Did you know you can change your PS5 online ID? Otherwise known as your PSN ID? Well you can!
Sony added this capability later in the PS4 era. So, it could have been easy to miss because it wasn’t possible to change your ID on the PS3, and for most of the PS4 life cycle it wasn’t possible either.
Why would you want to change your PS5 online ID? Well for a few reasons. Maybe you created the ID when you were a lot younger and now you want a username that’s more relevant to you at your current age. Maybe you just want something fresh.
Maybe your username was rather inappropriate at one point, and as you’ve gotten older and wiser you don’t want to be embarrassed by your choices. Whatever the case may be, you can change the PS5 online ID and it’s not too hard to do.
In this handy guide, we’ll walk you through how to change your PS5 online ID so you can be satisfied with the online persona you’ve chosen for your next-gen adventures.
How to change your PS5 online ID
Enter the settings menu
If you’ve come to terms with changing your PS5 online ID then you’ll want to go straight to the settings menu.
As with linking accounts and restoring licenses for purchased content, changing your online ID will start here. The settings menu is accessed from the little cog button in the top right corner of the UI. It’s right next to your profile avatar.
click on that to bring up settings.
Click on the Profile menu under Users and Accounts
Your PS5 online ID options are located in the profile menu, which itself is located under users and accounts. Click on profile and you’ll see options for name, online ID, profile picture, avatar, cover image, about, and language.
For future reference, this is where you go to change the details for any of those other sections. For now though, click on online ID.
Before you can go about changing your online ID though, you’ll have to accept Sony’s terms. Basically this is just a list of things you’re agreeing that you acknowledge about the process of changing your online ID.
That being said, don’t skip by this screen by just hitting the accept button immediately. You’ll want to pay attention here.
You can also get to profile settings from your actual profile
A slightly quicker way to get to the profile settings menu is from the actual profile screen.
Then again it may not necessarily be quicker. But if you’re already on your profile screen and the mood to change your online ID strikes, you can start from here.
On your PS5 profile, find and click the edit button which should look like a little pencil. After clicking that you’ll see an option to edit profile. This will take you directly to the profile settings menu within the console settings.
From here just follow the same steps as above and click on online ID, accept the changes that may happen and finally pick a new name.
Things to know before you change your PS5 online ID
If this is your first PlayStation console ever, and you’ve not really jumped in and bought anything yet, change at your leisure.
If however you’ve come over from a PS4, or any other PlayStation system where you have purchases and progress, make this change with caution.
Sony notes that if you change your PS5 online ID, you can lose access to a ton of different stuff. They’re not saying that you will, but that you can. So you’re taking a risk, hence the reason for the accept button. You’re assuming this risk.
Changing the ID can result in loss of licenses for your PSN purchases. This includes games, add-on content, premium avatars and everything else that you can buy on the PlayStation store.
You can also lose access to saved game progress, leaderboard data and rankings, and some stuff within games may not work as intended. If you’re ok with taking the risk of losing some of this stuff, then proceed with the change. But know that in doing so, you will essentially have no recourse if you suddenly lose access to paid content.
The silver lining here is that all PS5 games should support the ID change. Which would mean that your save states, trophies, paid content and more will be safe. Not all games or content from PS4, PS3, and PS Vita do though. And that’s where the issue lies.
Your PS5 online ID can still show up in some places
Changing your ID will make it so that it’s visible just about anywhere. But Sony does also state that some places will potentially show your old ID.
Keep this in mind just in case you share your gaming exploits or you tell someone to search for your stuff. As they may come across your old ID.