Why will my PS3 not read a USB despite it being formatted correctly?

Just keep plugging out and plugging in. It will eventually read it. Also check every menu item on the screen to see if the USB comes up. Sometimes they'll show up only in pictures but not in videos, you'll still be able to copy and view videos, but you'll have to find them thru a series of folders. It's a pain in the ***..

First of all, if your HDD is greater than 2TB, you are gonna have a hard time. The PS3 can not read external drives more than 2TB, even if you format it using FAT32. You have to try and make multiple partions in such cases.

Also make sure you are not doing a quick format. If your HDD is 2TB or less than 2TB you can use HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool. It works perfectly though it can not create paritions.

Plus its not necessariy to put files in VIDEOS, PHOTO etc folders. You can use the Display All option.

Try plugging it in. Go to the USB stick that appears on the dashboard and then pressing triangle, and then show all files. This has worked for me when my ps3 told me that the usb stick I was using was empty when it wasn't.

only make up a folder on the usb and put in pictures, song and mp4 or divx video clips from ur computer then after u have plugged indoors the usb stress to ps3, pass to the video menu and scroll as much as see the usb stress look and press triangle on it then %. exhibit all, then u will see all playable video stuff u placed on there and if some thing seems as corrupted records or unsupported records it potential that format does not paintings on ps3. do an analogous for song and pictures. if the usb does not ensue in any appreciate, attempt formatting it on ur computer and that is going to be FAT32 in default yet some computers have ntfs as default format so substitute settings for this reason.