Homebrew Question Retroarch + exFat = corruption?

[Deleted User]

exFat is fine after 9.0.0 fw i have all my Switch consoles on ExFat after 9.0.0 never had an issue and even setup quite a few consoles for friends that are complete noobs with ExFat non of them had an single issue

honestly as stated previously the corruption occurs with homebrew apps mainly retroarch. See the problem is most people don’t play emulation heavily. I love emulation so I play it heavily. Now similar to you initially I saw no issues. Initially. I had to suffer this myself before I was like oh there is a problem. Now the funny thing about this problem is that since it seems to only occur after heavy use that’s exactly when it is more painful. Can lead to save files being lost. You just don’t want to have that happen. Very tricky problem. You don’t notice it till it is too late. I feel the key here is the good news that there is nothing fat32 cannot do that exfat does and it is just more stable. Alot of users are still confused about that. For my part i made tutorial vids explaining this. Bad info on the internet is so pervasive. So I will continue to post here my thoughts to help gamers who use modded switches so they have this info. What they choose to do with it is their prerogative. I write this as one who initially did not believe there was an exfat corruption issue until I eventually encountered the issue. As several other users have posted. If you will only play legit switch games I feel exfat is ok to use.

 

[stitchxd]

That's not a filesystem limitation, it's a "microsoft locking it off to force you to use their newer filesystems" thing

Oh yeah, I guess you are right

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

there is nothing fat32 cannot do that exfat does and it is just more stable. Alot of users are still confused about that

You know, except that FAT32 cannot hold a file larger than 4GB (Minus 2 bytes). For 99% of users tho, even in emulation, this is a null issue. Unless you are saving huge 1080p / 4k movies on your switch (don't know why you would anyway???), FAT32 is the way to go. As for what the other user claimed, no this is not a resolved issue in FW 9.0.0. It will likely be an issue forever as Nintendo has NO need to change this otherwise.

 

[Tokiwa]

It's fine if you like to live on the edge but don't encourage other users to do the same.

Atmosphere plans to re-implement FS so we might see the corruption fixed at some point but for now stick stick with FAT32, there is nothing you can't do with FAT32 on the Switch.

 

[Deleted User]

Oh yeah, I guess you are right

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


You know, except that FAT32 cannot hold a file larger than 4GB (Minus 2 bytes). For 99% of users tho, even in emulation, this is a null issue. Unless you are saving huge 1080p / 4k movies on your switch (don't know why you would anyway???), FAT32 is the way to go. As for what the other user claimed, no this is not a resolved issue in FW 9.0.0. It will likely be an issue forever as Nintendo has NO need to change this otherwise.

as I stated in my post I have made tut videos where the files can simply be split. In terms of watching 1080p large file I do not feel the switch should be the go to device for that but there would be several work arounds you have forgotten. Android or Linux on switch for example. I am sorry but you will be hard pressed to find an actual example of something you are prevented from doing. Once I made the realization I personally never looked back...

 

[DiscostewSM]

It's fine if you like to live on the edge but don't encourage other users to do the same.

Atmosphere plans to re-implement FS so we might see the corruption fixed at some point but for now stick stick with FAT32, there is nothing you can't do with FAT32 on the Switch.

Huh. Re-implement exFAT? Guessing that wouldn't make too much of a problem if you switch between cfw and stock. You just couldn't use an older version of Atmosphere, but why would you?

 

[stitchxd]

as I stated in my post I have made tut videos where the files can simply be split. In terms of watching 1080p large file I do not feel the switch should be the go to device for that but there would be several work arounds you have forgotten. Android or Linux on switch for example. I am sorry but you will be hard pressed to find an actual example of something you are prevented from doing. Once I made the realization I personally never looked back...

Oh don't misunderstand, as far as The switch goes with Homebrew, FAT32 is absolutely the way to go. As far as which to use for daily, you and I agree on the same thing - I was simply trying to contribute to the conversation

 

[BlackOmegaTM]

Hmmmm I know everyone questions this, buuuut, corruption cases as few and rare. Some times it's just the SD cards dying and causing corruption, and exfat takes the blame.

Personally, in my family, we have 5 switches, all on SX OS, all on exfat, I had to deal with a corruption problem ONCE, and later testing showed it was the sd dying (unable to delete file, them unable to write, until the card stopped working, typical behavior of sd failure) .

All our 5 switches are using sandisk/samsung sds, for 2 years, running lots of homebrew and stuff, no problem other than the one above.

The bug exists? Yes. Does it manifest all the time? No. Definitely no. It's VERY RARE. I won't move to fat32, ever. I use xcis, and I hate having to split files.

 

[Captain_N]

since there is always a case for corruption, why not make backups. Its not really hard to do a backup. place card in pc, right click copy, then paste somewhere on your pc. It aint hard. SD cards are not as reliable as you think. They are made so cheaply.

 

[M7L7NK7]

It's not rare and it will get you eventually. It could be corrupting files that you won't even know about until you go to use them. If you're using homebrew on exfat consider that it's already begun, you just don't know about it yet

 

[tabzer]

Hmmmm I know everyone questions this, buuuut, corruption cases as few and rare. Some times it's just the SD cards dying and causing corruption, and exfat takes the blame.

Wrong.

I had to deal with a corruption problem ONCE, and later testing showed it was the sd dying (unable to delete file, them unable to write, until the card stopped working, typical behavior of sd failure) .

Considering that this is not technical information--it is unreliable, and still probably not the SD dying.

All our 5 switches are using sandisk/samsung sds, for 2 years, running lots of homebrew and stuff, no problem other than the one above.

Nice anecdote. Let's say you do have 5 switches--and you use them all of the same way. That doesn't account for the scenarios that people who do use homebrew and the definite scenarios where exfat drivers cause lost data/corruption.

The bug exists? Yes. Does it manifest all the time? No. Definitely no. It's VERY RARE.

It's not even a bug! It's how the exfat drivers are written. You think it is rare for you (if 1/5 is potentially rare, I don't agree), but I've seen many more people run into exfat issues than I see stupid advice like yours saying it is not an issue. You are rare. Also, not very informed.

 

[BlackOmegaTM]

If the bug (and I call it a bug, because if the driver was written in a way that can cause data loss, this is what it should be called) was as bad as everyone says, we should be seeing people reporting corruption just about every day. It's not the case. I acknowledge the problem exists, but I stand behind my statement that it rarely manifests. And that is not just because of my family's consoles, it is by following this and other forums for years and not observing the expected amount of corruption cases that can be tied directly to exfat.

It's pointless to keep discussing this.

 

[TomSwitch]

If the bug (and I call it a bug, because if the driver was written in a way that can cause data loss, this is what it should be called) was as bad as everyone says, we should be seeing people reporting corruption just about every day. It's not the case. I acknowledge the problem exists, but I stand behind my statement that it rarely manifests. And that is not just because of my family's consoles, it is by following this and other forums for years and not observing the expected amount of corruption cases that can be tied directly to exfat.

It's pointless to keep discussing this.

It is fine for you to choose to take the risk. Don't urge others to do so. The corruptions don't come instantly and sometimes even no harm done after scan and fix. Once in a blue moon real lost occurs. If you like I can teach you a way to quickly have corruption but I can't promise data lost.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

since there is always a case for corruption, why not make backups. Its not really hard to do a backup. place card in pc, right click copy, then paste somewhere on your pc. It aint hard. SD cards are not as reliable as you think. They are made so cheaply.

It is easier to change to fat32 than to make backup.

 

[tabzer]

If the bug (and I call it a bug, because if the driver was written in a way that can cause data loss, this is what it should be called) was as bad as everyone says, we should be seeing people reporting corruption just about every day. It's not the case. I acknowledge the problem exists, but I stand behind my statement that it rarely manifests. And that is not just because of my family's consoles, it is by following this and other forums for years and not observing the expected amount of corruption cases that can be tied directly to exfat.

It's pointless to keep discussing this.

The exfat driver was made for normal Switch use, and for normal Switch use, it is generally good enough. The exception to that was witnessed by most when the Pokemon Sword/Shield glitch was messing up and causing people to lose their saves. Do you remember that?

With HB development, crashing happens more often during write sequences--AND while operating on memory storage that the Switch doesn't even operate on. FAT offers a second layer of protection for that situation, exFAT does not. exFAT will drop handles and lose data--and in rare situations corrupt the entire partition table. These are primary differences that can be observed and tested. Switch normally operates on NAND, which surprise, doesn't use exFAT. (Even Nintendo knows better). It was intended to handle small jobs like serving as a read-only for game data or writing non-precious, low risk, screen saves. It was never intended to handle the amount of read/write demands of homebrew.

People still do report corruption every day. Just join any HB discord server where technical support is being given 24/7 and you will see it. Even if you do browse the forums here, there are plenty of people who have experienced issues with it. Just because new topics aren't being created, daily, doesn't mean that the issue no longer exists. A good forum should only need one post to cover the topic. There is enough information already available, here, and almost everywhere concerned with the HB scene to see that your point is a stupid one. You have to be especially stubborn, or edgy, to be this level of technically incorrect. Based on your prior anecdote, it looks like you may have already experienced bad exfat situation but are too thick to comprehend it.

 

[ZachyCatGames]

If the bug (and I call it a bug, because if the driver was written in a way that can cause data loss, this is what it should be called) was as bad as everyone says, we should be seeing people reporting corruption just about every day. It's not the case. I acknowledge the problem exists, but I stand behind my statement that it rarely manifests. And that is not just because of my family's consoles, it is by following this and other forums for years and not observing the expected amount of corruption cases that can be tied directly to exfat.

It's pointless to keep discussing this.

It's not rare. Just most don't notice it for awhile as it usually slowly corrupts your shit over time and may have little to no impact for quite some time (especially if you have sigpatches).
If you ever go into the album and some screenshots show up as being invalid, some homebrew apps refuses to launch, or there's abnormal buggy behavior in homebrew apps or official games, that's exfat corruption.
I'm speaking from experience, it's a much bigger and more common issue than you think.

EDIT: Oh, also, fun fact: On development hardware, the exfat variant of FS is not installed by default, and SystemUpdater will never install it. It's almost as if exfat has large issues and Nintendo are very much aware of them

 

[godreborn]

that's actually why I opted for fat32 on my official switch. I read that exfat corruption even happens to legit users. I think it was @Hayato213 who suggested it to me. I have about 660GBs of games.

 

[tabzer]

You guys should have let my comprehensive response be the end of it. I appreciate you guys, but it's a disservice to the idiots who only read the last post.