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Play PS4 Games Without Discs – The Ultimate Guide for Passionate Gamers

Playing PlayStation 4 (PS4) games without discs is every gamer‘s dream – lightning fast load times, hushed operation, no need to get off the couch to swap discs. As an avid PS4 gamer myself, I used to loathe having to interrupt that immersive gaming flow. So I set out to discover how to convert my disc-based library into installed digital titles.

What I uncovered in my research was a way to fully dump discs onto the PS4‘s internal HDD storage. Combined with some file conversion tricks, I can now enjoy my entire 150+ game library without reaching for a single disc!

Intrigued to learn how? This uncompromising PS4 modding guide will walk you through everything I wish I knew earlier. Soon, you too can be gaming from sun up to sun down without interruption. Let‘s get started!

Why Play Without Discs?

But first – why even bother with this whole process? Here are the key benefits I‘ve experienced after dumping all my games:

Lightning Fast Load Times

Even large open-world titles like Red Dead Redemption 2 now load in under 20 seconds rather than 60+ from the disc. PS4 games can fully utilize the speeds of solid state drives, rather than be bottlenecked by DVD drives.

Whisper Quiet Operation

With no disc spinning around making noise, my PS4 Pro is now silent. I can game late into the night without noise disturbing the household.

No Disc Changing

I had amassed a huge 150+ PS4 game library. Having to get up and swap discs got annoying fast. Now everything is installed ready and waiting!

Preserving Discs

No more discs to accidentally scratch, lose, or damage. And no wear and tear from all that cumulative spinning in the drive.

For me, those benefits were a no brainer. If you own more than a few PS4 games, I‘d highly recommend converting your library to play installed. Now let‘s examine everything you‘ll need.

Hardware and Software Requirements

Before we start tinkering with game files, ensure you have the necessary gear:

  • A Jailbroken PS4 – browse my PS4 Jailbreak Guide for steps to hack firmware 9.00 or lower.

  • A USB Drive – must be 256GB+ and formatted to exFAT. I recommend Samsung‘s T7 SSD for its compact size and transfer speeds up to 1 GB/s.

  • Windows PC – for transferring files between your PS4 and USB drive. Windows 10 or 11 will work great.

You‘ll also need these downloadable essential tools I‘ve bundled together to streamline the process:

Download Essential PS4 No-Disc Tools

Include both the App Dumper payloads and my custom gp4 conversion/patching tools. Now let‘s get into the tutorial!

Step 1 – Dumping Discs to Internal Storage

Dumping refers to the process of copying the entire game data straight from the disc over to your PlayStation‘s local storage drive. This removes the need to physically insert the disc whenever you want to play that title.

Follow these detailed steps:

Launch and Update Game

  1. Insert the game disc you wish to dump.
  2. Navigate to the game tile and press X to launch. Allow any game data, patches or DLC content to fully install.
  3. Load a save file or wait until you‘re at the game‘s main menu.

Important: Any content needs to be fully updated to work after removing the disc requirement.

Enable Exploit Payload

  1. Press the PS button and head back to your PS4 home screen
  2. Scroll right to the Library tab, then find and launch the web browser.
  3. Go to any basic web page like google.com. We need the browser open to enable exploit mode.

Run Dumper Payload

  1. Insert your prepared USB drive into the right-most blue USB 3.0 port on the PS4‘s front side. This specific port matters.

  2. In the web browser URL box, type the following payload URL and press Enter:

     http://dumptutorial.com/appdumper

  3. A notification will appear once the dumping process finishes. This converts all your game‘s files and data into a special format we can work with.

  4. Eject and remove your USB drive safely.

If successful, you‘ll now see a new folder named after your game housed on the USB drive. Within it is the actual dumped content along with a complete file indicating it finished properly.

Verify Transfer

  1. Plug the USB drive into your Windows PC. Check that the game folder and contents successfully transferred over.

Tip: If you don‘t see the expected files, retry steps 3-11.

With our disc contents now dumped locally, we can convert them into an installable package format.

Step 2 – Converting to Installable Format

In order to play without needing the original game disc, we must install a special package file onto the PS4 firmware itself. This involves converting the dumped game folder into a PlayStation-readable package format.

Follow these conversion steps:

  1. Ensure your USB drive is connected to your Windows PC.

  2. Extract my Essential PS4 No-Disc Tools you downloaded earlier.

  3. Inside the _tools folder, locate and run the orbis-pub-gen.exe application.

  4. If prompted to install .NET, allow that process to complete. Re-launch orbis afterward.

  5. In orbis-pub-gen, go to File > Open gp4 file. Navigate to your USB drive and open the .gp4 file located inside your game folder.

    Orbis Pub Gen Application

  6. Ensure Moddable Package File is checked for package type.

  7. Click Settings to pick a save location and name for this final package file.

  8. Finally, click Build to start the conversion process.

Be patient as this compiles all the visual/audio assets and metadata into an installable PKG formatted file.

Once complete, we now have our game in package file form that can be installed directly onto the PS4‘s internal HDD storage.

Verify Package File

  1. Locate the converted package file (PKG) on your storage drive.

  2. Right click it and ensure the file size looks appropriate for a typical PS4 game (25GB to 90GB).

We need to patch this package with some additional keys before moving onto PS4 installation.

Step 3 – Patching Package File

To prepare our freshly converted game package for installation, we must inject proper encryption keys so that it is recognized by the PS4 firmware.

My downloadable _tools folder contains a special .bat script to handle patching automatically:

  1. Still on your Windows PC, locate and run patch.bat inside the tools folder.

  2. Answer the 3 questions it asks you:

    a) Drive letter for your USB device

    b) Full keystone path on your USB device. Normally it will be /dev_hdd0/game/.edatkeys

    c) The name of your package file to patch

  3. Patch will now embed the keys into your package automatically. Click enter when it finishes.

We are finally ready to head back and install this digitized game directly on our hacked PS4 console.

Step 4 – Installing and Playing Without Disc

With our properly patched game package prepped, we can now install and play it without requiring a disc:

  1. Safely eject then insert your USB drive back into your PlayStation 4 console.

  2. On your PS4, navigate to Settings > System Storage > Applications.

  3. Locate the game package file on your USB device and select to install.

  4. Once installed, press Circle to back out to your PS4 home screen.

  5. Scroll down and you should now see your installed digital game ready to launch! Select it and enjoy playing directly off your console‘s internal drive without needing that old disc.

Rinse and repeat steps 1-4 anytime you buy new disc-based games you wish to add to your digital library. With some disc swapping patience early on, you‘ll build a massive installed collection to enjoy for years down the road.

Game Library Without Discs

I hope this uncompromising PS4 jailbreak tutorial walked you through everything necessary to build your own seamless digital library. No more disc swapping interruptions or noise – just pure unadulterated gaming!

Have you tried playing without discs? Planning to convert your library after reading this? Let me know if you have any other questions in the comments below!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Will playing installed games damage my PS4?

A: No, as it‘s loading data from either an HDD or SSD just like any digitally purchased game would. No more wear and tear than normal operation.

Q: Can I play multiplayer online with installed games?

A: Yes! As long as you still own the valid disc license, online functionality works normally.

Q: Do I need to keep the discs after installing?

A: You can store them safely for backup, but they are no longer required for playback. I keep mine in a binder.

Q: What if I buy DLC later on for an installed title?

A: When you go to download any new DLC, it will prompt you to insert the disc one last time to verify license. After DLC downloads, the disc won‘t be needed again.

Additional Resources

Still hungry for more PS4 modding knowledge? Here are some of my other top tutorials:

Let me know what other topics you‘d like to see covered!

Know another passionate gamer looking go disc-less? Share this guide with them! Together we can build a community of gaming experts who value both performance and convenience.

Game on!