# Directories and USB drive not showing up in retroarch



## jake700 (Oct 25, 2021)

Hey guys, So i’m on retroarch on dev mod, and everything was set up fine, but for some reason, its not detecting any folders in the S drive, (E.g the program files folder), or even my usb drive, despite the E drive  for my usb showing up, no folders are shown. I had retroarch working perfectly fine and able to find these directories before I had to hard reset my console and go through the whole installation process again for un related reasons. Does anyone have a solution to this?


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## BioAlpha (Oct 31, 2021)

jake700 said:


> Hey guys, So i’m on retroarch on dev mod, and everything was set up fine, but for some reason, its not detecting any folders in the S drive, (E.g the program files folder), or even my usb drive, despite the E drive  for my usb showing up, no folders are shown. I had retroarch working perfectly fine and able to find these directories before I had to hard reset my console and go through the whole installation process again for un related reasons. Does anyone have a solution to this?


Im having the same issue however i did find out that the S drive is now found in the D drive/ Development files/ windows apps/ and the retroarch folder should be the 1 19 12 x64

as for the issue with the USB hdd not showing up in the latest retroarch i am having the same issue. worked before and not now.
(EDIT: I just tested and it shows up as E: in duckstation on the Xbox Series S. Maybe its a bug? still wont show up in retroarch)

hope this helps

EDIT2: Re installed 1 9 10 and everything is working perfect once again.


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## rajg1989 (Nov 13, 2021)

Thank God for this thread. I just bought a brand new Xbox Series S from Best Buy yesterday and waited until today for a 16TB WD MyBook USB 3.0 External HDD and 1TB Seagate Xbox Expansion Card. I have an easy way around emulators now that I've had my experience for a long time with PC and then just very recently started using retroarch for the very first time but on Android and its simpler and I understand PC is  more compatible and offers much more out of using it for emulation such as storage and other hardware components etc. Anyway, I have had this issue now soon as I began to attempt to install the 1st of like high 20ish+ consoles on retroarch on the xbox series S but I cant see any of my folders I put from my PC to my USB drive in E: in retroarch. Just like you guys, the exact same thing. D: is the same too. I just bought my Xbox yesterday so I never used it with S: as internal storage but it is D: for me just like you guys. I am using the latest version of retroarch and following a super simple guide from somebody's youtube channel. If anybody ever knows how to resolve this ISSUE please post some ideas. I know this, in Android to read roms from my 1TB microSD card in my phone I had to use an app called QuickEdit to modify 1 line of text in the retroarch config file.. called rgui_browser and point my folder path for the microSD card and thats how you do it for Android. So I'm having a feeling about the Xbox as well, I have already successfully opened my retroarch config file on Windows 11 with notepad but I am not too sure what I should type as I have never previously owned any Xbox console ever in my life. You need to change the word "default" where rgui_browser is located and type the location of the E: whatever the command may need to be typed as (keeping the quotation marks), I don't know what to try but that is an idea but it might not mean anything because the Xbox can naturally detect the USB drive in retroarch because when its unplugged there is no E: shown in the directory list in retroarch then, but when its plugged in then theres E: showing however once you open it to access your rom folders to scan to make the playlists.. it just does not show anything except parent directory and i know there are like 20 folders in the root of the USB drive at the moment.. so whats going on? Can someone with higher power please contact a retroarch dev or something or make a big deal out of this so we can get things back to normal and be happy with what we have invested our nearly 2000$ CAD into. I plan on selling this damn thing I need an occupation so this is it, I just mine crypto and download media and whatever i need if i can. I have the whole library of every rom/iso except for switch because im just waiting for it to be discontinued and then wait for more games to be fully uploaded, you know.. Someone do something about this, seriously.. the way I see it, without retroarch having the ability to no longer read roms from the E:xternal storage it makes the Xbox Series S useless unless you want to use standalone emulators but a noob wouldnt know, they require retroarch, just saying, not talking about me im saying for selling purposes.. if you want to sell your device with emulation preloaded on it, retroarch is the way to go but with this issue its pointless to buy an xbox Series S unless you do what I said just prior which is to use standalone emulators and hope or to play your xbox titles in lower resolution than 4K etc. so.. RetroArch devs if you see your users' problem that who knows how many are dealing with right now.. please do something to address this issue once and for all and put an end to emulation downtime. theres no way we can deal with always copying over big iso's to the ugly internal storage of 512gb. I even put in the 1TB expansion but I dont know which drive letter it is in retroarch cause its empty, I could put a folder or file on it and see.. even with the new 2TB expansion thats nowhere close. Basically what I have on my phone I will have my xbox? What I have on my PC.. is massive. like Total collection of all available. I need 16TB to use my Xbox Series S, my PS2 USA iso collection completely fills up 4TB up to the max but just not big enough to exceed the max capacity usable out of the 4TB. I dont know if Xbox og and 360 are able to be emulated on the Series S but my xbox 360 collection of Region Free is like a little over 8TB lol. So resulting in me requiring external USB storage to read my roms and isos from while I emulate on retroarch but now it aint possible and whats going to become of this from this moment going forward.......please comment if you have the same issue and want help from god knows where. Something GOOD must be done to rectify and correct this and put the issue to rest and hope nothing like this ever happens again. Thanks. Peace.


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## BioAlpha (Nov 14, 2021)

rajg1989 said:


> Thank God for this thread. I just bought a brand new Xbox Series S from Best Buy yesterday and waited until today for a 16TB WD MyBook USB 3.0 External HDD and 1TB Seagate Xbox Expansion Card. I have an easy way around emulators now that I've had my experience for a long time with PC and then just very recently started using retroarch for the very first time but on Android and its simpler and I understand PC is  more compatible and offers much more out of using it for emulation such as storage and other hardware components etc. Anyway, I have had this issue now soon as I began to attempt to install the 1st of like high 20ish+ consoles on retroarch on the xbox series S but I cant see any of my folders I put from my PC to my USB drive in E: in retroarch. Just like you guys, the exact same thing. D: is the same too. I just bought my Xbox yesterday so I never used it with S: as internal storage but it is D: for me just like you guys. I am using the latest version of retroarch and following a super simple guide from somebody's youtube channel. If anybody ever knows how to resolve this ISSUE please post some ideas. I know this, in Android to read roms from my 1TB microSD card in my phone I had to use an app called QuickEdit to modify 1 line of text in the retroarch config file.. called rgui_browser and point my folder path for the microSD card and thats how you do it for Android. So I'm having a feeling about the Xbox as well, I have already successfully opened my retroarch config file on Windows 11 with notepad but I am not too sure what I should type as I have never previously owned any Xbox console ever in my life. You need to change the word "default" where rgui_browser is located and type the location of the E: whatever the command may need to be typed as (keeping the quotation marks), I don't know what to try but that is an idea but it might not mean anything because the Xbox can naturally detect the USB drive in retroarch because when its unplugged there is no E: shown in the directory list in retroarch then, but when its plugged in then theres E: showing however once you open it to access your rom folders to scan to make the playlists.. it just does not show anything except parent directory and i know there are like 20 folders in the root of the USB drive at the moment.. so whats going on? Can someone with higher power please contact a retroarch dev or something or make a big deal out of this so we can get things back to normal and be happy with what we have invested our nearly 2000$ CAD into. I plan on selling this damn thing I need an occupation so this is it, I just mine crypto and download media and whatever i need if i can. I have the whole library of every rom/iso except for switch because im just waiting for it to be discontinued and then wait for more games to be fully uploaded, you know.. Someone do something about this, seriously.. the way I see it, without retroarch having the ability to no longer read roms from the E:xternal storage it makes the Xbox Series S useless unless you want to use standalone emulators but a noob wouldnt know, they require retroarch, just saying, not talking about me im saying for selling purposes.. if you want to sell your device with emulation preloaded on it, retroarch is the way to go but with this issue its pointless to buy an xbox Series S unless you do what I said just prior which is to use standalone emulators and hope or to play your xbox titles in lower resolution than 4K etc. so.. RetroArch devs if you see your users' problem that who knows how many are dealing with right now.. please do something to address this issue once and for all and put an end to emulation downtime. theres no way we can deal with always copying over big iso's to the ugly internal storage of 512gb. I even put in the 1TB expansion but I dont know which drive letter it is in retroarch cause its empty, I could put a folder or file on it and see.. even with the new 2TB expansion thats nowhere close. Basically what I have on my phone I will have my xbox? What I have on my PC.. is massive. like Total collection of all available. I need 16TB to use my Xbox Series S, my PS2 USA iso collection completely fills up 4TB up to the max but just not big enough to exceed the max capacity usable out of the 4TB. I dont know if Xbox og and 360 are able to be emulated on the Series S but my xbox 360 collection of Region Free is like a little over 8TB lol. So resulting in me requiring external USB storage to read my roms and isos from while I emulate on retroarch but now it aint possible and whats going to become of this from this moment going forward.......please comment if you have the same issue and want help from god knows where. Something GOOD must be done to rectify and correct this and put the issue to rest and hope nothing like this ever happens again. Thanks. Peace.


A lot of people have been using the 1 9 10 release of retroarch build on Xbox Series S 

i went back to that build and everything including USB support is all working back to normal for me again.


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## rajg1989 (Nov 16, 2021)

BioAlpha said:


> A lot of people have been using the 1 9 10 release of retroarch build on Xbox Series S
> 
> i went back to that build and everything including USB support is all working back to normal for me again.


Can you please provide a download link to that build I desperately need it to save myself thanks!


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## rajg1989 (Nov 16, 2021)

BioAlpha said:


> A lot of people have been using the 1 9 10 release of retroarch build on Xbox Series S
> 
> i went back to that build and everything including USB support is all working back to normal for me again.


nevermind i found it THANKS ill try it out and report back my findings of my test


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## rajg1989 (Nov 17, 2021)

BioAlpha said:


> A lot of people have been using the 1 9 10 release of retroarch build on Xbox Series S
> 
> i went back to that build and everything including USB support is all working back to normal for me again.


v1 9 10 doesnt change anything. I messaged the leader of the retroarch discord channel and he said this:

Autechre_ — _Today at 9:34 AM​the others I talked to don't suffer from these issues
and I think it's not our fault
it's likely Microsoft's fault
with their dashboard updates

what are we supposed to do?


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## rajg1989 (Nov 17, 2021)

i fixed my issue
i did a hard reset, then i did a factory reset and deleted everything, then i reinstalled retroarch uwp v1 9 10 and enabled the option to show hidden files etc. then i plugged in my usb drive directly to the xbox series s without my usb 3.0 hub this time and then i exited out of the load content screen (directory list) and went back in and now E: shows all my games!!


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## rajg1989 (Nov 17, 2021)

just tested the latest version of retroarch and it all works fine. you just need to enable the option to show hidden files then check your E: directory, you should then see your folders and to see your games you must have core info files updated/installed of course. Hope this helps!


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## rajg1989 (Nov 17, 2021)

1. While the xbox is powered on, perform a hard reset on the console by pressing and holding the power button on the front of the console for 10 seconds until it turns off and turns back on again. Then proceed by deleting your profile in the profile settings (I'm not talking about the test account section).

2. Re-add your same profile and navigate in the settings to find the factory reset option and do it and if you are able to please delete all content on internal SSD when asked, if you are unable to due to data not being backed up, you still need to factory reset your xbox however choose the option to keep all your files. Then once it is reset, reinstall retroarch along with it's dependencies and open it (Make sure your USB storage device with your games is unplugged from your xbox).

3. Open retroarch and update everything in the online updater such as core info files, assets, everything like usual. Then navigate to "load content" and go to the bottom and into the settings and enable the option to show hidden files. Then go back into the directory list and plug in your USB storage device directly into a USB port on the xbox not a USB hub (I don't know if it matters, although I am using my USB storage device through a powered USB 3.0 hub after I fixed this issue for myself). Now go back 1 screen and re-enter the directory list and you will see your E: directory and now hopefully it should show all your contents that you have on it now and you can start importing manually like usual off of your USB storage device.

NOTE: if you are still having the issue of no contents appearing in your USB storage device in the E: directory in retroarch upon following this tutorial, then try to install retroarch 1.9.10 and then run it and follow step 3 again and hopefully it should work and you can now uninstall the 1.9.10 version of retroarch and download and install the latest version from the retroarch website.

NOTE: if you are always getting a black screen upon booting any game just reset your retroarch configuration file back to default settings and close retroarch and open it again and redo everything unless you have backed everything up first and all should be well.


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## rajg1989 (Nov 29, 2021)

If you need to contact me my Instagram is @gill.rajie i have facebook as well, rajg gill is my fb. Im from surrey, bc, canada.


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## Bluezila (Dec 30, 2021)

rajg1989 said:


> 1. While the xbox is powered on, perform a hard reset on the console by pressing and holding the power button on the front of the console for 10 seconds until it turns off and turns back on again. Then proceed by deleting your profile in the profile settings (I'm not talking about the test account section).
> 
> 2. Re-add your same profile and navigate in the settings to find the factory reset option and do it and if you are able to please delete all content on internal SSD when asked, if you are unable to due to data not being backed up, you still need to factory reset your xbox however choose the option to keep all your files. Then once it is reset, reinstall retroarch along with it's dependencies and open it (Make sure your USB storage device with your games is unplugged from your xbox).
> 
> ...


i did this and worked the first time, but i had to reset my xbox because retroarch kept crashing, now it doesnt detect the games again, i have followed this a couple of time with no luck


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## Blackbretty (May 23, 2022)

BioAlpha said:


> Im having the same issue however i did find out that the S drive is now found in the D drive/ Development files/ windows apps/ and the retroarch folder should be the 1 19 12 x64
> 
> as for the issue with the USB hdd not showing up in the latest retroarch i am having the same issue. worked before and not now.
> (EDIT: I just tested and it shows up as E: in duckstation on the Xbox Series S. Maybe its a bug? still wont show up in retroarch)
> ...


Do you have that version? I can't find it anywhere


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## Blackbretty (May 23, 2022)

BioAlpha said:


> Im having the same issue however i did find out that the S drive is now found in the D drive/ Development files/ windows apps/ and the retroarch folder should be the 1 19 12 x64
> 
> as for the issue with the USB hdd not showing up in the latest retroarch i am having the same issue. worked before and not now.
> (EDIT: I just tested and it shows up as E: in duckstation on the Xbox Series S. Maybe its a bug? still wont show up in retroarch)
> ...


I need that version if you can help me out because I can't find it anywhere on the web


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## Blackbretty (May 23, 2022)

RetroArch- Xbox v1 9 10. I can't find it anywhere online and I have a 3 TB drive completely filled that was a waste of time as money as of now.


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## godreborn (May 23, 2022)

Blackbretty said:


> RetroArch- Xbox v1 9 10. I can't find it anywhere online and I have a 3 TB drive completely filled that was a waste of time as money as of now.


I'm not sure if that's the latest, but if not, why do you want an old retroarch?


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## Blackbretty (May 24, 2022)

godreborn said:


> I'm not sure if that's the latest, but if not, why do you want an old retroarch?


seems to be more stable


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## nollieflip (Oct 30, 2022)

Bluezila said:


> i did this and worked the first time, but i had to reset my xbox because retroarch kept crashing, now it doesnt detect the games again, i have followed this a couple of time with no luck


same here fella.
did you find a fix yet? i am struggling so bad

	Post automatically merged: Oct 30, 2022



Bluezila said:


> i did this and worked the first time, but i had to reset my xbox because retroarch kept crashing, now it doesnt detect the games again, i have followed this a couple of time with no luck


same for me...
did you find a fix yet? 
i am struggling to make things work.


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## godreborn (Oct 30, 2022)

nollieflip said:


> same here fella.
> did you find a fix yet? i am struggling so bad
> 
> Post automatically merged: Oct 30, 2022
> ...


Ftp or the xbox itself not seeing the folders?


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## yonasz (Nov 5, 2022)

I have this problem too. I allready try factory reset but my usb hard drive not showing up in retroarch. I try few drives exfat and ntfs...Im using latest retroarch
Where i can download retroarch 1.9.10. I try full reset again its not working


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## godreborn (Nov 5, 2022)

yonasz said:


> I have this problem too. I allready try factory reset but my usb hard drive not showing up in retroarch. I try few drives exfat and ntfs...Im using latest retroarch.


did a message pop asking if you wanted to format it for xbox games or use it as a media drive?  the hdd should be partition E in devmode, but D in retail.


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## yonasz (Nov 5, 2022)

godreborn said:


> did a message pop asking if you wanted to format it for xbox games or use it as a media drive?  the hdd should be partition E in devmode, but D in retail.


Yes i had messag to use it as a media drive. I can see drive in settings and i can explore it with media player/ kodi in retail Mode. In duckstation i had error 1st time but reasuming game at 2nd try


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## godreborn (Nov 5, 2022)

yonasz said:


> Yes i had messagevto use it as a media drive. I can see drive in settings and i can explore it with media player/ kodi in retail Mode. In duckstation i had error 1st time but reasuming game at 2nd try


Can you see it in Retroarch or ftp to it?


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## yonasz (Nov 5, 2022)

godreborn said:


> Can you see it in Retroarch or ftp to it?


I cant see it in retroarch. Tommorow i try ftp.
Edit i dont know is that related but i have to use media player in retail to explore it.


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## godreborn (Nov 5, 2022)

yonasz said:


> I cant see it in retroarch. Tommorow i try ftp.
> Edit i dont know is that related but i have to use media player in retail to explore it.


Is this retail or dev mode?


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## yonasz (Nov 6, 2022)

In retail. In dev Mode i can see hard drive in settings but when i click on details nothing there
Where i can dow retroarch 1.9.10?
Edit 1.9.10 not working as well...
Edit found solution HD must be formated to ntfs and add permition like this
You can do this on a Windows 10 / 11 PC by right clicking on the drive itself > Properties > Security tab > Advanced > Add > Select Principal > Advanced > Find Now > All App Packages > OK > tick 'Full Control' > OK > Enable Inheritance
For some reason exfat not working anymore


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## godreborn (Nov 6, 2022)

yes, but games should still be bootable even without enabling inheritance, on ntfs that is.  they did at least for me.  what that does is increase boot speed, I believe.


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## godreborn (Nov 12, 2022)

yonasz said:


> I have this problem too. I allready try factory reset but my usb hard drive not showing up in retroarch. I try few drives exfat and ntfs...Im using latest retroarch
> Where i can download retroarch 1.9.10. I try full reset again its not working


Can't be xbox formatted.  You need to plug in an ntfs drive and have the xbox see it as a media drive.  This is required of both dev mode and retail, if you use both like I do.


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## N7Kopper (Nov 20, 2022)

godreborn said:


> yes, but games should still be bootable even without enabling inheritance, on ntfs that is.  they did at least for me.  what that does is increase boot speed, I believe.


I think you need the permissions set so that RetroArch can _execute_ from the USB. Without them, it falls back on copying to internal storage.


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## godreborn (Nov 20, 2022)

N7Kopper said:


> I think you need the permissions set so that RetroArch can _execute_ from the USB. Without them, it falls back on copying to internal storage.


you do need to set the drive as a media drive, which is E in dev mode or D on retail.  speaking of which, the ftp bug is back with dev-mod, so I can't access any folders.


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## godreborn (Dec 22, 2022)

godreborn said:


> you do need to set the drive as a media drive, which is E in dev mode or D on retail.  speaking of which, the ftp bug is back with dev-mod, so I can't access any folders.


This worked for a while, but at least two official updates seem to have installed, breaking dev mode ftp again.  Retail works fine.


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## Arcade2019 (Jan 3, 2023)

You need to make sure the usb has the right permissions. There is a small exe available to do it.


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