PS4 owners report forced ‘Offline’ status bug with update 4.72; Possible solutions

Earlier this week Sony released a small update for the PlayStation 4, known as update 4.72. This update brought even more optimization to the system's performance, as well as a potential solution for issues players had been encountering with Final Fantasy XIV.

Unfortunately, the update appears to have brought about an issue for some PlayStation 4 users. Apparently, 4.72 is causing players to go ghost while playing online, specifically speaking, it's showing users as offline. When encountered, PS4 owners cannot change their profile from appearing offline to appearing online, nor can they join games or send invites.

Some users have also noted that the PS4 is reporting they are logged into different devices.

 Two solutions for this issue have appeared on line:

1. "What fixed it for me was going to "Settings" > "Playstation Network" Log Out, Log In. Then Log Controller out of PS4, then back in." – Lightmgl
2. "Had to put the console into safe mode. Turn off your console and hold down the power button on the console (Not your controller, that part got me) for a while until you hear a second beep while it starts up. It will ask you to plug in a controller using usb, and press "rebuild data base" That got me back working." – Peaznsteaz

So, if you're encountering these issues – attempt the fixes above.