How to Connect a PS4 Controller to PS5 (and What It Can Actually Do)

A DualShock 4 works on a PS5, but only for PS4 games. It will not launch a single PS5 game, and that is not a bug or a firmware gap waiting to be fixed. Sony said so publicly months before the console shipped, and nothing has changed since.

Everything else on this page follows from that one sentence. The pairing itself takes about twenty seconds, so here it is first, and then the exact map of what the pad can and cannot do once it is connected.

Connect a PS4 Controller to PS5 With a Cable

This is the method to use the first time. Bluetooth pairing from the menus needs a working controller to navigate those menus, which is not much help if the DualShock 4 is the only pad you have to hand.

1. Turn the PS5 on. Not rest mode, fully on, with the home screen showing.
2. Plug the DualShock 4 into a USB port on the console using a USB micro-B cable, the same cable that charged it on the PS4.
3. Press the PS button in the middle of the pad.
4. The light bar blinks, then the player indicator strip below the touchpad lights up. That is the pairing confirmed.
5. Unplug the cable. It now reconnects wirelessly whenever you press PS.

One practical snag worth knowing before you go looking for the cable. The launch PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition have one USB-A port and one USB-C port on the front. The PS5 Slim and PS5 Pro have two USB-C ports on the front instead. All of them keep two USB-A ports on the back. Since a DualShock 4 charges over micro-USB, on a Slim or a Pro the easiest route is the rear USB-A ports, or a USB-C to micro-USB cable if you would rather not reach behind the console.

If nothing happens when you press PS, hold it for a couple of seconds rather than tapping it. A pad that has been sitting in a drawer since 2021 may also be flat enough that it needs five minutes on the cable before it responds at all.

Pair a PS4 Controller to PS5 Wirelessly

Use this when you already have a working DualSense to drive the menus, or when the cable route has failed.

1. On the PS5, go to Settings, then Accessories, then General, then Bluetooth Accessories.
2. Pick up the DualShock 4 and make sure it is off. If the player indicator is lit, hold the PS button until it goes out, and unplug any USB cable.
3. Hold the Share button (the small one to the left of the touchpad), and while still holding it, press and hold the PS button.
4. Keep both held until the light bar flashes rapidly in a double-blink pattern. That is Bluetooth pairing mode. Let go at that point.
5. The controller appears in the PS5's Bluetooth Accessories list. Select it.
6. The light bar blinks once more, then settles to a solid colour with the player indicator lit.

The rapid double-flash is the signal that matters. A slow single pulse means the pad is charging or idling, not pairing, and the PS5 will never see it in that state.

What a DualShock 4 Can and Cannot Do on a PS5

This is the part rushed articles get wrong, usually by writing "it works" and stopping. The line is sharper than that, and it sits in exactly one place: the moment a PS5-native game launches.

So the pad is a perfectly normal controller for browsing, for Netflix, for a Blu-ray, and for every PS4 game in your library. Start a PS5 game with only a DualShock 4 connected and the console tells you the controller is not supported and refuses to go further. There is no setting, no accessibility toggle and no firmware update that changes this.

Two smaller details are worth spelling out. The DualShock 4's built-in speaker and headphone jack work while you are in a PS4 game, because the game is talking to the pad it was written for. And the pad cannot be used for the initial setup of a brand new console, so if you have bought a PS5 with the intention of using old pads only, that plan fails at the first screen.

PS4 Wheels, Arcade Sticks and Flight Sticks Follow a Different Rule

This trips people up constantly, because they assume the DualShock 4 rule applies to everything with a PS4 logo on the box. It does not.

Sony's position, published in August 2020 and unchanged since, is that specialty peripherals get the better deal. Officially licensed racing wheels, arcade sticks and flight sticks work with PS5 games as well as with supported PS4 games. A fight stick you bought for Tekken on PS4 is a legitimate PS5 fight stick.

The catch is that "supported" is doing real work in that sentence. Compatibility is per game, not per console. A PS5 racing game has to include support for your specific wheel, and a PS5 fighting game has to accept stick input, which almost all of them do. If a PS5 game has no wheel support at all, no adapter fixes that.

The rest of the PS4 accessory shelf splits like this:

• PS Move controllers and the PS VR Aim Controller work, but only with supported PS VR games running on PS5. They are not general-purpose PS5 controllers.
• Platinum and Gold wireless headsets, plus third-party headsets that connect by USB or the 3.5 mm jack, work normally on PS5.
• Officially licensed third-party PS4 gamepads follow the DualShock 4 rule exactly. PS4 games only.

Why Sony Drew the Line There

The short version, and it is worth knowing because it explains why no workaround exists.

The DualSense is not a DualShock 4 with a new shell. It has haptic feedback motors in place of simple rumble, and adaptive triggers with resistance motors inside L2 and R2. A PS5 game that builds a mechanic around trigger tension, or that uses haptics to tell you what surface you are walking on, has no fallback on hardware that physically cannot produce those sensations.

Sony's stated reasoning was that PS5 games should take advantage of the new capabilities of the platform, including the DualSense features, rather than ship a quietly degraded experience for anyone holding an old pad. Whether you agree with that call, it is a design decision rather than a technical limitation, which is why it has never been patched.

Backwards compatibility for the games themselves is a separate and much more generous story. If you want the detail on which PS4 titles run and how they behave on PS5, that is covered in can you play PS4 games on PS5.

The Genuinely Useful Reason to Keep an Old DualShock 4

Here is the upside, and it is a real one rather than a consolation prize.

A second DualShock 4 is the cheapest local co-op controller a PS5 owner can buy, provided the game is a PS4 game. Used DualShock 4 pads sell for a fraction of a new DualSense, and the PS4 era is packed with couch multiplayer: split-screen shooters, party games, sports titles, local co-op platformers. All of it runs on PS5, all of it accepts the old pad, and player two never touches an adaptive trigger anyway.

That makes an old pad worth keeping in a drawer even if you never use it as player one. If you are picking games to use it on, our list of best split-screen PS5 games flags which entries are PS4 titles, and those are the ones where a spare DualShock 4 does the job.

One buying note while you are at it, and then we will leave it alone. When a game exists in both a PS4 and a PS5 version, they are separate store listings at separate prices, and the PS4 version is very often the cheaper of the two by a wide margin, especially once it is a few years old. If you are going to be playing it with a DualShock 4 in a second player's hands regardless, it is worth comparing both entries before you buy. Our PS Store sales tracker and the PS5 games on sale page show current and historic prices side by side, so you can see which version is actually the better deal today rather than guessing.

Troubleshooting

It paired fine, but a PS5 game ignores it

It is not broken. This is the block described above doing its job. Check whether the game is the PS4 version or the PS5 version: in your Game Library, the tile carries a PS4 or PS5 badge, and many games you own show both. Launching the PS4 version brings the DualShock 4 back to life instantly. There is no fix for the PS5 version.

It will not pair at all

Work through these in order.

1. Charge it properly. Give it thirty minutes on the cable before judging it. A deeply discharged pad can show no light at all on first plug-in.
2. Try a different cable. Micro-USB cables that came with phone accessories are frequently charge-only, with no data lines, and a charge-only cable will never pair anything.
3. Reset the controller. There is a pinhole on the back of the pad, near the L2 shoulder beside the screw. Push a straightened paperclip in and hold for about five seconds, then reconnect by cable. This clears a corrupted pairing, which is the single most common cause.
4. Restart the PS5 fully. Power it down completely rather than resting it, wait twenty seconds, and try again.

If the pad also misbehaves on a PS4, the problem is the hardware rather than the PS5. Stick drift in particular has its own set of fixes, covered in how to fix stick drift on PS5, and the reset procedure above is explained in more depth in how to reset a PS5 controller, which works the same way on both generations of pad.

It works wired but not wirelessly

Almost always a stale Bluetooth registration. Go to Settings, then Accessories, then General, then Bluetooth Accessories, delete the DualShock 4 entry, then pair it again from scratch using the Share plus PS method above.

If it drops out at a distance, check what else is on the shelf. A DualShock 4 uses the crowded 2.4 GHz band, and a router, a wireless headset dongle or a USB 3.0 hard drive sitting right next to the console will all interfere with it. Moving the console a foot away from the router often fixes a pad that stutters at four metres.

It keeps reconnecting to the PS4 instead

A DualShock 4 pairs with exactly one console at a time, so this only happens when the PS4 grabs it back first. Turn the PS4 fully off rather than leaving it in rest mode, since a rested PS4 still listens for its controllers. Then pair the pad to the PS5 by cable, which overwrites the old link. To go back to the PS4 later, plug it into the PS4 and press PS. There is no unpair menu to hunt for on either console.

The light bar stays on but nothing responds

The pad has paired to something, just not to what you think. Hold the PS button for ten seconds to force it off, then start the cable pairing again from step one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you use a PS4 controller on a PS5?

Yes, but only to play PS4 games. Sony confirmed before launch that the DualShock 4 and officially licensed third-party PS4 gamepads work with supported PS4 games on PS5, and that PS5 games do not support them at all.

How do I connect a PS4 controller to a PS5?

Turn the PS5 on, plug the DualShock 4 into a console USB port with a micro-USB cable, then press the PS button. The light bar blinks and the player indicator lights up when it is paired. After that first cable pairing it reconnects wirelessly.

Why won't my PS4 controller work on PS5 games?

Because Sony blocked it deliberately. PS5 games are built around DualSense features such as haptic feedback and adaptive triggers that a DualShock 4 has no hardware for, so the console refuses the pad rather than offering a downgraded version of the game.

Do PS4 racing wheels and arcade sticks work on PS5?

Yes, and the rule is more generous than for the DualShock 4. Sony says officially licensed racing wheels, arcade sticks and flight sticks work with PS5 games as well as supported PS4 games, provided the individual game supports that peripheral.

How do I unpair a PS4 controller from my PS4 before using it on PS5?

A DualShock 4 pairs with only one console at a time, so pairing it to the PS5 by cable overwrites the old link automatically. If it keeps jumping back, turn the PS4 fully off rather than leaving it in rest mode, or reset the pad with the small button behind the L2 trigger.

Is a second-hand DualShock 4 worth buying for a PS5?

If you play PS4 games on your PS5 it is one of the cheapest ways to add a second player, because used DualShock 4 pads cost a fraction of a new DualSense. Just remember it will sit unused for every PS5-native game you own.

Keep the old pad for player two on your PS4 library, and check the live PS Store deals before you buy any game that exists in both a PS4 and a PS5 edition, because the two versions are rarely the same price.