PlayStation 4 users across the internet have reported being affected by an alleged hack that completely bricks their consoles. According to these reports and this Reddit thread surrounding the matter, this hack is occurring when people receive a message on their account. Sony has yet to officially comment on the matter, but there are safeguards you can take in the mean time to prevent one of these messages from reaching your console.
Set your messages to private
- Go to Settings.
- Select Account Management.
- Select Privacy Settings.
- Select Personal Info/Messaging.
- Select Messages.
- Choose Friends Only or, even better, No One.
- Confirm your selection.
By setting your messaging preferences to Friends Only or No One, you won't be able to receive the alleged hacked messages going around. Though some people have reported that they can delete these messages from the mobile app on iOS or Android, others have reported that this does not circumvent the problem. Your best bet it to stop it before it happens.
If you're one of the unlucky people already affected by this issue, you may need to factory reset your console.
Factory reset through Safe Mode
- Turn off your console.
- Hold down the power button for several seconds until it beeps twice.
- Select Initialize PS4 on the Safe Mode screen.
