Hacking Still Access PSN while on 8.03?

[protivakid]

I've seen people casually throw out that after a new PS4 firmware releases, they are able to access PSN while on the old firmware for a short period of time. There are a couple PSN titles I want to grab but would prefer to stay on 8.03 instead up updating to 8.50 which just released.

Is there some way to use a DNS or another method to still access the PSN store this week?

 

[subcon959]

That's only true for minor updates, when there is a major update they make it mandatory pretty quickly.

 

[protivakid]

So even after 24 hours 8.50 is the only option? How has it been done for minor updates? I'd still like to give it a try

 

[protivakid]

So I got an answer over on PSXHAX by the PSXHAX account themselves and wanted to share hoping it will help others.

Years ago Sony didn't make updating mandatory to access PSN until a few weeks after each OFW release, and back then several 'bypass' methods were discovered including PSProxy, SKFU Pr0xy3, etc.

Here are several topics covering them sorted by date with the oldest first, but once the force_update is changed to the latest Firmware version it's required rendering the methods useless:
PHP:
<force_update>
<system level0_system_ex_version="0" level0_system_version="08.508.000" level1_system_ex_version="0" level1_system_version="08.508.000"/>
</force_update>
​

Is force_update something that's local to my system after it detects 8.50? Or something set on the PSN server side? If the latter, I'm assuming the answer is that Sony has already flipped with switch to require 8.50?

Correct, it's PSN server-side so already mandatory unfortunately.
​

Last question, is this PSN flag flipped on a global scale or is it possible for some region to still be on 8.03?

It typically changes in all regions around the same time, here are a few you can check to see:

• PS4 Updater (EUR)
• PS4 Updater (UK)
• PS4 Updater (AU/NZ)
• PS4 Updater (JPN)
• PS4 Updater (USA)

 

[godreborn]

I heard on psx place that the new update prevents an extended storage drive from working on lower firmware, so now there's no way to grab older psn titles, then dump them on lower firmware, so that's probably why it's mandatory nearly instantly..

 

[KiiWii]

8.50 is a compulsory update to use PSN.

Edit: that’s true @godreborn

 

[protivakid]

I heard on psx place that the new update prevents an extended storage drive from working on lower firmware, so now there's no way to grab older psn titles, then dump them on lower firmware, so that's probably why it's mandatory nearly instantly..

I had no idea there was even a way to do this. Previously it was possible to use say an 8.03 console to grab the title, copy it to storage, and then dump it on a 7.02 console?

 

[godreborn]

I had no idea there was even a way to do this. Previously it was possible to use say an 8.03 console to grab the title, copy it to storage, and then dump it on a 7.02 console?

nor did, not until yesterday, but that seems to be the way people have been doing it instead of the convoluted downgrade method.

 

[godreborn]

I don't know how people were dumping games (if that's what they were doing), because I found no license folder on the external hdd (I just checked). on the internal hdd, licenses are in user/license: