What is this mystery piece I found inside a PS4's optical drive?

"This piece is indeed a part of the optical drive. It fit's in between the two rollers at the front of the drive. I've found several of these drives with this problem. I usually replace the drive because I don't know what causes this problem. I figure if I just put it back in, even if it works it will probably just happen again in a few days or a month.

I hope this helps."

"OK! Here are some pictures of the fix. I wasn't able to find any pictures of the inside of the drive at all when I was doing my initial Google searching so this should be very useful for someone who might have this same issue. To get to the rollers, simply unscrew the four Phillips head screws that hold the gear train assembly in place; the entire assembly should come off.

The piece is basically just a linkage for the two rollers in front so that the rolling action is distributed (only one of the rollers is connected to the rest of the gear train). Without the piece the roller shown on the left wouldn't move, causing more strain on the right one to push the disc out.

It's pretty darn loose fitting and I can see how it might pop out easily if someone grabs the disc while it's coming out or if someone pushes a disc while the PS4 is feeding it in. I just had to pop the left roller out, insert the plastic piece in between, and pop it back in.

Voila!"

This post saved me. It took me a bit of googling, but I finally found someone with the exact same problem as me. 30 minutes later, that little white bar was back in place and my optical drive was back in working condition. However, make a note that it may be a good idea to clean the gray rubber rollers while you have the Blu-ray drive opened up (I think a Q-tip and some rubbing alcohol would work nicely). I only say that because once I got my drive back together, it seemed like the rollers had a hard time grabbing the disc on insert and also struggled a little with ejection. Although I believe poor design choice was ultimately the problem, I think being rough with the PS4 when moving to a different room or moving it around to vacuum was the culprit. Hope this helps anyone else with the same problem.