PS5 Cache 2026: Clear via Option 6 in 12 Steps, 10 Min

There is a specific flavour of PlayStation 5 rot that no ordinary reboot touches. Games that used to load in nine seconds now take forty. The store spins on a blank white panel. A patch downloads, installs, then decides it needs to download again. Library tiles render as grey rectangles, party chat drops for no stated reason, and the whole machine takes on the tired, put-upon air of a device that has been running since launch without ever being asked to tidy up after itself. Which it has not, because you never told it to.

The remedy Sony actually recommends for this is not a factory reset, not a reinstall, and not a courier to a service centre. It is a cache clear, and it lives in Safe Mode, several menus deep, behind a power button you hold until the console beeps at you twice. Sony's own Safe Mode support page, last touched on 23 August 2026, tells you in plain text to select Clear System Software Cache when you hit system feature issues or performance drops. It is free, it wipes no saves, it needs no PlayStation Plus, and it takes about ten minutes. Almost nobody does it, because the route there is deliberately joyless.

This guide walks the entire thing on current firmware, and it settles an argument along the way. Half the internet, including two of the most-watched 2026 walkthroughs on YouTube and write-ups at SlashGear and Digitash, will tell you the cache option is number 5 in the Safe Mode list. On the firmware shipping in the back half of 2026 it is number 6, and that is not pedantry. The item sitting next to it does something far heavier and slower, and choosing wrong is exactly how a two-minute job becomes an hour of watching a progress bar crawl. We will fix the numbering, explain precisely why the sources disagree, and hand you the sequence that works.

Why Bother Clearing the Cache

The cache is where the PS5 keeps the temporary scraps it generates while running: shader fragments, staged update files, decompression scratch, thumbnails it half-built and abandoned. In a perfect world the operating system reaps all of this on its own. In the real world, across two or three years of monthly firmware updates, day-one patches, and abrupt power cuts, some of it sticks, some of it corrupts, and the console spends cycles tripping over its own litter.

The symptoms that actually respond

Clearing the system software cache is worth your ten minutes when the console misbehaves in ways that smell like stale state rather than dead hardware. That means: cold-boot load times that have crept upward for no reason, an install that loops forever at the same percentage, updates that finish and then re-queue, a PlayStation Store that renders blank or throws a generic error, garbled or missing game tiles, and intermittent audio or feature glitches after a firmware bump. Epic Games explicitly points Rocket League players at the Safe Mode cache clear as the fix for load-failure errors, which tells you studios themselves treat it as a first-line remedy rather than a superstition.

What a cache clear does and does not fix

Set expectations honestly, because the deadpan truth is that a cache clear is a broom, not a surgeon. It will not repair a degrading SSD, cool an overheating APU, defrag a fragmented drive, or resurrect a corrupt save. Engadget's write-up on the procedure is blunt about this: the cache clear is a short-term remedy and does nothing for hardware degradation. If your PS5 fan sounds like a hair dryer or the console hard-crashes to a blue screen under load, you have a different problem, and no amount of menu-diving will touch it. The cache clear is for the soft, accumulated gunk, not the physical rot.

Free, save-safe, and no PlayStation Plus required

The best argument for doing this is the price. It costs nothing, it requires no subscription, and it deletes zero games, saves, screenshots, or accounts. That matters in 2026, when the sensible instinct is to squeeze more life out of the hardware you own rather than buy your way out of a slowdown. A ten-minute maintenance pass is a better opening move than a $649 replacement, which is roughly what a disc PS5 costs against the pricier Series X right now, and it is a far better move than waiting for a successor. The PlayStation 6 is not landing in 2027 on any credible read of the supply chain, so the machine under your TV is the machine you are keeping for a while. Maintain it.

What the PS5 Actually Caches

People say cache and mean at least three different things, which is half the reason the guides contradict each other. The PS5 has a stack of caches, and only one of them is what Safe Mode's headline option touches. Knowing which is which saves you from running the slow tool when the fast one would have done.

System software cache

This is the operating system's own scratch space: staged firmware files, shader and pipeline caches, temporary decompression buffers, and assorted OS housekeeping. It is the layer that goes stale after a botched update or a hard power loss, and it is exactly what Clear System Software Cache wipes. This clear is light and fast, on the order of a minute or two plus a reboot, and it never touches your library or saves. When Sony's support page says to run the cache clear for feature issues and performance drops, this is the button it means.

The content database

Separate from the cache is the content database, the index the PS5 uses to know what is installed, where your saves live, which trophies you hold, and how to lay out your home screen and media. When this index drifts out of sync with what is actually on the drive, you get wrong tiles, phantom installs, and games that refuse to launch despite clearly being present. The fix for that is Rebuild Database, which scans the entire SSD and reconstructs the index from scratch. It is heavy, it is slow, and it is the sibling option people run by accident.

App, browser, and DNS caches you can reach without Safe Mode

Individual apps keep their own caches, the hidden web browser hoards cookies and site data, and the network stack holds a DNS cache that can pin you to a dead store endpoint. None of these need Safe Mode. You clear per-app data from the storage menu, you flush the browser from its own settings, and you dodge stale DNS by setting your resolvers manually. The three-layer picture looks like this:

PS5 storage, three cache layers
--------------------------------
 System software cache  -> OS temp files, shaders, update staging
    cleared by: Safe Mode > Clear System Software Cache   (light, ~1-2 min)

 Content database       -> index of games, saves, media, trophies
    rebuilt by: Safe Mode > Rebuild Database              (heavy, up to ~1 hr)

 App / browser / DNS    -> per-app data, hidden browser, network cache
    cleared by: on-console menus, no Safe Mode required

Ninety percent of the time, layer one is all you want. We will start there, cover layer two so you never run it by mistake, and finish with layer three in the advanced section.

Prerequisites and Requirements

This is a hardware procedure with a software payload, so the requirements are physical as much as they are version numbers. Skipping the prerequisites is how people end up staring at a Safe Mode screen with a controller that will not connect. Read this section before you power anything down.

Firmware and hardware

You need a PlayStation 5, any model: the launch disc and Digital editions, the 2023 slim revision, and the PS5 Pro all run the identical Safe Mode flow. There is no minimum storage and no special SKU. On the software side, the console should be on current firmware, which as of this writing is the 26.05-13.60.00 branch, released 23 July 2026 as the second July update. Sony ships small performance-and-stability updates roughly monthly, so your exact build may read a digit or two higher, and that is fine. The version format is YY.0X-major.minor.patch, and if you ever see a guide citing System Software Version 7.00 or 9.00, close it: those are PS4 numbers, and the PS5 has never used them. The cache sub-option itself arrived on PS5 in late 2023, so anything running current firmware has it.

The cable nobody mentions

Here is the requirement that sinks more attempts than any other: Bluetooth is switched off in Safe Mode. A wireless DualSense will not pair once you are in there, full stop. You must connect the controller with a USB data cable, DualSense end being USB-C, before pressing the PS button. Both heise and SlashGear flag the wired requirement explicitly, and SlashGear names the USB-C connection outright. A charge-only cable may not carry data, so use a proper one. If your only cable is buried behind the console, dig it out now rather than at the beep.

Prerequisites checklist
-----------------------
[x] PS5 (any model, incl. Slim and Pro)
[x] Firmware on the current branch (26.05-13.60.00 or later)
[x] DualSense controller
[x] USB data cable (DualSense end = USB-C) -- NOT charge-only
[x] Console connected to a working TV / display
[x] ~10 minutes for the cache clear (up to ~1 hr if you also Rebuild)
[x] No PlayStation Plus, no account login, no internet required

Time budget and what to back up

Budget ten minutes for the cache clear itself: a few seconds of work plus a reboot. If you decide to Rebuild the database as well, budget anywhere from a few minutes to about an hour depending on how full the drive is. You do not need to back anything up, because the cache clear touches no saves. That said, if your saves are not already syncing to PlayStation Plus cloud storage or copied to a USB stick, this is a fine moment to fix that on general principle, entirely separate from the cache work. Belt and braces cost nothing.

Safe Mode Is Not the Home Screen

Every stalled attempt at this task starts with the same misunderstanding: people go hunting through Settings for a cache option that is not there. There is no Settings path to Safe Mode on the PS5. There never has been, and there is not one on the PS4 either, so any guide framing that as a PS5-specific quirk is inventing a contrast. Safe Mode is reached one way only, through the physical power button, and the cache option lives inside it.

What Safe Mode is

Safe Mode is a minimal boot environment: the console starts with the bare minimum of drivers and services, no wireless, no fancy dashboard, just a plain list of recovery and maintenance options on a stripped-back screen. Because it boots so little, it is the safe place to perform operations that would be risky against a fully running system, like rewriting the content database or wiping the system cache. It is also why the controller has to be wired, since the Bluetooth stack simply is not loaded.

The full menu, all eight options

On current firmware, Safe Mode presents eight numbered options. Here is the complete list, which you should read in full because the exact ordering is the entire point of this guide:

PS5 Safe Mode (firmware 26.05-13.60.00 branch, 2026)
----------------------------------------------------
1. Restart PS5
2. Change Video Output
3. Repair Console Storage          (inserted 2024+, pushed the list down)
4. Update System Software
5. Restore Default Settings
6. Clear Cache and Rebuild Database (THIS ONE)
7. Reset PS5
8. Reset PS5 (Reinstall System Software)

Inside option 6, two sub-options:
   > Clear System Software Cache    (light: OS temp files, ~1-2 min)
   > Rebuild Database               (heavy: re-index the SSD, up to ~1 hr)

Note what is not where the traps say it is. Option 2 is Change Video Output, not Rebuild Database, so any source claiming Rebuild is option 2 is simply wrong. Rebuild is not a top-level option at all; it is a sub-option living inside option 6, right next to the cache clear you actually want.

Why option 5 versus option 6 matters

Now the argument. The older PS5 Safe Mode had seven items, and Clear Cache and Rebuild Database sat at number 5. That is the layout the popular YouTube walkthroughs, SlashGear, and Digitash captured, and it is why they all say option 5. Then Sony inserted a new entry, Repair Console Storage, at slot 3, which shoved everything below it down by one. Clear Cache moved from 5 to 6, and the list grew to eight. Sony's Safe Mode page edit of 23 August 2026 did not reverse this; the numbering held at 6. The lesson is to trust the label over the digit. Look for the words Clear Cache and Rebuild Database, and it does not matter whether your particular firmware renders it as 5, 6, or something else after the next reshuffle. Sources that only give a number age badly. Sources that give the label stay correct.

Clear the System Cache in 12 Steps

Here is the full sequence, twelve steps, each with the reasoning attached so you know why you are doing it rather than cargo-culting a button press. This is the light cache clear only; we handle the heavier Rebuild in the next section. Read all twelve before you start, because two of them are time-sensitive.

Powering all the way down

1. Save and quit whatever is running, then close all apps. The cache clear operates against a cold system, so nothing should be mid-write. A game suspended in the background is a game whose files are still considered live.
2. Fully power off the console. Do not use Rest Mode. Press the power button, wait for the menu, and choose Turn Off PS5, or hold the power button until you get the shutdown prompt. Rest Mode keeps the system half-alive and its cache in use, which defeats the entire exercise. heise and Digitash both stress this: the console must be completely off, not resting. Wait for the power indicator to go fully dark.
3. Confirm the light is off, not orange. A steady white-then-dark light means off. An amber or orange glow means Rest Mode. If you see orange, the console did not shut down; repeat step 2. This is the single most common reason the next steps fail.

Into Safe Mode with the second beep

4. Press and hold the physical power button. Not a tap, a hold. Keep your finger down. You are listening for beeps now, so kill any background noise.
5. Listen for the first beep, and keep holding. A beep sounds almost immediately, at roughly one second. That is the ordinary power-on tone, not your cue. Releasing here just boots the console normally, which is mistake number one in the pitfalls section.
6. Release only on the second beep, at about seven seconds. A second beep sounds around the seven-second mark. That is the Safe Mode tone. Let go the instant you hear it. heise and Digitash both put the interval at about seven seconds; MakeUseOf frames it as five to seven. If you overshoot badly the console may just power off, in which case start again from step 2.
7. Wait for the Safe Mode prompt. The screen should read words to the effect of connect the controller using the USB cable and then press the PS button. Seeing this confirms you are in Safe Mode and not on the normal dashboard.

Power-down and Safe Mode entry (timing that matters)
----------------------------------------------------
t=0s    Console fully OFF (indicator dark, NOT orange/Rest Mode)
t=0s    Press and HOLD the power button
~1s     BEEP #1  (normal power tone)  -- keep holding, this is a trap
~7s     BEEP #2  (Safe Mode tone)     -- release NOW
        Screen: "Connect the controller using the USB cable
                 and then press the PS button."

Selecting option 6 and the cache sub-option

8. Wire the controller and press the PS button. Plug the DualSense into the console with a USB data cable, then press PS. Because Bluetooth is off in Safe Mode, this is the only way the controller registers. Nothing on screen responds until this connection is made.
9. Select option 6, Clear Cache and Rebuild Database. Navigate down and choose the entry labelled Clear Cache and Rebuild Database. Confirm by the label, not blind faith in the number, per the argument above. This opens the two sub-options.
10. Choose Clear System Software Cache. Pick the first sub-option, Clear System Software Cache. This is the light, fast, save-safe wipe. Do not pick Rebuild Database unless you have read the next section and specifically want it; that one is the hour-long job.
11. Confirm with OK. A prompt explains the console will restart when finished. Select OK. Asurion and Digitash both note this confirmation step, and it is your last chance to back out. There is no undo, but there is also nothing to undo, since no personal data is deleted.
12. Let the console restart on its own. The clear takes a few seconds, then the PS5 reboots automatically to the home screen. Do not pull power or press anything during the restart. When you land back on the dashboard, the cache is clear and you are done.

That is the whole procedure. The only genuinely tricky parts are the second beep and remembering the cable, which is why they get their own pitfalls below.

Rebuild Database: The Heavier Option

Sitting one line below the cache clear, inside the same option 6, is Rebuild Database. It is a different tool for a different problem, and understanding it keeps you from either running it by accident or missing it when you actually need it.

What Rebuild does

Rebuild Database scans every piece of content on the SSD and reconstructs the index that tracks it: installed games, saves, media, trophies, and the metadata that drives your home screen. Where the cache clear removes temporary OS files, Rebuild re-catalogues the whole drive. It changes nothing about your actual games or saves, but it can and often does reshuffle your home screen layout, because it is literally rebuilding the record of what belongs there. That reshuffle, incidentally, is the real source of the widely repeated claim that clearing the cache resets your home screen. It does not; a Rebuild might. The claim traces back to a Reddit anecdote from a Starfield player and got mangled in the retelling, but Sony and Engadget document no such effect for the cache clear itself.

When to run it, and when not to

Run Rebuild when the symptoms point at a corrupt index rather than stale cache: game tiles that show the wrong art or refuse to launch despite being installed, phantom installs that claim to be present but are not, saves the system cannot see, or store and install errors that survive a plain cache clear. Do not run it as a reflex. It is slower, it offers no benefit over the cache clear for ordinary sluggishness, and reshuffling a carefully arranged home screen for nothing is its own small punishment. The sensible order is cache clear first, and Rebuild only if the problem persists.

Timing on a full 8TB drive

Rebuild time scales directly with how much content the drive holds, because it has to walk all of it. On a lightly loaded console it can finish in a few minutes. On a drive stuffed toward the 8TB ceiling the PS5 supports, it can run up to about an hour. The cardinal rule is do not interrupt it: pulling power mid-rebuild is a genuine way to corrupt the very database you are trying to repair. Start it when you can leave the console alone.

Safe Mode > 6. Clear Cache and Rebuild Database
  > Rebuild Database
    "Rebuilds the database by scanning all content on the storage.
     This might take a few hours to complete."
      [ OK ]   [ Cancel ]
  > OK
    Rebuilding database...
    [########------------------]  31%
    Do NOT power off. Time scales with drive fill:
      light drive  -> a few minutes
      full 8TB     -> up to ~1 hour

Expected Output and Timings

You will not see a Linux-style log scrolling past; the PS5 keeps its maintenance screens terse. Still, there is a definite sequence of on-screen text and behaviour that tells you the job worked, and knowing it up front stops you from panicking at a screen that goes quiet for a moment.

What the screen shows during a cache clear

Selecting the cache sub-option throws a short confirmation dialog, you accept it, and the console works silently for a few seconds before rebooting itself. There is no percentage bar for the light cache clear, because it finishes too fast to need one. The expected flow reads like this:

Safe Mode > 6. Clear Cache and Rebuild Database
  > Clear System Software Cache
    "This clears the system software cache. The PS5 will
     restart when finished. Do you want to continue?"
      [ OK ]   [ Cancel ]
  > OK
    ...clearing... (a few seconds, no progress bar)
    PS5 restarts automatically to the home screen.

What a successful restart looks like

Success is undramatic, which is the point. The console reboots on its own, shows the normal PlayStation boot logo, and lands on your home screen with your library, saves, and settings exactly where they were. Nothing is missing. The first cold boot after the clear may feel a touch slower as the OS rebuilds a fresh, healthy cache, and then subsequent loads should be back to their old baseline or better. If the home screen looks reshuffled, you ran Rebuild, not the plain cache clear, and that is expected behaviour for Rebuild rather than a fault.

Timings by drive fill

Here is what to expect on the clock, separating the light clear from the heavy Rebuild:

The cache clear is effectively constant-time regardless of how much you have installed, because it only touches OS scratch, not your content. The Rebuild is the one that scales, so plan around it.

Five Ways People Break This

The procedure is short, which fools people into rushing it. Almost every failure traces to one of a handful of avoidable mistakes. Here are the six that matter, grouped by where they bite, each with the fix.

Power and cable mistakes

Pitfall 1: Rest Mode is not Off. Putting the console to sleep and calling it off is the number-one cause of a cache clear that does nothing. Rest Mode keeps the cache live. Fix: fully shut down via Turn Off PS5 and confirm the indicator light is dark, not orange, before you hold the power button.

Pitfall 2: Bluetooth is dead in Safe Mode. People reach Safe Mode, mash a wireless controller, and conclude the console is frozen. It is not; the radio is simply off. Fix: connect the DualSense with a USB data cable, USB-C at the controller end, then press the PS button. Confirm the cable carries data and is not charge-only.

Menu and option mistakes

Pitfall 3: Trusting the number over the label. Following an older guide that says option 5 lands you on Restore Default Settings on current firmware, which is not what you want. Fix: select by the words Clear Cache and Rebuild Database, then Clear System Software Cache. The digit shifts between firmware revisions; the label does not.

Pitfall 4: Running Rebuild when you wanted the cache clear. The two sub-options sit next to each other, and picking the wrong one turns ten minutes into an hour and reshuffles your home screen. Fix: inside option 6, choose the first sub-option, Clear System Software Cache, unless you have specifically decided you need the database rebuild.

Timing and expectation mistakes

Pitfall 5: Releasing on the first beep. The first beep at about one second is the normal boot tone. Let go there and the console boots straight to the dashboard, no Safe Mode. Fix: keep holding through the first beep and release only on the second, around seven seconds.

Pitfall 6: Expecting the cache clear to fix hardware. A clear will not cool a hot console, heal a dying SSD, or repair a corrupt install. Fix: match the tool to the fault. Use the cache clear for stale-state symptoms, Rebuild for index corruption, storage management for a full drive, and a service centre for genuine hardware failure.

Troubleshooting Table

When something does not go to plan, work down this table before you escalate to anything drastic. Most failures are procedural and fixable on the spot; a handful point you toward the heavier tools further down the menu.

Boot and Safe Mode problems

These are the failures that happen before you even reach the cache option. Nearly all of them come down to power state or the cable.

Post-clear problems

These crop up after the clear runs. Several are not faults at all, just expected behaviour people misread.

When to escalate to Rebuild or Reset

If the light cache clear does not resolve a store, install, or tile problem, step up to Rebuild Database inside the same option 6. If Rebuild also fails and the console is genuinely misbehaving, only then consider the reset options at 7 and 8, and understand that Reset PS5 wipes the console. Reset is a last resort, not a maintenance step, and it is the one that actually deletes your data. The store staying blank is usually a network issue rather than either, which the advanced section addresses with manual DNS.

Advanced Cache Maintenance

The Safe Mode cache clear is the headline act, but a few adjacent moves solve the problems people wrongly blame on it. None of these require Safe Mode, and together they cover the layer-three caches from earlier.

Clearing app and browser cache without Safe Mode

When a single app misbehaves, you do not need the nuclear Safe Mode route. From Settings, go to Storage, then Games and Apps, and you can manage per-title data directly, deleting an app while keeping its saved data so a clean reinstall rebuilds only the broken cache. The PS5 also hides a full web browser, reachable through certain link handoffs, and it accumulates cookies and site data that can wedge login flows. Clearing that from within the browser settings fixes a surprising number of account and store-page glitches that have nothing to do with the system cache at all.

Manual DNS to fix store and download rot

A blank store, an endlessly spinning storefront, or downloads that stall at a crawl are far more often network problems than cache problems. The fastest fix is to stop trusting your ISP's default resolver and set your DNS by hand. From Settings, open Network, then Settings, Set Up Internet Connection, edit your connection, and enter manual DNS. Cloudflare and Google are the reliable defaults:

Settings > Network > Settings > Set Up Internet Connection
  > (your connection) > Advanced Settings
    DNS Settings ......... Manual
      Primary DNS ........ 1.1.1.1     (Cloudflare)
      Secondary DNS ...... 8.8.8.8     (Google)
    MTU Settings ......... Automatic
    Proxy Server ......... Do Not Use

This alone clears up a large share of store and download complaints, and it pairs well with any streaming setup. If you push a lot of traffic off the console, whether that is downloads or a Remote Play stream to a phone or PC at 1080p, a clean resolver and a stable connection matter more than any cache clear ever will.

Rest Mode rot and a monthly cadence

Rest Mode is convenient and also a slow accumulator of exactly the stale state you are trying to purge, because the console never fully clears its working set between sessions. If you lean on Rest Mode daily, a genuine full power-off once a week does more good than most people expect, and it costs you a slightly longer cold boot. As for the cache clear itself, ignore any guide telling you to run it after every major update; Sony's real cadence is when you have a problem. A light quarterly pass, or a clear the moment symptoms appear, is plenty. Over-maintaining a console is its own mild superstition. This applies equally to the Pro, incidentally: the same flow that keeps a base PS5 healthy keeps a PS5 Pro and its PSSR upscaling running clean, since the maintenance layer is identical across every model.

The Complete Maintenance Routine

Pull all of it together and you have a repeatable routine rather than a panicked one-off. Run this on a quarterly rhythm, or the instant the console starts misbehaving, and escalate through the steps only as far as the symptoms demand. Most sessions stop at step two.

The quarterly sequence

Start soft and go heavier only if needed. A full power-off and a light cache clear resolve the overwhelming majority of slowdowns. The database rebuild and the network fix are conditional, run only when their specific symptoms show up. Nothing here costs money, requires a subscription, or risks your saves, which is the whole appeal: it is the cheapest, lowest-stakes troubleshooting you can do before you start eyeing a replacement console or a service ticket.

The config, in one block

Here is the entire routine as a single reference you can keep. Treat it as a checklist, top to bottom, stopping as soon as the problem clears:

# ps5-maintenance.routine   (run quarterly, or on first bad symptom)
cadence: every 3 months, or when a problem appears (NOT after every update)

step_1_power_off:
  action: full shutdown (hold power > menu > Turn Off PS5)
  not: Rest Mode
  verify: indicator light is dark, not orange

step_2_clear_cache:            # the light fix, do this first
  enter: hold physical power button to BEEP #2 (~7s), release
  connect: DualSense via USB-C data cable, press PS button
  path: Safe Mode > 6. Clear Cache and Rebuild Database
        > Clear System Software Cache > OK
  time: ~10 min including the automatic reboot
  saves_touched: none

step_3_rebuild_db:             # only if tiles/installs/store still broken
  when: wrong art, phantom installs, saves not seen, store errors persist
  path: Safe Mode > 6. Clear Cache and Rebuild Database
        > Rebuild Database > OK
  time: minutes to ~1 hour (scales with drive fill)
  warning: do NOT power off mid-rebuild

step_4_network:               # only if store blank / downloads stall
  path: Settings > Network > ... > DNS Settings = Manual
  primary_dns: 1.1.1.1
  secondary_dns: 8.8.8.8

verify:
  cold_boot_load_time: back to baseline or better
  ps_plus_required: false
  internet_required: false
  cost: 0.00

Sources and further reading

The primary source for any of this is Sony itself: the official PlayStation Safe Mode page, last updated 23 August 2026, which names Clear System Software Cache as the maintenance step for feature issues and performance drops. For a plain-language walkthrough with the wired-controller detail, Asurion's PS4 and PS5 cache guide from 20 May 2026 covers the second-beep entry and the OK confirmation. The German-language heise online guide from 26 August 2025 is precise about the roughly seven-second hold and the cabled controller. Engadget's how-to on clearing the PS5 cache is the one to read for the caveat that this is a short-term remedy that will not fix hardware degradation. And for proof that studios treat it as a first-line fix, Activision's cross-platform cache article and Epic's Rocket League load-failure documentation both point players at the same Safe Mode clear. Ten minutes, no money, no lost saves. Do it before you do anything drastic.