The PS5 Slim‘s detachable disc drive seems to work on multiple consoles as long as players register it to the console they intend to use it on. A YouTuber who tested this confirmed that a single disc drive can be registered to multiple PS5s at the same time.

How the PS5 Slim disc drive pairing works

Sony never officially explained how the PS5 Slim’s detachable drive would work, so eyebrows were raised when it was discovered via a leaked retail unit’s box that the drive needs to be paired online prior to use. Many assumed that this was bad news for game preservation, while some expressed concerns that Sony would limit the use and repairability of drives. However, this is not the case.

YouTuber TronicsFix got their hands on multiple PS5 Slim units and found that the handshake is a one-off requirement and unless players factory reset their consoles and unregister their drives manually, they’ll remain registered to a console for good. What’s more is that players can pop the drive into a new console and will be able to register it as Sony allows multiple simultaneous registrations.

Sony has also made it easy to swap the disc drives back and forth. Swapping the drives between consoles will not prompt players to re-register if they’ve already paired it once. All of this is demonstrated in the video below.