How to Disable Auto Power Off on PS5: A Complete Guide

The PS5's auto power-off feature is useful for saving energy, but it can be genuinely frustrating if your console shuts down mid-download, during a long cutscene, or while you step away briefly. Understanding exactly how to disable or adjust this setting — and what factors affect the right choice for your setup — takes about two minutes once you know where to look.

What Is Auto Power Off on the PS5?

Sony built two separate power-management behaviors into the PS5, and it's worth knowing the difference before you start changing settings:

• Rest Mode timeout — The console enters a low-power Rest Mode after a set period of inactivity. In Rest Mode, it can still download updates, charge controllers, and sync saves to the cloud.
• Turn Off PS5 timeout — The console powers off completely, stopping all background activity.

Most users conflating "auto power off" are actually dealing with one of these two settings. Adjusting the wrong one leads to confusion, so identifying which behavior is bothering you first saves time.

How to Access the Power Saving Settings 🎮

1. From the PS5 home screen, open Settings (the gear icon in the top-right corner).
2. Scroll down and select System.
3. Choose Power Saving.
4. Select Set Time Until PS5 Enters Rest Mode or Set Time Until PS5 Turns Off.

Inside these menus, you'll find separate options for:

• While Playing Games — controls the timeout when a game is running.
• While Using Media Applications — applies when you're streaming video or using apps like Disney+ or YouTube.

Each can be set independently, which gives you precise control depending on how you use the console.

How to Disable Auto Power Off Completely

To stop the PS5 from shutting itself off automatically, set the timer to "Don't Turn Off" (sometimes displayed as "Don't Put in Rest Mode" for the Rest Mode option).

Selecting "Don't Turn Off" means the console will never shut down automatically from inactivity alone. It will only power off when you manually tell it to, or if a power interruption occurs.

What Stays Active in Rest Mode vs. Full Power

This is a variable that significantly affects which setting you should adjust:

Rest Mode keeps running:

• Background game and system updates
• USB charging (if enabled in Rest Mode settings)
• PlayStation Network connectivity for remote play
• Cloud save syncing

Full power-off stops everything, including downloads and charging.

If you're disabling auto power-off because you want background downloads to complete overnight, disabling only the "Turn Off PS5" setting may not be enough — you'd also want to either keep the console fully on or configure Rest Mode to allow downloads. Under Power Saving → Features Available in Rest Mode, you can toggle "Stay Connected to the Internet" and "Enable Turning on PS5 from Network" independently.

Factors That Shape the Right Approach ⚙️

The ideal configuration isn't universal — it shifts based on a few key variables:

Download habits: Users who regularly queue large game downloads or updates overnight benefit from keeping Rest Mode active with internet connectivity enabled, rather than disabling all power-saving entirely. Turning off every auto-sleep setting while leaving downloads running keeps the full system on and consuming more power than necessary.

Controller charging: If you rely on the PS5 to charge your DualSense controller via USB, Rest Mode needs to stay active (with USB charging enabled) or the charging stops the moment the display goes idle.

Electricity costs and usage patterns: Running a PS5 at full power continuously versus Rest Mode represents a meaningful difference in energy draw. The PS5 in Rest Mode consumes roughly a fraction of its full-power wattage — relevant for users in regions with higher electricity costs or for households with strict energy budgets.

Shared household use: If multiple people use the same PS5, a longer timeout rather than "don't turn off" may still make practical sense — the console won't go off mid-session, but it also won't stay on all night if someone forgets to switch it off.

Game type: Some games — particularly online multiplayer titles or games with long idle periods like open-world sandboxes — make accidental timeouts more likely. Streamers and content creators running capture setups also face unique challenges where any auto-shutoff can disrupt a recording or stream session.

A Note on HDMI-CEC and TV Auto-Off 🖥️

One overlooked variable: some users think their PS5 is powering itself off when their TV is actually switching inputs or shutting down via HDMI-CEC (Consumer Electronics Control), a feature that lets devices communicate over HDMI. If your TV turns off and the PS5 follows, or vice versa, the issue may be in your TV's settings rather than the PS5's power-saving menu.

To check, navigate to Settings → System → HDMI → Enable HDMI Device Link. Disabling this stops the PS5 from responding to your TV's power commands.

The Configuration That Fits You

The PS5 gives you enough granularity to handle almost any use case — full always-on, Rest Mode with selective features, or complete auto-shutoff disabled. The setting that works best depends on how you balance active gaming time, background tasks, controller charging habits, and how shared your console is. Those variables don't resolve the same way for every household, which is why the menu offers so many combinations rather than a single toggle.