RA issues running on non account tied vita

So, before this issue, ive been running RA perfectly fine on a vita and vita tv with accounts tied to them. I’m a long time RA user, and I’ve had no issues on the vita regarding saving of games, core options, settings, you name it. For the cores that run great on the vita, it has been nothing but a wonderful experience.

However, I’ve recently decided to restore & reformat the vita Tv, unlink the account tied to it, start from scratch and dedicate it to emulation purposes only. The issue that has now arised using RA (either the full Retroarch.vpk and even individual core vpks) is that it will not save any settings that I change (input hotkey binds, video, directories,etc) nor will it generate a core-options.cfg. This is even after properly quiting Retroarch through the main menu. It’s as if it doesn’t have write permissions when it should be saving the settings I change as it normally would. I am not getting any kind of errors when properly closing RA. Though when I reopen the application, it always reverts to default settings.

Does RA only properly work on vitas with an account linked to them? Is it somehow kind of like administrator mode on PC, allowing RA write access?? Or is it possible to run RA on a vita regardless if there’s an account linked or not? I have messed around with editing the retroarch.cfg through vitashell to make it start up with the changes that I want, while it works, it def isn’t ideal. Though in RA itself, settings don’t seem to want to properly save. Starting a core (let’s say, FBAlpha) and messing with core options will never save after I reset or close the core; it will just keep reverting core option settings to default as well.

In the RA main menu, I can save new config, core overrides, game overrides and it won’t give me any errors. I can change other settings or directories though, they don’t actually save even when pressing “save current config”, which gives me an error, “failed to save current config in ux0:”. Also on my vita where RA is currently working fine, I notice in the main menu besides Load Configuration, it shows “retroarch.cfg”. However, on the vita tv it shows “ux0:”. I can’t seem to change what the vita tv shows even when matching the directories. I’ve also then tried logging into my account on the vita tv and activating my system, yet the issue still persist, even after uninstalling RA, deleting the RA folder in the ux0:/data directory, and reinstalling RA. Either the full RA vpk or an individual core vpk. It still doesn’t seem to want to properly save from within RA as if it doesn’t have write access. Perhaps the cause of the issue has something to do with the “ux0:/” in the main menu when it should instead show, “retroarch.cfg”, I’m really not sure.

Does anyone have any idea on what’s causing this and on how I can fix it?

I asked frangarcj about it and he suggested that it could be permissions related and to try this:

thanks, hunterk. i gave that permissions fix vpk a try. This showed up.though for some reason, the issues still persisted. i tried several methods of running it, even right after reinstalling RA. still, no dice.

ive googled the issue and found other users on the gbatemp forums having the same issue. i think the root of the issues is due to this:

im running the exact same nightly (10/16) build on the vita and the vita tv. though on the handheld, no issues at all. A key difference though is that it shows “retroarch.cfg” by load configuration on the handheld and doesnt give me any errors when i save current configuration. On the vita tv it shows “ux0:” Shouldnt it show “retroarch.cfg” after an initial install instead of “ux0:”? i feel like this is what may be the cause of the saving issues. is there some way i can change a file around in vitashell to show retroarch.cfg there instead of ux0? A user on the gbatemp stated that the only way he could resolve the saving issue was by going back to an older sep (I think it was the 13th or 18th) build. i wonder if i installed an older build first, then update to a newer build, if that would resolve the issue. like maybe something is carrying over, seeing as how current builds work fine on the handheld. then again, ive only restored the vita tv and not the handheld. id like to think maybe that has something to do with it, though other users are experiencing the same issue and may not even have restored their devices. seeing as how nightlies dont go that far back, does anyone have a sep build of fbalpha_libretro.vpk still lying around they can send me so i can try this out?? a link is fine too.

I found someone on r/vitahacks that’s having the same exact issue:

https://m.reddit.com/r/vitahacks/comments/58ibbp/retroarch_pstv_failed_saving_config/

He posted a link for an aug build of Retroarch. I tested the fbalpha core and everything was back to working as it should. No issues with saving or generating core options files. Also, retroarch.cfg showed right beside Load Configuration as it should. However, upon installing the latest nightly 10/20 build, the issues came back. The later nightlies for some reason set things to save at “ux0:” instead of “retroarch.cfg” upon installing. That seems to be what’s causing the issues since it’s not a proper directory pointing to the necessary cfg file. It seems like this is only happening on PS TVs though…hopefully this can be fixed before the final build is released.