still a problem for me
This is a bit of an odd one, but it appears as though many PS3 users are being hit by a bug causing all of their PSN friends to disappear from their friends list, meaning that no other players will show up in that section of the XMB.
If you do a quick search on twitter, you’ll see a lot of people saying that their friends list has disappeared, and everyone seems a bit confused with the situation.
In fact, I’ve just checked myself, and between three PS3s, the full friends list is only appearing on one of them, with the other two showing zero friends. After a restart, another is showing the full friends list but the third system remains lonely on PSN.
This will obviously cause issues with people wishing to play online, particularly with popular games such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto which use the XMB’s friends list as an invite system.
Our suggestion is to restart your PS3, but if the problem persists as it does with one of mine, then you’ll just have to wait for a solution. It’s very strange that these issues are appearing almost seven years after the launch of the PS3. http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2013/10/18/psn-users-report-friends-list-disappearing/