{"id":12112,"date":"2018-10-17T17:00:18","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T13:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/12112\/"},"modified":"2019-11-15T15:22:47","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T11:22:47","slug":"ps4-killer-messages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/12112\/","title":{"rendered":"Killer messages on Sony PlayStation 4 and how to deal with them"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not everyone knows that Sony PlayStation 4 (PS4) has its own instant messenger: PlayStation Messages. There are also app versions for Android and iOS, so that it can be used not only on the console itself. I, for one, had no idea about it, even though I own a PlayStation.<\/p>\n

Turns out, though, sending a short message (any piece of text followed by a special Unicode character and the heart emoji) to this messenger is enough to send the poor PS4 into an infinite reboot loop.<\/p>\n

Reddit users first drew attention to the issue, after which it was picked up by news media. The worst thing is that the message doesn\u2019t even need to be opened. When it is received, first the controller stops responding, then the sound switches off, and finally, the console crashes and starts rebooting endlessly. Players who get one of these messages at a crucial moment in a game probably won\u2019t be jumping for joy.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s good news. First, Sony confirms<\/a> that it has already fixed the error, so the next firmware update should be the end of it.<\/p>\n

Second, even if your console got stuck in a cyclic reboot, it can be restored to life. To do so:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Install the PS Messages app on your phone (Android<\/a> or iOS<\/a>).<\/li>\n
  2. Delete the malicious message using the PS Messages mobile app.<\/li>\n
  3. On the console, start up in Safe Mode (here<\/a>\u2018s how) and select Rebuild Database (option 5).<\/li>\n
  4. Now, the console should start as if nothing had happened.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    One last thing. Even if you haven\u2019t encountered this problem yourself, you can take preemptive action to make sure you never do. To do so:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Go to the console settings.<\/li>\n
    2. Select Account Management -> Privacy Settings<\/em>. At this point, a password is required.<\/li>\n
    3. Select Messages<\/em>, followed by Friends<\/em> or No One<\/em> in the drop-down menu.<\/li>\n
    4. Now, strangers will not be able to send you messages, killer or otherwise. Better safe than sorry.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      One short message is enough to send a Sony PS4 into an infinite restart loop. Here’s how to deal with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":675,"featured_media":12113,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1486],"tags":[617,577,1933,161,521],"class_list":{"0":"post-12112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-threats","9":"tag-gamers","10":"tag-messengers","11":"tag-playstation-4","12":"tag-sony","13":"tag-threats"},"hreflang":[{"hreflang":"en-ae","url":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/12112\/"},{"hreflang":"en-in","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.in\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/14488\/"},{"hreflang":"ar","url":"https:\/\/me.kaspersky.com\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/5959\/"},{"hreflang":"en-us","url":"https:\/\/usa.kaspersky.com\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/16419\/"},{"hreflang":"en-gb","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/14610\/"},{"hreflang":"es-mx","url":"https:\/\/latam.kaspersky.com\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/13565\/"},{"hreflang":"es","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.es\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/17205\/"},{"hreflang":"it","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.it\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/16485\/"},{"hreflang":"ru","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.ru\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/21492\/"},{"hreflang":"tr","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.tr\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/5345\/"},{"hreflang":"x-default","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/24243\/"},{"hreflang":"fr","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.fr\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/11082\/"},{"hreflang":"pt-br","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.br\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/11007\/"},{"hreflang":"pl","url":"https:\/\/plblog.kaspersky.com\/ps4-killer-messages\/9908\/"},{"hreflang":"de","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.de\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/17962\/"},{"hreflang":"ja","url":"https:\/\/blog.kaspersky.co.jp\/ps4-killer-messages\/26236\/"},{"hreflang":"ru-kz","url":"https:\/\/blog.kaspersky.kz\/ps4-killer-messages\/17475\/"},{"hreflang":"en-au","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/21364\/"},{"hreflang":"en-za","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/ps4-killer-messages\/21370\/"}],"acf":[],"banners":"","maintag":{"url":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/tag\/gamers\/","name":"gamers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/675"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12112"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14584,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12112\/revisions\/14584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}