Maybe you should do some research, because all your Issues are caused by exFAT to begin with.
I am the main dev of the Switch port
SX OS has it's own bugs, sure, but since Retroarch isn't crashing the console - just back to the system menu with a message telling me that the game has crashed, I'm inclined to place responsibility for bugs on the developer of the homebrew rather than the environment. If SXOS crashed to a black screen, or the console restarted, that would at least have implied error handling issues with SXOS. Rather, it seemed to me that the devs just aren't testing on SXOS and given your statements, that opinion has been reaffirmed.
let me reassure you these Issues ARE caused by exFAT and it affects EVERY homebrew INCLUDING your SX
Nope. I had absolutely no issues with corruption until immediately after messing around with retroArch. I was able to dump dozens of games, and dump and restore NAND and emuNAND several times, and install NSP files and game updates all without any corruption. Additionally, I find it hard to believe that any of the issues I had while using retroarch could be caused by exFAT. Especially since NONE of the files used by retroarch were corrupted at all when I checked my files.
If the point of this thread is to identify the CAUSES of exFAT corruption, as the poll on top suggests, you shouldn't get so defensive when a user chimes in to identify exactly what is happening with them.
Using exFAT and SX OS are two mistakes at the same time.
I strongly disagree. Again, absolutely no issues with exFAT and SXOS.
I can't pull you away from SX OS if you're so happy with it
I prefer making my own game backups, rather than pirating. Sure, I can convert an XCI to NSP, but then I don't have the freedom to as quickly and easily swap files. Additionally, I like their emuNAND options. As such, SXOS is the better option for me. It's not a matter of being happy with or unhappy with, it is the only option for what I personally prefer. This statement applies for all consoles actually: I have always preferred disc backups over installers and rather than focusing on open source vs closed source, I'd focus on the features I need and/or want.
but since you pulled every file from your SD and reformatted it, why in the world would you go for exFAT again?
A few reasons, actually:
1.) I had a final exam yesterday and have a final exam tomorrow. I simply don't have time to check all of my files and make sure the ones that need splitting are split. I was more interested in verifying the source of the issue and seeing what files are and are not corrupt.
2.) I read from people who had issues loading some split XCI files. While I am sure I can work around those issues, that also takes time I do not have right now.
3.) Retroarch doesn't appear to support my PSX memory cards or saves yet, and I'd rather not start games over without saving and loading certainty. Additionally, having to take the time to convert all my image files from ISO is a problem. More so, because most game discs I did convert were also unreadable by Retroarch. So far, only the game discs that were created as BIN/CUE worked, so I'd have to mount each game disc one at a time and rip them fresh which takes even more time. Since I have the overall perception that Retroarch isn't stable and that it doesn't support what I need or want, I am inclined to shelve it until it does support what I need or want - like any other Homebrew. If everything worked I'd be more inclined to take the extra time.
4.) These types of responses, honestly, make me one to use exFAT even more. Not because I'm crazy or anything, and not because I am specifically attached to exFAT, but because there must be a reason why the vast majority of users in your poll report no problem with exFAT. There must be a reason for that. I'm reminded of the time that everyone kept saying there's no way to get more than 32 GB to work on the Wii (and posted a video to prove otherwise), or that there's no way to get drives larger than 2 TB in FAT32 on the Wii (and figured out how to do just that, hunting down an old sector style hdd that had 4 TB to do my tests, though didn't have time to get that perfect, but I did get far enough so that DIOS MIOS was able to read from it and others continued what I started). When someone says something is impossible, that just makes me want to do it more.
That all being said, I am willing to format another microSD card to FAT32 and load everything onto it after final exams to see if the types of bugs I observed also appear in FAT32 and report back with those results. If the devs believe the bugs are caused by exFAT that is reason enough to double check, either to identify why or to show why not. If the most critical bugs (other than file corruption) doesn't go away on FAT32 I'd likely switch back to exFAT - not because I have to, but because if people really believe that SXOS itself will corrupt exFAT then the question in my mind would be "Why?" and "How long will it take?" and "What can I do to either demonstrate this to be true or subject it to falsification?". A better comparison for me would be, "Which file system, if any, has a better loading time and/or formatted capacity". If, however, it did go away, I would conceded that there are larger issues than I realize.
That was the chance of your life.
Not really. I maintain complete backups of everything I do every time I change or do anything. It takes, at most, 3 hours to do a complete format on a 256 GB microSD card and I also have plenty of extra microSD cards lying around.
Format it to FAT32 for f*cks sake. There's no downside to FAT32 any longer but enough for exFAT.
That's all the advice I can give you. If you don't wanna enjoy RetroArch, stay where you are.
Piece of advice: If you are going to create a thread asking people to report in exactly what issues they have on what situations, well, these types of responses just don't seem appropriate for that.
I totally get that there probably some serious insurmountable issues with exFAT and the way you have chosen to or have to implement retroArch, but that doesn't mean every reported bug has to be because of exFAT. For example, the frame rate counting up to infinity. No way that's an exFAT issue. Bugs in retroarch exist, it's no big deal. In fact, I'm impressed that there aren't more bugs. What works does work amazingly well. What is a big deal is pretending that all the bugs are bugs in the OS and/or file system. Even if the bug is related to the OS and/or file-system that doesn't necessarily mean it's to blame. For example, if I compiled a C application made for Windows to Linux it probably wouldn't work so well if I used Windows specific information. I'd have to write a check for the environment.
Bottom line: I responded to a thread asking for specific information with specific information. It's up to those asking for that information if they will actually put reports to use or not.