Let other people on your PS5 play your digital games using their own accounts, with Sony’s Console Sharing and Offline Play setting.
Sharing a PS5 shouldn’t mean everyone has to use the same account. Your carefully maintained save files have suffered enough!
Console Sharing and Offline Play lets other users on one designated PS5 access your downloaded purchases and certain PlayStation Plus benefits. Sony’s name for the setting is a mouthful, but enabling it is straightforward.
In this article
How to enable console sharing
On the PS5 you want to share:
- Sign in to the account that owns the games.
- Open Settings.
- Select Users and Accounts > Other.
- Open Console Sharing and Offline Play.
- Select Enable.
Sony normally enables the feature on the first PS5 you use to sign in. If the menu offers Disable, it’s already enabled.
You can enable console sharing on one PS5 per account at a time. If another PS5 is currently designated, disable it there before switching.
Download the games, then switch accounts
Using the purchasing account, download the game from its library. Once installed, the other person can switch to their own account and launch it.
They don’t need to play using your profile. Keeping separate accounts also keeps everyone’s progress and trophies attached to the right player.
For example, if you buy a digital game and enable console sharing on the living-room PS5, another user on that console can play the downloaded game through their own account.
Can you share PlayStation Plus?
Some benefits, yes. With the relevant subscription active, supported shared benefits include:
- Online multiplayer, subject to parental controls.
- Downloaded monthly PlayStation Plus games.
- Downloaded games bought with a PlayStation Plus discount.
- Game Catalogue and Classics Catalogue games, depending on the membership plan.
Other users don’t receive a complete subscription of their own. Cloud save storage, claiming monthly games on their accounts and buying games using your subscription discount aren’t shared.
Access to subscription games still depends on the applicable membership and availability conditions. Console sharing doesn’t make departing catalogue games permanently yours.
Does it work offline?
The designated console can play eligible downloaded purchases offline. Games requiring an internet connection still need one – the setting doesn’t persuade an online-only game to develop an offline mode!
What if a game shows a padlock?
First, check that console sharing is enabled on the account that actually owns the game. For a PlayStation Plus title, also check the subscription and whether the game remains available.
If access should be valid, sign in to the owning account and open Settings > Users and Accounts > Other > Restore Licenses. Select the relevant licences and follow the prompts. Restoring licences doesn’t delete your data.
Can you share disc games this way?
Console sharing doesn’t turn a physical copy into a digital licence. You still need the game disc and a PS5 with a compatible disc drive to play it.
Keep control of your account
Set up sharing yourself rather than handing out your account password. Other people can then use their own profiles on the designated console.
Think of this as sharing access on a particular PS5, rather than distributing ownership of your library. You’re letting someone play your games, not signing over the backlog.
