 has a much faster SSD drive than the PS4, so in theory, at least, copying should be much faster than it was on the PS4. But anecdotally, people are not finding that to be the case. So is there anything you can do to speed things up?

At the time of writing, no, not really. Potentially, you can check to see if the PS5 is busy dealing with another download or installation. If it is, you can try stopping that, to essentially shorten the queue. But don't expect this to have a transformative effect.

PS4 users did sometimes find that copying would happen more quickly when their console was in Rest Mode. So you may want to give this a try, to see if it speeds things up for you on PS5.

• Read More: PS5: Can I delete PS4 version of games after PS5 upgrade?

Realistically, you just need to be patient. And hope that at some stage in the future, Sony make an update available that addresses this issue. But given that this has been around since at least the days of PS4, we wouldn't hold out too much hope.