PlayStation 5 users are reporting that a bug with the download system leaves them with no choice but to factory reset their new consoles or lose access to the software they have tried to download forever.
It all centres around the download queue for software acquired from the PlayStation Store. Sometimes a piece of software fails to start downloading properly, either saying that the game has been queued for download or has suffered a download error. When users then go to check the download queue to try and fix the issue, as you would on a PS4, the software is nowhere to be seen.
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The obvious solution would be to go back to the store and start the download again, but when you try to do that the store has seemingly wiped your purchase and asks you to buy the software again. This is despite the fact that the software is listed in your library. This effectively means that your software is stuck, as you are unable to start a download for it.
IGN was the first to encounter the issue at a large scale, with three staff members running into the bug. Two had stuck downloads for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, while the third encountered the issue with Godfall. Other users have reported the issue when trying to download Demon’s Souls, Spider-Man: Remastered and even the Disney+ app, showing that this is not just limited to a few games or apps, and seems to be an issue with the PS5 system itself.
The only workaround that seems to be able to restore your access to the software is to factory reset the PS5, which of course will lose all of your settings and successfully downloaded software. As the console has only just launched this isn’t the end of the world, and thanks to cloud save you shouldn’t end up losing anything, but it is certainly annoying especially with the massive size of some games.
Sony is yet to comment on the issue, but with the number of people experiencing the download bug, you would expect some kind of response and solution to be coming as soon as possible. But until then, if you are unfortunate enough to encounter this bug then you will likely have to reset that brand new PS5.
Source: IGN
