ps5upload

Fast, reliable transfers from your computer to your PS5.
Transfer · Mount · Browse — designed to live alongside your PS5-side tools.

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What it does

• Fast transfer — FTX2 binary protocol with BLAKE3 per-shard verification, small-file packing, and resume on disconnect. Uses your LAN flat-out. Pack worker absorbs transient EIO/EMFILE hiccups so a 200k-file game upload doesn't get killed by one unlucky syscall.
• Upload queue — line up multiple games or images, hit Start, walk away. Every running row shows live MiB/s and ETA; done rows show the wall-clock-average rate so you can spot a slow destination. Queue state survives app restarts.
• Compressed .zip uploads — keep a game dump as a single .zip on your PC (less disk, easier to move) and upload it directly. ps5upload decompresses on the host and streams the files into the same FTX2 pipeline, so they land already extracted on the PS5 — no manual unzip, no temp copy of the whole game. The Upload screen previews the expansion (zipped → extracted, file count, space saved) and detects the embedded game. Decompresses one file at a time (large files spill to a temp file), so a 100 GB archive doesn't need 100 GB of RAM. ZIP only — unpack .rar on the PC first.
• Native image mount — attach .exfat and .ffpkg images on the PS5 (MDIOCATTACH + nmount) with no third-party helper. Every mount survives payload restarts and auto-reconciles on startup.
• Browse everything — list games anywhere on the PS5 (including inside mounted images), disk images, files, and volumes. Run FS ops (chmod, delete, move, copy, mkdir) with a real directory tree. Bulk delete of a 200k-file folder shows live progress with a working Stop button.
• Stay-in-the-loop notifications — in-app alerts mirror to your computer's notification center (macOS / Windows / Linux, plus the Android shade) when a transfer finishes or fails in the background, and the PS5 itself shows a toast when an upload starts and completes. Your machine is kept awake automatically while a transfer runs.
• Hardware view — model, serial, uptime, storage, RAM, and the PS5 date/time, refreshed live; plus a fan-threshold control that rings through to /dev/icc_fan for quieter operation. Live CPU/SoC temperature, clock, and power are read on demand (a button), not auto-polled — each read briefly pauses the system UI, so polling them could destabilize the console. They're also unreliable on current firmware (libkernel exports drift between FW points), so a reading may show —; everything else on the panel is stable.
• Send any payload — push .elf, .bin, .js, .lua, or .jar files to the PS5's loader port (typical defaults: .elf → 9021 elfldr, .js → 50000 WebKit-stage, .lua → 9026, .jar → 9025 BD-JB / BDJ; custom loaders may listen anywhere). Recent-sends history with click-to-replay and per-row success/fail badges.
• Install fakepkgs (package library) — add a .pkg and it uploads to your PS5 once and stays there. Install Package lists every uploaded package with cover art and size; Install, Reinstall, or Delete any of them in a click — no re-uploading to install again. Installs run through the DPI daemon (sceAppInstUtilAppInstallPkg from a clean loader process), the most reliable path on current firmware. Verified end-to-end on FW 9.60. Game pkgs (CUSA / PPSA / PCSA / EP / UP) install cleanly; for system pkgs (NPXS-prefix — Store updates, Settings) use the on-PS5 Settings → Debug Settings → Game → Package Installer.
• Register + launch — Library row's Play button always registers first (idempotent if already registered), retries with DRM-type patch on rejection, then launches. Unmount unregisters every title inside the image first so the dashboard stays clean — no ghost tiles after unmount.
• Speaks your language — the whole UI, including error messages and troubleshooting hints, is translated into 18 languages: English, Simplified & Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Bengali, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, German, French, Korean, Turkish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Italian, and Thai.

What it doesn't do

• System pkg patches. sceAppInstUtilInstallByPackage is built for game pkgs; NPXS-prefix system pkgs (Store updates, Settings app patches) register but the install path freezes Sony's mgmt service mid-flight on most firmwares. Use the on-PS5 Settings → Debug Settings → Game → Package Installer for those.
• .rar archives. Only .zip is supported for compressed uploads. Modern scene .rar is typically split multi-part + encrypted, which isn't worth the unrar maintenance/licensing tax — and no other PS5 homebrew tool supports it either. Unpack .rar on the PC first.

A quick look

Install

Pre-built downloads land on the Releases page:

Platform	File	How to install
macOS (Apple Silicon / Intel)	PS5Upload-<ver>-mac-{arm64,x64}.dmg	Open the .dmg, drag PS5Upload into Applications. See First launch on macOS below — Gatekeeper blocks downloaded apps the first time.
Windows (x64 / ARM64)	PS5Upload-<ver>-win-{x64,arm64}.zip	Unzip, double-click PS5Upload.exe — portable, no installer. See First launch on Windows — SmartScreen warns on first run.
Linux — Debian / Ubuntu (x64 / ARM64)	PS5Upload-<ver>-linux-{x64,arm64}.deb	sudo apt install ./PS5Upload-<ver>-linux-<arch>.deb — installs a normal app with a menu entry; pulls in the WebKitGTK deps automatically.
Linux — Fedora / RHEL / Bazzite (x64 / ARM64)	PS5Upload-<ver>-linux-{x64,arm64}.rpm	sudo dnf install ./PS5Upload-<ver>-linux-<arch>.rpm (Bazzite/Silverblue: rpm-ostree install) — menu entry + auto deps.
Linux — any distro (x64 / ARM64)	PS5Upload-<ver>-linux-{x64,arm64}.zip	Universal fallback (no install). Unzip, then chmod +x PS5Upload.sh PS5Upload.AppImage and run ./PS5Upload.sh (the wrapper — handles the FUSE-less and WebKit white-screen cases for you). Running ./PS5Upload.AppImage directly also works if your system has libfuse2 and a happy WebKitGTK.
Android	PS5Upload-<ver>-android.apk	Enable "install unknown apps" for your browser/file manager, then open the .apk. Same interface, mobile-friendly; connects to and manages your PS5 over Wi-Fi.

First-launch warnings (and why they're there)

ps5upload is not code-signed with paid OS certificates — same as every other PS5 scene tool. The OS's verification layers (Gatekeeper on macOS, SmartScreen on Windows) treat unsigned downloads as suspicious until you allow them once. The one-time bypass:

macOS — "App is damaged" or "cannot be opened":

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/PS5Upload.app

That removes the quarantine attribute macOS slaps on every file downloaded from a browser. Alternatively, right-click PS5Upload in Applications → Open → click Open in the prompt. Either method only needs to be done once per install.

Windows — "Windows protected your PC" SmartScreen prompt:

• Click More info → Run anyway.
• Only shown until SmartScreen builds reputation for the binary; subsequent launches are silent.
• If your IT policy blocks "Run anyway", unzip + right-click PS5Upload.exe → Properties → check Unblock → OK.

Linux — no equivalent warning. Just chmod +x and launch.

System requirements

• macOS 11 (Big Sur) or newer. No dependencies — ad-hoc signed, see First launch above for the one-line quarantine bypass.
• Windows 10 (build 19041+) or Windows 11. Ships with the Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime by default; LTSC / stripped installs may need WebView2 installed once.
• Linux — the .deb and .rpm packages pull in their dependencies automatically (WebKitGTK 4.1, gtk3, libsoup3, etc.) via the package manager, so they're the easiest route on Debian/Ubuntu and Fedora/RHEL/Bazzite. The universal .AppImage instead expects those libraries already on the host (libfuse2, gtk3, webkit2gtk 4.1, libsoup3, libappindicator, librsvg2); install commands for Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora/RHEL/Arch are in the FAQ. Minimum distro version: all three Linux artifacts are built against glibc 2.39, so they need a reasonably recent distro — Ubuntu 24.04+, Debian 13+ (trixie), Fedora 40+, or equivalent. (This is a glibc floor, not a package dependency — the .deb/.rpm install fine on older releases but the app won't launch, and the AppImage bundles WebKitGTK yet still uses the host's glibc.) On an older distro, build from source with make dist-linux on that machine.

The app checks GitHub for updates once per launch (Settings → Updates) and downloads a fresh archive to your Downloads folder when you click Download — replace the old app manually and relaunch.

Building from source:

git clone https://github.com/phantomptr/ps5upload.git
cd ps5upload
make install       # bootstrap dev env (auto-detects host OS)
make build         # payload ELF + engine + client UI
make run-client    # launch the Tauri dev app

make install auto-detects your OS and runs one of:

• make install-ubuntu — Debian / Ubuntu / WSL2: apt deps for Tauri (libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev, libgtk-3-dev, librsvg2-dev, libayatana-appindicator3-dev, libxdo-dev, libssl-dev, build-essential), Node.js 22 LTS via NodeSource (only if missing), Rust via rustup, and PS5 Payload SDK v0.38 → ~/ps5-payload-sdk.
• make install-macos — macOS: Xcode CLT, Homebrew, node, llvm@18 (the only Homebrew llvm shipped with ld.lld — required by prospero-clang), Rust via rustup, and PS5 Payload SDK.
• make install-windows — Windows 11: Node.js LTS, Rust, VS 2022 Build Tools (C++ workload), WebView2 Runtime, 7-Zip, and PS5 Payload SDK via winget. Run from an elevated PowerShell (or any shell with pwsh / powershell.exe on PATH).

All three install scripts are idempotent — re-running them after a partial setup is safe; each step skips if already satisfied.

For per-platform bundles only (no full dev env): make dist-mac, make dist-mac-x64, make dist-linux, make dist-linux-arm, make dist-win, and make dist-win-arm.

Quick start

1. Launch ps5upload on your computer.
2. Open the Connection tab and enter your PS5's IP address.
3. Click Check, then Send payload.
4. Once the third step turns green, go to any other tab — you're connected.

The payload stays loaded until the PS5 reboots or goes into rest mode.

Architecture

client/ (Tauri 2 · React · TypeScript)
   │
   └── spawns ── ps5upload-engine (HTTP :19113)
                          │
                          ▼  FTX2 binary framing
                payload/ps5upload.elf  (PS5 C payload, ports 9113 + 9114)

Three layers:

• payload/ — C payload that runs on the PS5 (FreeBSD 11). Ports 9113 (transfer) + 9114 (management). Handles FTX2 framing, BLAKE3 verification, mount pipelines, and FS ops.
• engine/ — Rust workspace with the protocol types, transfer logic, HTTP service, lab CLI, mock server, and benchmarks.
• client/ — Tauri 2 desktop app. Tauri IPC commands proxy to the sidecar HTTP engine, keeping the engine usable from CLI / CI too.

Build

All workflows go through the root Makefile (see make help).

Target	What it does
make build	Payload + engine + client
make payload	PS5 ELF at payload/ps5upload.elf (requires PS5_PAYLOAD_SDK env var)
make engine	cargo build --workspace
make client	vite build in client/
make run-client	Tauri dev (vite + Rust main process)
make run-engine	ps5upload-engine on localhost:19113
make send-payload	Send the built ELF to PS5_HOST:PS5_LOADER_PORT
npm run validate	Full non-hardware quality gate
make quality	Same full non-hardware quality gate via Make
npm run coverage	Generate frontend + Rust coverage reports
make coverage	Same coverage reports via Make
make test	Script syntax + engine tests + payload validation + client build
make test-engine	cargo test --workspace (no hardware needed)
make dist	Tauri bundle under client/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/

Test

Unit and integration tests run entirely against an in-process mock FTX2 server — no PS5 needed:

make test-engine

Full local quality gate and coverage reports:

npm run validate
npm run coverage

Real-hardware smoke test (requires payload already loaded):

npm run smoke:hardware

See TESTING.md for the complete mock-test, coverage, cross-platform, and live-PS5 validation workflow.

Tech stack

• Payload — C (FreeBSD 11), prospero-clang toolchain
• Engine — Rust (edition 2021), tokio + axum 0.8
• Desktop client — Tauri 2, React, TypeScript, Zustand, Tailwind CSS v4, Vite
• Protocol — FTX2 (custom binary framing, BLAKE3 shard verification)

Supported platforms

Desktop client

	x64	arm64
macOS	✓	✓
Linux	✓	✓
Windows	✓	✓

PS5 payload — every firmware the PS5 Payload SDK supports, currently 1.00 through 12.70 on every console model (original CFI-1xxx, Slim CFI-2xxx, Pro CFI-7xxx, Digital). Built against SDK v0.38, which ships per-firmware kernel offsets and resolves them at payload startup via kernel_get_fw_version() — the same binary runs on every supported firmware without per-release rebuilds.

Range	Feature coverage
1.00 – 12.70	Supported — the same binary runs everywhere the SDK covers
Hardware-tested	FW 5.10 and 9.60 (in-house) · FW 12.20 (user-confirmed) — core features (transfer, mount, browse, install) work across the range

.pkg install depends on the console's jailbreak having live kernel patches (kstuff / fpkg-enable). On builds where those aren't active the installer reports it honestly rather than claiming a false success — see the FAQ on install firmware support.

The process-list feature (Hardware tab's process snapshot) reads kinfo_proc via sysctl(KERN_PROC_PROC) with field offsets that have been stable across every SDK-supported firmware — pid at byte 72, thread name at byte 447. No firmware-specific fallback table required; real command names appear across the full 1.00 – 12.70 range. Transfer, mount, file browse, hardware monitor (except CPU/SoC temps, which Sony gates on a different credential check unrelated to firmware), and FS ops work identically across all supported firmwares.

What actually gates users in practice is the ELF loader on port 9021 — a third-party component, not part of ps5upload. The ecosystem's real-world coverage is roughly 4.x through 12.x; below 4.x is obscure and above 12.70 is future work.

FAQ

Q: "Connection Refused" or it won't connect?

• Did you load the payload first? The PS5 stops listening after a reboot or rest-mode cycle — send the payload again from the Connection tab.
• Is your computer's firewall blocking outbound connections to port 9113 / 9114 / 9021 on your PS5?
• Your computer and PS5 don't have to be on the same subnet, but there has to be a route to the IP.

Q: Resume gets stuck on "Checking what's already on your PS5…"?

• Reconcile scoped to the local tree's parent directories, so a single-file upload into a folder that already holds other games is now one FS_LIST_DIR call instead of a recursive walk of the whole destination. Update to the latest build.
• Safe-mode reconcile still hashes every same-size remote file via BLAKE3 — that's ~2–3 s per GiB on PS5 UFS. Use Fast mode for single-file or large-file transfers.

Q: Do I need a LAN cable?

• Not strictly, but Wi-Fi caps throughput well below what the PS5 NIC can actually do. Plug in an Ethernet cable for the best experience.

Q: Can I use this over the Internet?

• Yes, technically. If you forward ports 9113 / 9114 to your PS5 it will work. However, the FTX2 protocol is optimised for speed, not for authentication — we don't recommend exposing an exploited PS5 to the open Internet.

Q: How do I install / launch a game from the Library tab?

• The 2.2.26 Library row exposes Mount for .exfat / .ffpkg / .ffpfs images plus Register / Register (patch DRM) / Launch / Unregister buttons on the games inside.
• Mount is hardware-validated on FW 9.60 — a 76 GiB UFS .ffpkg mounts on /dev/lvd1, appears in Volumes with the correct source_image, and unmounts cleanly. The new round's payload uses compile-time -lSce* linkage so the rtld initialises the Sony sprx state via DT_NEEDED before main() runs.
• Register is hardware-validated: pointing it at a folder game with eboot.bin + sce_sys/param.json succeeds end to end — sceAppInstUtilAppInstallTitleDir returns 0, the title appears in app.db with the correct title name, and a nullfs bind is installed at /system_ex/app/<title_id>. Idempotent — re-registering the same path returns the same result.
• Register (patch DRM) rewrites the source's sce_sys/param.json's applicationDrmType to "standard" before staging — needed for PSN-extracted dumps that ship with "PSN" or "disc". Modifies the source file in place; only use when a normal Register fails with a DRM error.
• Launch routes sceLncUtilLaunchApp through a ptrace RPC into SceShellUI so Sony's getpid() == SceShellUI.pid caller-context check passes natively. Hardware-validated on FW 9.60: hitting Launch on a registered title actually starts the game (SoC power draw confirms the title comes up). Falls back to a direct call when ShellUI RPC isn't available.
• Listing inside an active mount (/mnt/ps5upload/<name>/...) is gated by the PS5 sandbox / LVD mount permission set rather than payload privilege. We re-check after every credential elevation; treat "ENOTDIR descending into a mount" as expected for now. Other PS5-side tools see the mount via /mnt/ps5upload/, and the source path is recorded in our tracker so reconcile-on-next-boot keeps state consistent.
• Live CPU/SoC temperature, clock, and SoC power are read on demand (the Hardware tab's "Read sensors" button), not on a timer. Each read briefly ptrace-pauses the system UI, and doing that on a loop could destabilize the console — it powered some consoles off — so the auto- refresh now covers only the ptrace-free data (info, uptime, storage, date/time). These readings are also unreliable across firmware revisions: libkernel exports them by NID-only on some FW points and the call returns garbage or fails, so a persistent — usually means your firmware's exports are NID-only, not that the payload is broken.

Q: "No writable storage found"?

• The tool blocks writes to read-only system partitions. If you want to write to a USB drive, make sure it's formatted (exFAT is best) and plugged in before you load the payload.

Q: macOS: "App is damaged" or "Unidentified Developer"?

• This is normal for unsigned apps. Right-click the app, select Open, then click Open in the dialog.
• If macOS still blocks it, System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.
• Last resort — remove the quarantine flag:

  xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/ps5upload.app

• No Apple Developer account is required; the app is intentionally unsigned.

Q: Where are config and logs saved?

• The desktop client uses the OS app-data directory:
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\com.phantomptr.ps5upload
  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/com.phantomptr.ps5upload
  • Linux: ~/.local/share/com.phantomptr.ps5upload

Q: Does this work on PS4?

• No. The payload is compiled specifically for the PS5 (FreeBSD 11, Zen 2) and calls PS5-only kernel entry points.

Q: What about older firmware (≤ 9.00)?

• The FTX2 payload itself doesn't call firmware-gated APIs, but the ELF loader workflow on port 9021 depends on what your jailbreak exposes. Patches welcome.

Q: Can I run ps5upload headless / over SSH?

• Not the GUI. The ps5upload-engine binary speaks HTTP on :19113 and exposes the full transfer / reconcile / FS API, so you can script transfers from a terminal or CI job without ever opening the desktop client.

Q: Can the engine run on a different machine (remote / self-hosted)?

• Yes (3.3.7+). Host the engine elsewhere and point the desktop app at it via Settings → Engine URL. An official multi-arch image is published at ghcr.io/phantomptr/ps5upload-engine (:latest or :<version>); you can also build from engine/Dockerfile. To let a remote box reach it, set PS5UPLOAD_ALLOW_IP to that box's IP. Security: the engine's API is unauthenticated (it can read/write/delete PS5 files), so only do this on a trusted LAN — never expose the engine to the internet.

Contributing

• Report bugs: GitHub Issues
• Pull requests welcome — please read .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md and run make test locally before opening.

Disclaimer

Use this software entirely at your own risk. It is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

You are solely responsible for how, where, and on what hardware you use this tool. By downloading, installing, or running it, you acknowledge and accept that:

• It interacts with a modified PS5. This tool only works on a console that has been jailbroken / has kernel exploits loaded by the user. Modifying console state, bypassing platform integrity checks, or running unsigned code may void your manufacturer warranty, violate the platform's terms of service, and — under certain operations — leave your console unrecoverable without a reinstall. You took those steps before this tool entered the picture; this tool does not put you in that state and cannot reverse it.
• It writes to your PS5's filesystem and can install / register packages with Sony's installer. Mistakes can corrupt the console's app database, leave orphaned mount points, or wedge Sony's mgmt service mid-install. Recovery normally means a reboot or — worst case — a factory reset. Back up anything important before bulk operations.
• It is intended for use only with content you legally own and hardware that belongs to you. Using it to install, mount, or distribute software you do not have the legal right to use is your responsibility, not the project's.
• No support is guaranteed. This is a free, volunteer-built tool. The author may answer questions on Discord but is under no obligation to provide fixes, updates, or compensation if anything goes wrong.

If any of the above is not acceptable to you, do not use this software.

Third-Party Libraries

This software builds on the following open-source projects:

Desktop client (Tauri 2 + React):

• Tauri — Rust-backed cross-platform desktop runtime
• React — UI library
• Zustand — Client state management
• Tailwind CSS — Styling
• Vite — Build + dev server
• lucide-react — Icons
• react-router — Routing

Engine (Rust):

• tokio — Async runtime
• axum — HTTP service
• serde — Serialization
• anyhow — Error handling
• uuid — Job IDs
• zip + sevenz-rust2 — pure-Rust .zip / .7z extraction
• unrar / unrar_sys — .rar extraction on desktop (bundles the UnRAR source by Alexander Roshal; used to extract only, never to compress). See the required notice and the GPLv3 §7 linking exception in LICENSES/.

Payload (PS5):

• PS5 Payload SDK — Open-source SDK for PS5 payload development
• BLAKE3 — Fast cryptographic hashing (per-shard verification)

Thanks

ps5upload stands on the shoulders of the PS5 homebrew scene. Huge thanks to everyone who makes this ecosystem possible — the exploit and kernel researchers, the ELF/payload loader authors, the PS5 Payload SDK maintainers, the homebrew tool developers whose work this lives alongside, and everyone in the community who tests, reports bugs, and shares knowledge. None of this exists without your collective effort. 🙏

License

GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPLv3). Free to use, free to modify. See LICENSE.

.rar support / UnRAR: the desktop build bundles the UnRAR source (used only to extract RAR — never to compress or build a RAR-compatible archiver). A GPLv3 §7 linking exception covers combining it with this GPL code, and UnRAR's own license is reproduced as required. See LICENSES/UnRAR-exception.md and LICENSES/UnRAR-license.txt.

Author

Created and maintained by PhantomPtr.

• Follow me on X (@phantomptr)

Support

If you find this tool useful, consider buying me a coffee!

• Discord server: https://discord.gg/fzK3xddtrM
• Support me on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/B0B81S0WUA