Between physical game installs, all those digital games you pick up thanks to sweet PlayStation Store deals, and a steady stream of PlayStation Plus offerings, your PlayStation 4 library can become rather cumbersome to navigate over time. If you’re anything like us, you may browse your PS4 games list from time to time and come across a title you forgot you even owned. Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to ensure your PS4 game library remains relatively painless to navigate with the use of folders and other tricks.
Here’s how to organize your PS4 game library with custom folders, along with other tips to make navigation a breeze.
Further reading
- How to factory reset a PS4
- How to transfer your data from a PS4 to a PS4 Pro
- How to redeem a code on your PS4
Gaming the “recently played” bar
By default, your games will show up on the home screen carousel in order of when you last downloaded or played them. This standard system can get bothersome come PlayStation Plus time each month. Just because you downloaded a new game, that doesn’t mean you want to play it right away. Eventually, the games you have actually been playing slink all the way to the end of the carousel — or worse, they get bumped out of the carousel altogether.
It sounds pretty basic, but one quick way to stay on top of the games you are playing is to always keep them in the first few slots. If Destiny 2 starts to slide, but new content for it is coming soon, simply open and close the game to move it up to the front of the batch. You don’t even have to play — by simply opening the application, it will shift the game to the top of your list. You should also know that any physical disc you have in the system will always be at the top of the carousel after you boot up the system, even if it wasn’t the last game you played.
Making sense of your library
Sometimes, you want to browse your whole library of games. At the end of the home screen carousel, all the way on the right, you’ll find the Library icon. The library holds all of your PS4 games and applications, organized by category and certain other parameters. On the left side, you’ll see five (six, if you have folders) categories below the search bar.
- All: Every game and app currently installed.
- Folders: More on this in the next section, but if you’ve set up folders (which we’ll explain how to do), you’ll find that category between “All” and “Games.”
- Games: All games currently installed.
- Apps: All apps currently installed.
- Purchased: All games and applications you own, including those not installed on your hard drive.
- PlayStation Plus: These are all the free games acquired through PlayStation Plus and are playable so long as you’re an active member
Unless you’ve created a system of folders, you’ll want to view by either Games or Purchased.
Game library
By default, the games section is sorted alphabetically. Three other filtered views are available to choose from in the drop-down menu.
- Reverse alphabetical order: Why not go from Z to A?
- Recently used: Display games by use. Freshly downloaded and recently opened games rise to the top here.
- Install date: Games will be organized by the time they were installed, disregarding your recent play sessions.
The default A to Z view seems like the most universally intuitive, but if you want to check out your recent gaming habits or peruse downloaded games you may have forgotten about, the other views have their own appeal.
Purchase library
When sifting through the purchased category, you can sort alphabetically or by purchase date. The purchased section is sorted by two categories: Not installed and installed. Your installed apps will appear beneath the lengthy list of not installed apps.
Folders are your best friend
Things start to get fascinating here. The PS4 provides you the ability to make custom folders to divvy up your games using whichever categorization system works best for you if having control over your game library’s organization is important to you.
You might separate your games into categories like Currently Playing, To Play, Evergreen, and PSVR.
Making a folder is very simple:
Step 1: From the system’s main screen, press Options (+) on your PS4 controller while positioned on an application, and choose Add to Folder.
Step 2: Name the folder and click OK. Your new folder will now appear at the front of the carousel.
Editing folders
Editing a folder name or the content in a folder is streamlined. Click on Options (+) on the folder icon, then follow the below steps.
Step 1: Select Edit Folder.
Step 2: Press Select to queue up a grid of all games on your PS4. Checked boxes above icons mean a game is currently in that particular folder.
Step 3: Choose the game or games you’d like to add to the folder, and press Confirm.
Step 4: Shift the icons around to the desired order within the folder.
Step 5: Courtesy of your freshly organized PS4, you’ll spend less time hunting for games and more time playing.
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