Bug/Issue An insight into Stardew Valley's issues on PS4 Pro

Hello everyone!
I just read that the dev team are looking for more info on how the myriad of problems surface on PS4 Pro so I decided to bring some extended facts into the table, based on personal experience and multiple trial and error.

First of all, a look at the issue: while the game doesn't seem to show any performance flaws or bugs, the PS4 Pro system goes haywire, presenting an alarming number of errors in system features that threaten the well-being of the system's database. Here's a list:

1. The console cannot enter Rest Mode after having played Stardew Valley during a relatively short session (>10 minutes) and is forever frozen on the "entering Rest Mode" screen. I managed to enter RM multiple times when the game had just been downloaded, booted up, and played for approximately less than 8 minutes, that is, a very short burst. The way out of this is keeping the Power button pressed for 30 seconds. Upon turn-on, I am prompted with a "faulty turn-off" screen and three beeps coming from the system.

2. Share features stop working. Trying to capture a screenshot or video isn't possible, and the system freezes when trying to load the saved media. A way to identify that the system is frozen is pressing the PS button, which will take us to the PS4's main menu, but nothing can be accessed, which takes us to point 3. Only way out of this is what was described on error 1.

3. Other apps/games cannot be opened after Stardew Valley. Once SV is closed and without triggering any other issues mentioned above or below, the apps are never opened (system freezes on main menu screen) and the games don't either (system freezes in the screenshot each game shows while it's booting up). Only way out of this is what was described on error 1.

4. Video disappears when changing channels. If I'm playing Stardew Valley, switch to watching TV, then go back to the channel of my PS4 Pro, I get audio, but no video, and the game is responsive (I can play it) but the screen is black. If I try to turn off the system in this condition, it's frozen and only way out is what was described in error 1 (I literally blind-made my way to the in-system turn off system option to check this). This error also happens shortly after starting to play SV on PS Vita via Remote Play (thanks Rmartin979 for the info)

5. Not just Rest Mode, the system won't turn off properly. Even the turn-off measure ends up frozen once the game has been played. Solution? What I said in error 1.

6. Opening settings or trophies, or my PSN profile, or the friends list and the message inbox on PSN are all impossible after having played the game. Same goes to the PS Store. It's an all-out lockdown.

7. Getting in or out of party chat while playing SV leads to console crash (thanks ncamerong for the info)

I repeat: THE GAME WORKS GREAT, everything else doesn't.

Now I'll move on to characteristics I have gathered of the issue upon some research and asking around (on a small scale, but every bit helps):

1. The issue happens on SOME PS4 Pro systems, some people don't seem to suffer from any of the aforementioned.

2. Having transferred content from a OG PS4 via Ethernet cable doesn't make a difference. I used that method and got the issues, someone I asked used it too and the game works great in his end.

3. I gathered no people suffering from any of this on a regular PS4 system, which narrows down sufferers to a likely significant number of PS4 Pro owners.

4. Stardew Valley is the undeniable trigger of the madness. Uninstalling the game essentially gets rid of all the problems. Not running the game since I last turned on the system while keeping it installed is also harmless. Problems arise when SV is iniciated in the current gaming session and then you try to do anything else on the system.

5. Rebuilding the PS4 Pro's database doesn't eliminate the problem, this is the last thing I tested and it was to no avail, system froze yet again.

6. The issues happen with both the built-in HDD and whatever HDD you put on your PS4 Pro.

7. Every time I turn on the system after a faulty turn-off, it checks the status of the system storage.

I think that's all I've got. If someone around here has more to offer please gather it all below and I'll add it to the main post so that all the info is in one place, that should help the team get as much info on the issues as possible and hopefully find a fix for it. I really love playing the game and I'd love to wrap up my journey on PS4 Pro, so I hope you find a solution for the issues, whatever I find out I'll add it up here

EDIT - I just saw these questions asked on the forums so I'll try to answer them in case it helps:

• Does it consistently occur after a hard reset of your PS4 Pro? Shut it down, unplug it from the wall for 5 minutes, then plug it back in and start it back up. Unfortunately, a shut down + unplug from wall + going to work for 7 hours + plugging back in and turning back on didn't fix it for me.
• Does it continue after uninstalling stardew valley? Every single problem disappears once Stardew Valley leaves the console, the issues return after Stardew Valley's first use upon being re-installed, even after a database rebuild and, in my case, 2 weeks of a gap between attempts.
• Is your PS4 Pro fully updated? Yes, can't connect to the internet otherwise so these days software updates are essentially forced
• Are there any power settings you can adjust and see whether certain combinations allow it to rest / restart properly? (Sorry, I'm not personally familiar with PS4 Pro systems.) Rest Mode can be configured so that the system does not stay connected to the internet when entering it and USB power supply can be timed or cancelled. We can also choose not to keep apps suspended. I haven't tested this a lot, but I'll get on it and report updates here!

 

All of this perfectly describes how my brand new playstation pro has been behaving. I opened it christmas day and only played final fantasy 15 (disk version) before downloading Stardew Valley. I played it for a few hours then was called away from the playstation for about half an hour, and the system tried to enter rest mode due to inactivity. The orange light was on, the tv screen was black, and my playstation controller was lit up as if the playstation was still on. Pressing buttons couldn't wake it up, and the only solution was to force the system to turn off by holding the off button for a very long time, about 20-30 seconds.
After my second play session the next day, I exited the game and closed the application. I logged out of my profile and my brother immediately logged into his and tried to start up Final Fantasy. It got stuck on the initial screen that appears when you first click on it. He could press the ps button on the controller and go back to the home screen so he pressed options and chose the 'close application' option. Then he tried to load it up again. It didn't work. He had to turn off the playstation and turn it on again for Final Fantasy to successfully load up.
We thought our pro was faulty but after some quick googling I discovered this site and knew Stardew Valley is what is causing the issue. When these issues were happening the only two games on the console were Stardew and Final Fantasy 15, which is the physical version of the game. I've deleted Stardew Valley from my playstation pro for now and all issues have ceased. I've played several other games such as the Witcher 3, Rocket league, and Bloodborne with no issues.
I'm not sure if I've added any new information but thought it might be helpful to describe exactly how I encountered these issues. Wishing for a fix soon.

 

It's not just an issue with Stardew Vally, it's happening with other games on some Pro machines. I found this out when a friend's Pro started doing the same thing with Doom. Bethesda and Sony are looking into it as well, so hopefully a fix will be coming soon.

The underlying issue appears to be a hung thread, which is what causes the 3 beeps. The system can't free up the memory from the hung game, so other apps can't start and the system can't sleep properly. The good news is that hard resetting the system won't hurt the PS4, it's just like using Ctrl-Alt-Delete to kill a hung app on Windows.

 

Doom did come up when I asked around indeed. The symptoms seem to be similar as well, with the different that in the case of Doom the game also suffers (in some cases) but that may be unrelated to the issue at hand so the resemblance is still relevant. I am sure this is simply the expected from dealing with new hardware, as long as everyone invests time into spotting what's at the core of the problem, a solution will happen and we'll all be able to farm and live in peaceful Stardew Valley at ease ^^

I do, however, encourage anyone who has experienced the issues to add up more info or to share their experience like dreamergirl did (thanks, by the way!) so that the devs can have as much information on the problem as possible. I also encourage you devs to ask whatever questions that come up. I have read that you are unsuccessfully trying to replicate the issue on PS4 Pro systems so if you ask questions that might help you identify a cause we may be able to give you the info you need. Keep up the good work!

 

Can you give us the manufacture date on your PRO? It should be somewhere on the console itself. People in the main thread were saying Newer PRO's are not having this issue. If it is a newer one, than it debunks that myth. I agree with what Chazprime says entirely.

I have a launch PRO, (non-stock) 1TB HDD that was USB backed up from old PS4 and it has these issues.

This thread should be the main thread on this issue as you list everything perfectly and not just the rest/shutdown issue.

 

Very helpful, Bousf. You've summed up what others have posted in various places throughout this forum. I hope the developers do, indeed, use this thread as a reference point.

I have suffered all of the same issues you mentioned. I've heard varying rumors of the PS4 Pro issues being tied to launch PS4 Pros, so I actually processed a refund for my PS4 Pro and should be getting a new one this Friday. I'll let everyone know by Saturday evening if the new PS4 Pro is having the same issues as my OG PS4 Pro. I'll take note of both PS4's manufacturing dates listed on the bottom of the console to ensure the new one is not OG. We will see whether this theory of the issues only being on launch Pros is true or not!

 

Where can you find the manufacturer date to see if it's a launch Pro?

*Edit - it's on the back to the left of the serial number. Mine is a launch ps pro, having these same issues.

 

Ok so I have a launch Pro (both game and console fully updated). Here's what I'm experiencing.

1. Rest mode doesn't work and the console does the 3 beeps when turned off.

2. Changing video channels causes me to have audio, but lose the video feed (issue only started once I downloaded Stardew).

3. Going in and out of party chat causes the console to crash.

-The issues went away when I deleted Stardew. They came back when I reinstalled.

Things that ARENT happening:

I can run games just fine. No need to reset the console.

The game runs just fine. 150 hours and have only had 1 crash on save.

Gameplay glitches:

1st baby got stuck in a wall. It fixed itself on day 2 of having him.

Fertilizer box getting planted in the ground. Bombing it solved the issue.

If you need any more details I'd be happy to help.

 

Thank you all for contributing, I created this thread with the intention of helping the devs in being aware of as many of the problems surrounding the issue as possible in one place, to ease their research. I do not know how to know if my PS4 Pro is a launch model or not, but it's model CUH-7016B, would that be a launch console?

I will add to the main post the issues on party chat Ncamerong talks about, it is true that I've heard many people comment on them but since I didn't use chat during SV I forgot to include them lol I also read on streaming being erroneous, can anyone attest to that?

 

Just posting this as confirmation: I have a launch standard PS4 (non-Pro) and haven't experienced any of these issues.

 

I also have all of the issues listed in this thread. In addition, the black screen (audio but no video) error also happens when you play stardew valley using remote play, at least on the vita. The game will run fine for a bit and them just hang. If you then go to the ps4 pro to shut down you will find audio but no video and have to do hard reset. I understand that remote play on vita will be a seriously low priority issue when you take into account all of the errors on pro which the Dev them can't seem to replicate, but I thought I would just throw it out there. Not sure of console manufacture date.

 

Found manufacture date. It is September 2016.

 

OH MY GOD. I think I bring some potentially good news here! Let me bring up this question again, as I now have an answer for it.

Are there any power settings you can adjust and see whether certain combinations allow it to rest / restart properly? (Sorry, I'm not personally familiar with PS4 Pro systems.)

Answer is YES, there are Rest Mode combination and YES, I found a combination that gets rid of EVERY problem! This needs further testing both on my end and on whatever users want to be considerate enough to test it out, but if consistent, devs may have earned some time to investigate and fix the issue while we will have a temporary fix in our hands! I will detail my procedure:

First of all, I went to Settings - Power Save Settings - Set Features Available in Rest Mode, and my settings were the following:
Supply Power to USB ports - Always
Stay Connected to the Internet - IT WAS TICKED, I UNTICKED IT
Keep Applications Suspended - IT WAS TICKED, I UNTICKED IT

Then, I went to the Store and downloaded Stardew Valley from its page instead of the Library (that may be irrelevant but I want to be as detailed as I can, just in case)

I played FFXV while the game downloaded and then turned off and on my system. After that I ran SV and played for a whole in-game day. Before going to bed, I pressed the PS button and scrolled left and right through the PS4 menu, it was clunky and that is symptom #1 of the issues starting, but I went back into the game and slept to have my progress saved. At the start of the new day, I pressed PS button, closed application and the clunkiness in the scrolling disappeared. Tried to go into Rest Mode, IT WORKED.

Went back from RM and opened SV again, played for another in-game day and before going to bed I pressed the Share button, saved a screenshot and a video, uploaded a screenshot to Twitter, IT WORKED. Went back into the game, changed channel to my TV, then changed back, GOT VIDEO AND AUDIO. Pressed the PS Button, opened the PS Store without trouble, went into my messages, trophies, settings, PSN Profile and friends list, no issue. Went to bed to have my progress saved, and at dawn I closed the app.

After closing it and without turning the system off, I opened FFXV, IT OPENED. Then closed it, turned off the system and it turned off just fine.

CONCLUSION: either app suspension or internet connection upon Rest Mode may be at the core of the subject. Which of the two? I'm about to find out, as I'm going to play by ticking one of the options at a time. Will report as soon as I have further details, but I encourage other Pro owners to test this on the settings I describe above. If you could test Party chat that would be great, I will check Remote Play too.

EDIT - Tried playing ticking back one option at a time and the game run the same way I described above, meaning that my adjustments have no effect on the game's performance, it seems. As Elite49 mentions in the post below, the issues apparently have stopped happening for some people during some time to then return. So yeah, we still have no clue on what happens here xD

 

graf1k in the other thread deleted the game, was able to have it work for a few days then the issues came back a few day later. Told them to post it in here, but they haven't as of yet it seems so here they are talking about it:

Also someone on NeoGAF posted this in a thread about this games issues and the hard resets they needed to do:

 

Oh, so randomly some issues are now not happening all the time? I'll then report the second something happens, I'm now playing with "Connected to the internet" ticked and "Keep apps suspended" unticked, will keep testing, just in case

 

They haven't responded to my question about this, but if the quote above is anything to go by than the issues went away after a fresh install from 1.02 but came back in full force after a few days (real or game idk but guessing they mean real.)

If you haven't already, you should delete/download the game again, but have the options back to what they originally were while doing everything you did before and test if it's fine. If it IS fine on trying to shutdown/launch another game than that would mean something over time while the game is running gradually screws up the OS that was worse in 1.01 than 1.02 (or whatever the launch/current version is).

 

I fresh installed 1.02 the other day and got the issues within 10 minutes of playing which motivated me to create this thread. Deleted it back then and it was upon re-downloading now that the issues seemingly stopped. I will try to tackle it with the usual settings and see if it works. If it does, then we're not onto anything sadly xD

 

Nothing but bad news, I'm afraid. After returning my PS4 Pro and getting a new one, the new one had the same manufacture date as the old one: September 2016. I was surprised by this, seeing as it's been two months since I bought the first one. I guess they really churned out a lot of PS4 Pros with their initial wave of manufacturing.

Anyways, I kept the new one and installed Stardew Valley on it. After 30 minutes of playing, I selected "Close Application" from the quick menu, then tried to enter Rest Mode, and boom...still having issues. Ugh! Well...I refuse to buy a 3rd PS4 Pro, but I at least tried!

 

Sad to hear. Shipments become hard to predict once the remaining copies of a previous one blend with new batches, so you don't really know which version you are going to get.....thank you for reporting regardless and kudos for trying with a new Pro!

Could you please disable the Rest Mode options I mentioned above and see if the issues persist? For the sake of extending my experiments to other users, basically

 

Hey sorry, just saw your response in the other thread today. Been a bit busy. Anyway, you had it correct. I deleted the game, downloaded it again and for a while Rest Mode and the lot worked. Maybe a day or two. Read through this thread a bit and gave Bousf's power mode settings a try, having first deleted and downloaded the game yet again.

I played two days in game and then saved and put it into Rest Mode flawlessly. Absolutely no issue. I'll keep you guys updated.


EDIT: Update a lot sooner than expected. Second time putting the system in Rest Mode after playing, it still went into Rest Mode but it took significantly longer to actually power down and in fact did the three beeps before it managed it. But in the end, it still went into Rest Mode okay. I'll update in the future below.


So, so far:

UPDATE 1. First time in Rest Mode after downloading the game again, flawless.

UPDATE 2. Second time in Rest Mode, PS4 Pro took much longer to actually 'sleep' and did the three beeps before it managed it.

UPDATE 3. Sent it to Rest for a third time today, no problem. Didn't even take long like the second time. Also joined a chat while playing and brought up the share menu to save a clip without issue.

UPDATE 4: Again, no real issues putting it to Rest this time either, although it did hang a while before sleeping. Not sure but I think it might have to do with how long the session is. A longer session (10 days in game or so) and it hangs. Shorter (2-3 days in game) and it doesn't hang. Either way, it still sleeps fine.

UPDATE 5: Played SDV, switched to Rocket League, joined a party with my mates, went back to SDV, played 2-3 more days, put it in Rest Mode and all is still well. Really the only issue thus far is it occasionally hangs and does the three beeps before it finally sleeps, but it always does not and always comes out of sleep just fine. Note, I am quitting the application before Rest Mode every time, just for the record.