A warning for all PlayStation 4 owners, there is reportedly a messaging bug circling PlayStation Network that soft-bricks your console, and some of those affected have even turned to factory resetting their consoles to remedy the bug. The messaging bug almost resembles the iPhone’s text crash bugs in nature. While there are differing reports on whether the bug affects the console when the message is received or when the message is opened, it is recommended to turn your messaging setting to “Friends Only” or “No-One” to prevent any possible damage.
For those who have been affected by it and for those worried who want to know what to do if it happens, a solution has been found that doesn’t require you to factory reset your console. If it occurs, you can simply download the PlayStation Messages App (Available on the Google Play Store and App Store) on your phone. Through this you can delete the message that causes your console to soft-brick. Then you can boot your PlayStation 4 in safe mode and choose to rebuild the database. After that your console should be fine and you can change your messaging settings to prevent it from happening again. You can read the Reddit post that describes the process to fix in detail here.
It has been a few days since this bug that has been reported online, with many people originally believing it was a hack and flooding the PlayStation 4 support page with messages like these. Many of the users affected by the bug seem to have been playing Rocket League, but whether that is a factor in the message being sent or not remains to be seen. While Sony has made no official comment as of writing, it is likely that they will address the issue within the coming days due to how widespread the issue has been for users.