Weird sudden saving issue on Android TV (due to adoptable storage)

RetroArch Android devices
#1

Hi all,

I know that people have asked about Retro Arch saving issues a lot on these forums and I understand that most of it is due to save location permissions. My issue however is a bit different.

I have a Sony Bravia X83C Android TV running the latest version of Android (7.0) with all patches up to date. I have the market version of Retro Arch installed.

Up until today everything has been working perfectly, I have recently given the TV a USB 3.0 flash drive as adoptable storage and have my ROM’s stored in the shared directory structure (as there is no choice to specify) and my saves and save states in a directory (both live in /storage/emulated/0/) nd I’ve been playing no problem.

This morning I fired it up and suddenly I can load states but not save. Literally nothing has changed since I last used it (that I’m aware of) all the directories are still set correctly, Retro Arch still has storage permissions but even changing the directories around doesn’t change anything.

When I try to save it hangs on “Saving 0%” whilst the game continues to run fine. I’ve it reported “Saving Task Failed”.

I have no idea why it’s suddenly started playing up, but I’d really appreciate any help with this!

Cheers.

#2

You’ve tried moving your save/state directory into RetroArch’s own directory in your user-writeable internal storage?

#3

All of the storage is reading as one directory structure as it’s been adopted, so I’m not sure where exactly I could put it.

I did try switching to the Retro Arche files directory that is one of the default options given to you in the directory select options but it made no difference.

Did you have a specific location in mind in the file structure? I’m happy to try anything as it definately sounds like a write permissions issue, I just can’t figure out why it’s happened when I’ve made no changes and I don’t think the TV has updated itself.

#4

Yeah, I just meant alongside your configs and whatnot.

So, speaking of, can you save other stuff? Like overrides and/or changes to your config?

#5

I have done prior to now, but I’ve just tested it and no I cannot save configurations either any more.

The only other weird thing is that since I added the adoptable storage Retro Arch won’t often auto load my controller mapping config like it always used to, forcing me to load a config each time although this might have something to do with the TV as Sony redid a lot of the Android bits of theirs, including how the PS4 pad is handled, its a lot me generic now, which is really irritating as it was perfect before!

#8

Ok, I think I’ve figured it out. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s nothing to do with Retro Arch.

Now I knew that adoptable storage was a bit flaky, but generally speaking, and with the correct storage devices it basically works. However, when it comes to Android TV Sony (possible Google further back, but I’m not sure) have royally screwed it up.

I haven’t finished testing this yet as I havent had time to tinker with it fully, however…

The entire storage system of the TV became read only. This happens with the adoptable storage on the TV’s and it is irriversible. Apprently it is the driver that they have chosen to use, it is heavily flawed and the storage constantly gets ejected when the TV is in standby mode to the point where it starts to damage the file structure and because it’s been adopted it happens wholesale.

I was unable to copy files to and from my TV, FTP access doesn’t appear to work since the jump to Android 7.0 (I need to look into this more, it connects but won’t display the file structure, possibly unrelated). The only option was to format the usb as external storage and put the ROM files back on there so they can be read, but this is a read only approach and the TV has (or at least did have prior to 7.0, I haven’t seen it yet in this build) another bug where it will randomly keep seeing the usb drive for the first time and loading the “What do you want me to do with this drive” screen, as in every 5 - 10 seconds.

Ultimately I’m just glad I was taking regular backups of my Retro Arch saves as I’ve got over 100 hours on an RPG I’ve been working on and I’d have been beyond angry if that’d gone due to Sony’s ineptitude.

The abosulte worst thing is that these issues have been bug reported forever (of course they have) and nothing is being done about them.

Also, according to my research, these issues are present on every flavour of Android TV, so other companies other than Sony are in the same boat, but I can’t substantiate this.

The short version:

  • Accept that the days of reading AND writing to external drives are behind us on Android TV.

  • NEVER try using adoptable storage on your TV. It WILL fail and degrade and you WILL loose anything on the system.

  • Keep your save files and states on the TV’s internal memory (not that you could put them on the drive anyway due to those wonderful writing permissions) and take REGULAR backups to your Google Drive or something.

I just hope this post manages to help someone avoid the same trainwreck with their TV.

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