If you have ever felt that, at times, your PS4 feels slower than it’s supposed to be, then you’re not alone.

I’ve had my PS4 (the base model) since December 2014, and there were times where I felt like the system actually lags on me, from time to time.

John Glasscock on YouTube shared a method on how to boost the performance on either a PS4, PS4 Slim or PS4 Pro, the latter which was used in the video.

For a quick run-down, all you need to do is boot the PS4 into safe mode, connect your controller (I’d connect it via cable just in case) and then select option 5, ‘Rebuild Database’.

I’ve performed the procedure myself, but I ran into a personal hiccup. Every time I booted my PS4 into rest mode, it wouldn’t show up on my TV. I’ve tried Googling for the problem and ultimately figured it out when I read something relating to the HDMI cable.

In my case, my PS4’s HDMI cable wasn’t directly connected to my TV. It was connected to a home media system, which housed all my other HDMI connections, and was connected to my TV via a single HDMI cable.

For some odd reason, my PS4 refused to show up on screen while I booted it in safe mode while connected to the home media system, though it’s fine when I boot it normally. Only after I directly connected the HDMI cable to my TV did it show up on the screen.

I don’t know if my experience is a one-off kind of thing, but if you have a PS4 connected to a home media system, then you know what to do.

Once I finally got that out of the way, I began the process of rebuilding my PS4’s database. It might say it will “take a few hours”, but for me personally, it took a mere 5 minutes and 13 seconds (yes, I actually timed it).

Just to note, I’ve never done this process before, so this is my first time rebuilding the database since I got it back in December 2014.

So, did it get faster? Well, the PS4 itself was definitely smoother than before. In fact, it actually felt brand new as I was greeted to system messages from my console as if I just got it all over again.

But if you were hoping that it would boost your game’s performance, then I’m sorry to say, but that wasn’t really the case.

Well, maybe it did improve framerates a little, but at the end of the day, the game’s performance is up to how game developers optimise it for the PS4.

I was playing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order after rebuilding the database, but frame rates were still choppy at times and sometimes it even froze as textures took some time to load, as per my previous experience with the game.

At the end of the day, I do recommend performing this process from time to time to ensure your PS4 is in peak performance, though I don’t think you should expect it to overhaul your gaming experience. If you have a PS4 Pro, though, you can actually do that by using ‘Boost Mode’, so good for you folk who have that model.