PlayStation 4 Units Are Apparently Being Bricked By A Mysterious Message

PlayStation 4 users are being urged to set their incoming messages to private as there’s apparently an exploit going around at the moment.

It sounds weird, but according to multiple reddit users, there’s a message that will hit your inbox and force you to factory reset your consoles to get it working again.

If you get the message, deleting it from the mobile app won’t even stop your console from needing to be factory reset. The specific message usually contains a number of characters that can’t be displayed in the PlayStation messages app.

Reddit user Qraeshawn said: “I had a player named Zilla-Trickz that sent me 7 messages saying: Fortnite []<3, but the heart was an emoji. It crashed my system until i rebuilt my system data through safe mode. Sony definitely needs to fix this”

Reddit user ThatPissedOffDude said: “This just happened to me during Rocket League. Got a message then after a minute my controller stopped working and everything went silent. Now I can’t access the home menu. It just goes to the ‘Report Problem’ screen every time”

Reddit user iamnotacrazyperson said: Happened to me in RL too. Exactly the same thing – got a message, controller stopped working and audio cut out. Full reset hasnt fixed it – whenever i try and log into my psn it crashes again. My brothers psn account works fine though so not a hardware issue – he gets the same crash logging into my psn on his console. Somethings fu**** up!”

Here’s how you can set your messages to private until Sony issues a statement:

Go to Settings > Account Management > Privacy Settings > Enter your password > Personal Info | Messaging, and set Messages to either Friends (if you trust them) or No One.