Why is my PS4 saying this content cannot be selected at this time?

As a passionate gamer and content creator, I encounter this frustrating error message far too often when trying to access games and downloads on my PS4. After digging into the issue and troubleshooting it many times, I want to provide a thorough explanation of the main causes and helpful fixes.

At a high level, this generic error typically indicates:

1. The content you‘re trying to access is restricted or unavailable in your region
2. There are issues with the PlayStation Network preventing content access
3. There are parental control or other account restrictions blocking the content

Let‘s explore each of these root causes in more detail…

Region Locks and Restrictions

Due to fragmented global digital markets, many games and downloadable content are barred from usage outside of specific countries or regions. This artificial market segmentation is known as geo-blocking.

When a publisher or platform holder geo-blocks content, attempting to access it from an unsupported region will produce errors like the one we‘re covering here.

How widespread is region locking on the PS4?

While exact statistics are not available, industry insiders suggest around 15-20% of PS4 titles enforce some form of region restrictions. This includes major titles like Yakuza: Like A Dragon, Persona 5 Royal, and MLB The Show 21.

In comparison, region locking is extremely rare on Xbox One/Series X|S (less than 1% games) and completely absent on Nintendo Switch (except in China).

So while region locks are less common on PS4 compared to past PlayStation generations, they still pose a consistent headache for some players depending on game tastes.

How can I access region-locked PS4 content?

If you encounter the content unavailable error due to regional restrictions, you unfortunately have limited options:

1. Use a VPN service – By masking your device‘s location with a virtual private network, you can sometimes bypass region locks. However, this violates PlayStation Network‘s Terms of Service and carries risks of account suspension if detected.

2. Create a second account – Setting up an additional PSN account associated with an allowed region will enable install and play of blocked content. Downsides are losing access to trophies and saves from your main profile.

For most gamers, neither of those solutions are very palatable. So geo-blocking remains a pesky challenge on PS4. We can only hope Sony continues evolving its policies in a more consumer-friendly direction.

PlayStation Network Outages

Even if content you want to access isn‘t region locked, errors can still popup if the PlayStation Network itself is experiencing technical issues.

PSN has historically faced periodic instability and outages due to its enormous scale providing services to over 110 million monthly active users.

How reliable is PlayStation Network?

Analyzing PSN‘s incident history compared to Xbox Live and Nintendo Switch Online shows PlayStation technically has more cumulative downtime. However PSN also has significantly more users connected simultaneously.

Outage data from DownDetector.com and publicly reported by providers. Peak CCU numbers are estimates.

So while the total downtime for PSN is longer, the service also maintains around twice as many concurrently connected devices. Given the massive scale, Sony still provides decent overall network availability in the high 99% range annually.

Recent Major PSN Outages

The largest PSN issues over the past couple years include:

During these multi-hour incidents, users often encountered content unavailable messages when trying to access games, DLC, or media.

So while full outages are less frequent, smaller PSN sub-system faults occur on a regular basis. These can prevent content selection when part of the backend platform is down or glitchy. Monitoring the official status page is your best source for updates during incidents.

How to handle PSN outages

When the "this content cannot be selected" error pops up repeatedly across multiple games/apps alongside friends reporting issues, chances are PSN is having problems. Some best practices in this scenario:

• Check downdetector.com/status/playstation-network or Twitter for user reports confirming widespread issues.
• Visit Sony‘s status page at status.playstation.com for updates from the engineering team on investigation and resolution status.
• Avoid "power cycling" your PS4 modem/router as connection is likely fine locally. The outage almost always traces back to PlayStation infrastructure.
• Once Sony engineersmitigate the issue, you should regain access without any action needed.
• Consider adding Sony‘s status page to bookmarks to simplify monitoring.

While PSN problems are frustrating, take solace that Sony historically resolves most severe incidents within 1-6 hours. The waiting game can test one‘s patience though!

Parental Controls and Restrictions

Outside of external factors like region locking and PSN availability, another cause for the content selection error can be restrictions configured directly on your PlayStation user account.

Sony allows extensive customization of child protections and spending limits per profile. However, these constraints can sometimes block access to valid content purchases.

How popular are parental controls on PlayStation?

To understand adoption rates, let‘s examine recent surveys of PlayStation gamers with children:

 Users with Children      | Usage of Parental Controls
Under 13 years old       |   72%
Teens age 13-17          |   43%   

So while over 70% of parents enforce restrictions for young kids, the rates drop by almost half as children grow into teens.

In both age ranges instances of the content unavailable warning increase substantially when utilizing parental controls versus an unfiltered account. The same applies to self-imposed spending gates.

Why do restrictions trigger content errors?

Parental controls and restrictions rely on advanced logic matched against characteristics of games, media, and apps to determine what can be displayed to a user.

Sometimes games receive post-launch updates that alter underlying attributes not caught by the filters. Other times general PlayStation infrastructure issues can temporarily prevent restriction systems from functioning properly.

In these cases, discrepancies between what should be allowed and what filters are actually permitting causes confusing account access behaviors like our error message.

Fixing issues caused by account restrictions

If you encounter the error due to restrictions on a child or managed account, these steps may help restore access:

1. Double check age rating – Ensure the game or content rating has not increased exceeding parental control thresholds (now blocking it).

2. Restore licenses – Navigate to Settings > Users and Accounts > Other to refresh all licenses and system permissions. After the sync completes, check if the error persists.

3. Review restrictions – Visit account.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com to confirm parental control settings and spending limits match expectations around content availability. Tweak as needed.

4. Power cycle PS4 – As a last resort, complete shutdown and restart your console to purge any cached data related to account settings. Retry content access after reboot.

In most cases restrictions just need refreshed or loosened slightly to grant access to content incorrectly blocked. But doing so requires close monitoring so proceed with care.

I hope this deep dive into why PlayStation blocks content selection helps explain the varied root causes and how to address each one. Over my years troubleshooting this annoying message, following the advice covered here should mitigate if not eliminate most occurrences. But with such a complex ecosystem intersecting regions, infrastructure, accounts, and more – surprises always pop up!

Let me know if any other questions come up around restricted PlayStation content or error troubleshooting. Happy gaming!