“It Ends with Us,” a film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s acclaimed 2016 novel, became a focal point for significant industry discord when it was released in 2024.
Directed and co-produced by Justin Baldoni and starring Blake Lively, the film initially enjoyed box-office success but soon was overshadowed by intense production-related disputes.
Fans, critics, and media outlets began reporting tensions between lead actors Lively and Baldoni during the film’s press tour.
The friction was fueled by allegations of a hostile work environment, sexual harassment claims against Baldoni, and accusations that Lively assumed creative control in ways that challenged Baldoni’s direction. These issues spilled into legal battles that have since captured widespread attention.
Justin Baldoni: Facing Sex Harassment Allegations
Justin Baldoni, known for his previous directorial and acting work, faced growing public scrutiny after actress Blake Lively filed a complaint with California’s Civil Rights Department.
Following the complaint, prominent media reports suggested Baldoni engaged a public relations team to challenge Lively’s allegations and supposedly tarnish her reputation.
The public legal confrontations intensified media coverage, damaging the reputations of those involved and highlighting the prevalence of abuse and conflict in the entertainment world.
Blake Lively: The Actress at the Center
Blake Lively, an established actress with a significant fan following, found herself embroiled in controversy despite her professionalism and dedication to the film.
Criticism initially arose from fans dismayed by her perceived casual tone in interviews about the film’s heavy subjects, such as emotional abuse and domestic violence.
Her decision to formally accuse Baldoni of fostering a hostile atmosphere marked a turning point, casting her as an emblematic figure in the ongoing dialogue about workplace respect and abuse in Hollywood and beyond.
Lively’s actions have inspired conversations about the risks women take when speaking out in male-dominated industries.
Her legal actions underscored the broader implications of confidentiality, workplace safety, and personal integrity in creative environments known for their intense pressures and hierarchical structures.
Fan Backlash and Public Perception
Fans of the novel and movie faced a dilemma, torn between their admiration for the source material and disillusionment with the apparent discord behind the scenes.
Social media buzzed with speculation, accusations, and support for both parties, often reflecting larger cultural debates about gender, power, and accountability.
It Ends with Us (Credit: Netflix)
This division impacted the film’s promotion, where Baldoni’s diminished visibility during later press events contrasted sharply with initial enthusiasm. Observers noted the potential consequences such fracturing of public images has for ongoing and future projects tied to high-profile talent.
The backlash also highlighted how fan engagement, once a promotional asset, can rapidly turn into reputational damage when controversies surface, particularly in sensitive matters related to harassment and workplace safety.
The Toll on Brand and Box Office
“It Ends with Us” experienced box-office success initially but faced growing reputational risks associated with the disputes. Industry analysts note that while controversy can sometimes boost interest, sustained negative narratives, especially involving legal battles and harassment allegations, are often detrimental.
Brands and studios closely monitor such issues, understanding that today’s audience responds to more than just storyline or star power. Public commitment to safe, respectful work environments increasingly influences consumer support and investor confidence.
The conflict surrounding the film illustrates contemporary challenges in maintaining a brand image and managing crises in the age of social media, where information and opinions spread rapidly and persistently.
What This Means for High-Profile Film Projects
The turbulence behind “It Ends with Us” serves as a case study for how power struggles, personal conflicts, and allegations of misconduct can disrupt productions and jeopardize successes. It spotlights the critical need for transparent policies, effective conflict resolution, and proactive cultural change in the entertainment business.
Future high-profile projects may now be subjected to greater scrutiny regarding workplace environment and accountability. Industry leaders are increasingly pressured to ensure productions uphold ethical standards that protect all participants and sustain trust with audiences.
The case also demonstrates the profound influence of public perception and fan communities on creative outputs’ fate, emphasizing the necessity for open communication and genuine efforts to address grievances before they escalate to legal battles and media spectacles.
Across Reddit and gaming forums, PlayStation 5 owners are voicing serious concerns after the latest firmware update reportedly broke compatibility with several external storage devices. Many users claim their consoles either fail to recognize USB drives or, worse, freeze entirely after connecting external hard drives.
Discussions on Reddit threads, particularly in r/PlayStation and r/PS5, show hundreds of similar reports appearing within days of the update’s rollout.
One alarming trend is that even well-known models like Western Digital Black and Seagate Expansion drives suddenly malfunction when plugged into the PS5.
Users describe encountering sluggish navigation, delayed menu responses, and game libraries disappearing. Others mention that reconnecting their drives sometimes results in a complete system crash that forces a hard reboot.
This issue has evolved beyond a minor bug report; it’s now a full-blown warning echoed across the PlayStation community. Many users have resorted to mass uninstallations, factory resets, and data backups, hoping to salvage their progress. Still, most say those methods offer little relief.
The frustration among players has reached a boiling point, prompting widespread caution against buying or using external storage until Sony issues an official patch.
The Firmware Update That Sparked Chaos
Sony rolled out a large-scale system software update for PlayStation 5 earlier this month, meant to improve performance and stability.
Yet multiple reports now link this update to the external drive recognition failure. Before this patch, storage expansion through USB drives worked relatively smoothly despite the PS5’s known limitation of supporting only one external drive at a time.
After the update, things changed dramatically. Several players found that their consoles randomly picked which drive to recognize, ignoring others entirely. In some cases, disconnecting a drive corrupted its data, leaving users unable to retrieve stored games.
For digital collectors, this is a nightmare scenario, especially considering that the PS5’s 667GB of usable internal storage fills up fast when installing large AAA games.
As one Reddit post documented, the problem occurred with external drives that previously worked flawlessly. Once the update was installed, the same drives either failed to mount or displayed error messages, such as CE-100006-7, suggesting corrupted system indexing.
PS5 Console with External Drive Connected (Credit: Reddit)
The issue resembles earlier PS5 Slim malfunctions, where hardware components clashed with new software requirements introduced by automatic updates.
Gamers find themselves caught in a trap where they cannot roll back the update manually, and Sony’s support pages only recommend basic troubleshooting, such as replugging cables or rebuilding the database. These temporary workarounds offer little hope for users who frequently experience freezes or data loss.
Sony’s Silence and Player Outrage
Frustration has been amplified by Sony’s muted response. As of now, the company has not released an official acknowledgment or ETA for a resolution. PlayStation community moderators, particularly on Reddit, have even pinned warning posts urging players not to connect external drives until a fix is confirmed.
The absence of communication from Sony contrasts sharply with the gravity of the issue. For many, this marks yet another chapter in what they view as a pattern of neglect toward player feedback.
When similar problems erupted with the PS5 Slim disc drives in 2024, it took weeks before an official statement clarified the cause. Now, with users losing access to hundreds of gigabytes of stored data, patience is thinning.
Gamers are sharing workarounds to help each other. Some recommend formatting drives through a PC before reconnecting to the console, while others suggest avoiding simultaneous use of multiple drives. Yet these are community-driven solutions, not official ones, and their effectiveness varies.
One PlayStation subreddit user wrote, “It’s ridiculous that we can’t even trust our games to stay safe on Sony-approved hardware. I spent years transferring my PS4 library, and now it’s all inaccessible.”
The Technical Side of the Problem
The core problem seems tied to the PS5’s handling of the USB 3.1 protocol during the new software revision. According to technical discussions on iFixit and gaming hardware boards, the update may have modified how the PS5 detects and authenticates connected devices, particularly external SSDs and HDDs formatted as extended storage.
Previously, the PS5 used a predictable index system to assign identifiers to each external device. With the new update, something in the assignment logic appears broken, causing conflicts when the system attempts to verify a drive already registered in memory.
This could explain why the console reports “no storage found” errors even though it recognizes the drive’s data capacity.
Unfortunately, debugging these issues outside Sony’s labs is nearly impossible. Developers and users alike speculate that the update’s changes to system encryption checks might be interfering with older drive partitions, especially those migrated from PS4 systems.
This combination of new firmware rules and legacy data structures creates an unpredictable environment where even approved hardware fails.
Technical analysts from TweakTown and GamingBible highlight another concerning possibility: firmware instability could be gradually corrupting storage tables over repeated reboots.
If true, connecting or disconnecting external drives frequently might worsen the console’s performance or even damage internal data indexing permanently.
The Fallout Across the PlayStation Community
As word spreads across Reddit and YouTube, panic has reached users who haven’t yet updated their systems. Many are disabling auto-updates and postponing any new installations to avoid bricking their devices. Others are posting lists of affected brands and device models, warning others before they buy.
Retailers, too, are beginning to notice changing consumer behavior. Several players have reported canceling orders for external storage hardware from online stores, unsure if their investment will be compatible with an unstable firmware environment.
The community’s mistrust toward official approvals is growing stronger with each passing week.
Meanwhile, tech creators have taken up the issue on social platforms, testing setups live and showcasing bugs in real time. Videos show consoles abruptly disconnecting drives mid-session or freezing at the system menu. These visuals only fuel mounting pressure on Sony to deliver updates swiftly.
The debate surrounding transparency is once again reignited. Many fans argue that large corporations should maintain open communication channels about technical risks.
Instead of vague “performance improvement” patch notes, players want detailed change logs that disclose potential hardware conflicts. Failure to provide these, they argue, erodes user trust.
What Gamers Should Do Right Now
Until Sony issues an official patch or explanation, the safest move for PS5 owners is to disconnect all external hard drives and rely temporarily on internal storage or cloud backups. Those with large game libraries should avoid formatting external drives, as doing so might erase cross-generation compatibility.
Additionally, players should ensure system data backups through PlayStation Plus cloud storage to safeguard save files. Keeping auto-update disabled is also recommended until widespread reports confirm a fix.
This frustrating episode serves as another reminder of the dependency modern consoles have on constant firmware updates and how a single error can ripple across millions of systems.
Yet amid the chaos, the gaming community’s collective effort to document, share solutions, and support each other shows resilience that corporate silence cannot suppress.
For now, the warning rings loud and clear across Reddit and beyond: PlayStation users, do not buy or connect external hard drives to your PS5 until Sony sorts this mess out.
