Homebrew Discussion [POLL] FAT32 vs. exFAT | issue discussion

[Clydefrosch]

exfat and no issues, but mainly because I don't do homebrew on the card.

with the splitters available now, I'd certainly move to fat32 now though.
probably will if i ever shell out for a new sd card, but for the moment, it's not worth it.

 

[leonmagnus99]

afaik saves are on the console itself

good to know, i think I'll stay on exfat then.
too lazy to convert to f32 and recopying everything.

 

[Largooo]

i am using exFAT since day one and never had any issues
my mSD card is a sandisk 200 gb and was formated with the switch (firmware 4 or 5)
i used homebrew like psnes, pfba, checkpoint, choixdujournx, playernx
and have installed and played many nsp games
i also used hekate to backup nand
then i updated to firmware 6 with choixdujournx
and still have no issue

i never tried Retroarch thats probably save me from "exfat corruption"

 

[leonmagnus99]

i am using exFAT since day one and never had any issues
my mSD card is a sandisk 200 gb and was formated with the switch (firmware 4 or 5)
i used homebrew like psnes, pfba, checkpoint, choixdujournx, playernx
i never tried Retroarch
i also used hekate to backup nand
and i updated to firmware 6 with choixdujournx and still have no issue

similar thing for me bro , iirc i also formatted it using switch.
and i updated with choi too no issues.
have lot of nsps installed

 

[chaoskagami]

I use FAT32 now, but I used to use exFAT. The experience was unpleasant.

Since this isn't even a switch-specific problem but the FS itself having zero resilliency (as any developer familiar with filesystems could tell you), I'll share a few anecdotes.

Once upon a time, I had a huge number of CBZ (comic book zips) stored on my phone's 256GB SD (formatted exFAT.) One day, suddenly, more than forty of them were randomly corrupted. According to exfat-fuse, some clusters went missing. Therefore, I tested the disk. There were no hardware issues.

That's what regularly happens on my phone with exFAT. I keep it formatted that way, since using ext2 causes permission nonsense due to android giving every application a different UID.

Now, with my switch? The sdmc:/switch and sdmc:/Nintendo directories regularly became completely corrupt, and beyond repair. So I copied everything valid to my PC, reformatted, and copied back. After about six times of this, I simply gave up on the filesystem. FAT32 has a backup FAT for in case stuff goes wrong, and thus far FAT32 has always been repairable on my switch.

 

[Largooo]

similar thing for me bro , iirc i also formatted it using switch.
and i updated with choi too no issues.
have lot of nsps installed

i have done some verification , and the switch only format in fat. so i guess i have formated exfat with windows or sd was already in exftat when bought it.

 

[DownwardSpyral]

I’ve only had a hacked Switch for about 3 weeks, but I suffered a few problems on my exFat card like corrupt files and even two Blue Screens on my Windows machine citing “EXFAT_FILE_SYSTEM”

I formatted my card as FAT32 and split any large xci’s. Hopefully that fixes it.

 

[defkyle]

I've had multiple issues with Nx retroarch when trying to build a collection out of the complete FBA rom set. Each time the scan completes (+-6 hours) the list gets corrupted right after. My card is in Exfat. I'll try FAT32 to see if that fixes it.

 

[DownwardSpyral]

I've had multiple issues with Nx retroarch when trying to build a collection out of the complete FBA rom set. Each time the scan completes (+-6 hours) the list gets corrupted right after. My card is in Exfat. I'll try FAT32 to see if that fixes it.

I can’t imagine having to wait 6 hours for a playlist to be made. Are you sure it’s not the size of the list that is causing the problems? I used exFat and built 6 playlists with about 200 games each and they never corrupted.

 

[Ty_]

At this point there are no reasons to use exFAT, just downsides

 

[defkyle]

I can’t imagine having to wait 6 hours for a playlist to be made. Are you sure it’s not the size of the list that is causing the problems? I used exFat and built 6 playlists with about 200 games each and they never corrupted.

You're probably right, I also have a genesis playlist and dont have any problem there. I still want to get thus working with my complete FBA romset. By the way I also add the screenshot and covers for the games.

 

[0000ff]

switched to fat32 before I started having issues

no real reason to stay on exfat

 

[whateverg1012]

I've been using an exfat card since launch (including with hombrew like retroarch/tinfoil and custom nsps) and still don't have any problems.

I think the only reason anyone was affected by the corruption issues is because the card they bought was a cheap one or because of how bad libnx retroarch was in its early stages.

Everyone who wants to waste time splitting their content is free to do so though.

 

[alkar]

I've been using an exfat card since launch (including with hombrew like retroarch/tinfoil and custom nsps) and still don't have any problems.

I think the only reason anyone was affected by the corruption issues is because the card they bought was a cheap one or because of how bad libnx retroarch was in its early stages.

Everyone who wants to waste time splitting their content is free to do so though.

you probably didn't try to play all your games, and assume everything is working fine. I was also naive like you to think everything worked until I started to actually play some games (not 1 game here and there).

AFAIK it only affects installed NSP, not XCI.

 

[whateverg1012]

you probably didn't try to play all your games, and assume everything is working fine. I was also naive like you to think everything worked until I started to actually play some games (not 1 game here and there).

AFAIK it only affects installed NSP, not XCI.

Nope, I have tested all my games, like 60 different ones, all installed NSPs, all working perfectly.

 

[a9lh-1user]

Need a little bit explaining so here we go:

1. bought a 128 GiB Sandisk SD Card ( the bigger the card the bigger the problems! And i can't even play all the games on it!)
2, put it im my Switch and it was recognized because it came with extFAT.
3. NEVER EVER USE IT HOW IT COMES! So i let the Switch FORMAT it (because THIS device is using it! Or do you ever format your HDD with OS X and then use it in Windows?!)
4. played arround with many Emulators and NSP's (installed / played / deleted / next games/emus installed .... and so on...)
5. From beginning until now used ReiNX and it worked for me.
6. 3 to 5 times crashed because of homebrew that didn't work (deleted never used until it was updated to a better state)
7. All the time used a 4 € SD Card reader on Arch Linux with PCManFM to get everything on the card (never used FTP/USB or anything else)
8. Until now there are no problems for me (hope it stays that way )

BTW i unplug and plug the SD card 5 to 10 times a day and there is no problem with reading or using it

 

[TR_mahmutpek]

I was using exfat too but I have very strange issues, internal storage installed games with no problem but on sd card, some games cant even load, some games loading with x5 normal time. And I wont use sd card for installing games anymore. Just will use for normal files (atmosphere, configure files, etc.)

I think nintendo/our beloved devs should look for exfat drivers. Maybe we need update for exfat drivers.

 

[Euphonique]

I use exfat for a long time now and the only homebrew which corrupted my sd card is retroarch when I tried to update it. Everything else works fine though.

 

[caHarkness]

I have a 128 GB Samsung Evo Select microSD card and it has been formatted as exFAT for nearly a year now, with daily use. My entire Switch library and those 30 second clips live on it, so it definitely sees a lot of reads and writes.

My Switch has probably been hacked for about two weeks now, and absolutely zero signs of corruption. I've only ever ran custom firmware/unsigned code with my Switch running Horizon OS 6.0.1 though...

Coincidentally, the only problems I have ever had with anything feeling glitchy or mysterious was using RetroArch. I can only describe it as failing to write a save state to the microSD card. I also love how most of the hot air is coming from RetroArch, but I have yet to see any solid evidence that what their community is saying is true. It's tremendously easy to blame Nintendo for "bad implementation" of exFAT drivers because some software isn't fully compatible with Nintendo's driver.

For all we know, Nintendo's exFAT drivers are proprietary and do exactly what they were designed to do, and we're the only ones to experience problems because we assume their exFAT is 1:1 and in spec. I'd like to turn the blame around on those who are so quick to point the finger and never cite their sources about "bad exFAT drivers".

 

[a9lh-1user]

For me it is the same thing!
I'am on 5.1 original Software with ReiNX since almost 3 month.
The 128 GiB Sandisk SD card is formated to exFAT ON the Switch and I've installed arround 700 NSP's and deleted them.
There is no reading or writing problem since!
I use ReteoArch but only with GENESIS/SNES/NES/GBA thats it.

But you are new @caHarkness and don't know how it is on Gbatemp
There will be always some who use the Hardware software combination in a wrong way and everyone else has to be blamed about it