this - clearly and to the point - shows how to make Retroarch access SD card in android 11 and later versions (confirmed for Android 13) thank you good sir, this is youtube at its best
IT WORKED!!!!! it didnt at first but i updated my shield to 9.02 version 11 then tried it again and boom it worked thank you so much was really trying not to fill up my shields memory with games im only going to play every once in a while
Are you using a shield pro or the tube version? I followed exactly the same and I couldn’t open and edit my retroarch.bin file. Everything ground to a halt
Little tip. Drop the midrange of the audio EQ on the background music. The human voice sits in the middle and this will leave a "hole" in the sound for ur voice to sit in and be heard a lot better.
Can't get it to update the text file. It refuses to edit and goes back up to the top. A pain. Edit: Had to file share my Nvidia shield with my PC, and edit the file in notepad. Those text editors on the Shield were a nightmare.
2-26-2022 I factory reset (all devices), and installed ver 9.01, then reinstall all apps on all of 4 of my 2017 Shields. I completed the task about week ago. Today, I noticed that the button sound was back on 1 of my shields, followed by a notice to upgrade to ver 9.01. I thought it was a false display issue. I went to about, and checked the installed version. It showed ver 9. A week ago it was ver 11. Again thinking there must be some display error, I decided to test the version with "Set Orientation", which does Not work with ver 11. Installed, tested, and "Set Orientation" worked perfect. So, I wondered if any of the other shields had been down graded. Turns out, one other shield (i use the least) was down graded to ver 9. Of all those trying to figure out how to downgrade and mine did it on its own, go figure. Wish I could say I figured out how to down grade it, but I did nothing. One observation: The 2 shields downgraded are connected wi-fi, while the other 2 are connected with an Ethernet cable. Has anyone else experienced this? 3-8-2022 Update: After a week, wired shields still android 11, and android 9 on the wi-fi shields. The wi-fi shields are significantly faster in response times. the wired shields are starting to bog down and become unresponsive at times.
Very strange, I've never encountered an easy formal way to downgrade them either. Wonder what might be rolling them back will keep an eye on this for the Shields we go through as well.
@@NDE108 The auto-updates where on prior to the downgrades. I turned them off on the down graded shields and left auto updates on for the android 11 shields. So far, no changes to the android 11 shields. The android 9 shields want me to update.
I've factory reset, and installed 9.01. I've also update another shield with 9.01. No issues on the factory reset shield. The updated shield worked but was sluggish (push a button ect and a delayed reaction) in comparison to the factory reset shield. I ended up factory resetting the updated shield and now it works as well as the other shield. "App Backup and Restore" , ver up to 6.8.4 works with android 11,. 6.8.9 has a memory storage location issue. Alternate app is "App Backup" which is simple and works well. "Set Orientation" does not work, haven't found a replacement. Unfortunately, an ad blocker is almost a necessity, without it, some apps are sluggish and some not worth using because they slow to a crawl. I've also noticed that I am only able to use Wi-Fi. I can't figure out how to switch/utilize to my Ethernet cable connection.
I've also noticed this delay with the updated Shields. It's like their access to the storage is bogged down. If you scan too many games at once in the Retroarch app it freezes and closes. This used to happen but only after trying to scan like 10 folders at once. Now it happens at 2-3. Will try factory resetting prior to updating to 9.0.1 to see if it fixes this. Thanks for the tip!
@@RetroDrive You may also try clearing Cache by going to Settings-> Device Preferences->Storage->internal shared storage->scroll down to "Cached data" and hit enter or "a" on the game remote. Select "OK" to clear the cache. You may have to do this multiple times in a row in order to clear the Cache. The lowest I've gotten the Cache is around 20MB.
Worked, anyone that can't have access to data folder using x-plore switch to file commander (prem/mod) so they can glitch that access for u, then do as the clip.
I can get as far as opening the new config file on xplore file text editor but when I locate the rgui_browser line and attempt to change it the input reverts to the bottom of the file everytime. I’ve tried downloading Shield TV remote and using that keyboard instead but it does the opposite and begins editing the first line of text in the file. It just does not let me input the name of sd file location. Help please!!
This was my problem as well. I finally was able to edit and save the file by selecting my default keyboard in android settings as leanback instead of gboard. Now.. There will still be the problem of the initial cursor click taking the input straight to the bottom of the file, but I scrolled up until I saw the line to edit and clicked and was able to edit the line. The leanback setting made it so that it didn't take it back to the bottom *again* while typing due to the virtual keyboard popping up again in the middle of typing which gboard was guilty of doing. Also, I used x-plore text editor to edit the file. Very sluggish but it worked. Fx editor was faster but would open the file as a new file which made saving impossible. Omg the entire process of editing this stupid line on an Nvidia shield was beyond frustrating. Good luck.
This update broke many old apps. Especially the 3DO emulator that is even better than the 3DO core on retroarch. However, the standalone emulator still works but it just can't access the USB hard drives anymore. And it's unfortunate that it is no longer being updated to work with the new drivers that this new updated forced all these apps to have or become semi-functional.
There may be a work around! It works for most systems after formatting the hard drive as device storage through the Shield settings menu. We have a video on this that goes over how to access the folders afterwards but we needed to make the whole video and link the update through here. It's a bit easier overall.
where exactly is the location of RetroArch on the NVIDIA internal storage, if you had to side-load it using ADBLINK? The only Android > data folder I see is on my USB drive, which RetroArch still can't see because I can't find the RetroArch cfg file to modify.
Got mine working but for some reason the PS1 games specifically are very inconsistent. Sometimes one might work, then randomly it'll make the app crash. Same game, same core. Very odd.
Can confirm this problem. Though the most recent update seems to have fixed most of the issues caused by 9.0, the ePSXe app is still struggling to even scan the drive without crashing.
Yes it defaults to this I accidently hit enter right away and it jerks me to the bottom too. It starts your cursor at the bottom then when you hit enter it brings the screen to it. Just make sure you have the edit mode on then click the search icon and start typing and CLICK search don't hit enter to search.
What if your setting up retroarch brand new with an external hard drive. When I go to retroarch cfg to do what you did it doesn't even find the browser. Any ideas?
The search at the top when you search browser doesn't yield anything? I have found you need to click it not press enter otherwise it just takes you to the bottom of the page. They released an update from Retroarch that you could download manually recently but I don't think they have any updates on the live version in the play store. It sounds like the retro arch version is different though and they may have made a change attempting to fix the problem so people don't have to follow this video? Unsure but maybe check and see if you can see your drive without following the video. If not then perhaps try a different search word maybe in the version you have the external drive is in a different part of the config file? Can't think of what else it might be.
@@RetroDrive thanks for replying. Yeah, I tried a different version of retroarch but it has same issue. Hopefully, they will put out a patch to fix this soon.
@@waynetech9446 You've probably tried these but if you download the APK from here which someone else linked below you can get a sort of patch to the current updates before they go live and it might provide a fix to your problem if you haven't tried it already. buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/android/
Going to add a new video soon but the simpler solution is to just access the storage via the network sharing option in the Shield. You can just drag and drop game files after setting up your external drive as device storage. First have to navigate to the device and set it up as storage, then migrate all the data to it(second step just have to click a button), then under storage there is an option to share on network. Access with a PC connected to the same network and you can drag/drop your files into the respective folders for each app.
@@RetroDrive yeah that would be fantastic. You would be the first one to post a video about that subject . I've searched around UA-cam and haven't found a tutorial for that fix for visuals . You'd be the first !
Easier these days to bind the device as storage from the shield. It reformats it and erases everything then you can drop each game into the folders for the specific apps. We go over how to do the second part in another video. The first part can be tedious though as you have to add all your games again.
@@RetroDrive I had to share my Nvidia Shield with my PC, access the config file through there and it edit it in notepad. I simply could not get the edit to work on the shield.
Same problem for me with n64 and other emulators not the Dreamcast emulator tho and is happening on my San disk 128 gb the files are messed up keeps going to files app thr one that's not functional
Which app are you using to run the N64 and Dreamcast games? Pretty sure the Shield app functionality should be the same no matter which model Shield you have. So as long as you are using Retroarch if you follow the guide it should work. Not sure exactly where its going wrong for you so try to be specific.
dude next time leave the audio out so we can hear you better you have a low tone great video but if you gonna have music play at least SPEAK OUT WITH YOUR CHEST!
You clicked in the top right to change it from view mode to edit mode? Then search the file. If it won't let you click the button in the top right or that doesn't enable editing I might try to reinstall the app. Beyond that there is an easier work around that we will have a video out for soon. Turning your storage into internal device storage allows you to use the network to drag and drop the roms directly into the folders for each app. This way you can just refresh them and the games will show up on most apps. Will still need to scan for retro arch.
@@RetroDrive I figured it out it just wasn't as seemless as the video. But now the hard drive still won't show up. I wonder why nvidia had to go and screw up the shield tv like this.
@@TheRealBruceWayne01 Perhaps check the spelling? I think Nvidia had in mind that everyone was already using the network transfer system. Which is nice when you understand it but tedious to learn so most people like us would just dump games right on the hard drive and then scan the drive.
Kinda works...still can't select my background image or even see the hard drive in that menu. I can only view the external drive in the load content and scan menus.
@@Phallica-js7ht Good to know thank you for the update! The 9.0.1 update was available on the hotfix signup mentioned in the video about 10 days ago but it didn't provide a fix for RetroArch or any of the retro gaming apps. Perhaps RetroArch had an update as well? Will test it later thanks.
@@josephcheeks3049 In File Xplore? First you have to put the document in editing mode by clicking at the top right....then you search the document and then edit and save it.
You mean the .apk they released 2 days ago or the one from March 3rd? The video was meant as a gap closer between when it came out almost 2 months ago and when those updates were finally released which was a few weeks after the video. But yes the proper APK is available now and will soon be applied to the Play Store update so no workaround is needed.
@Retro Drive X-PLORE just wont let me gain access to the data folder, it asks me if i will allow access as a one time requirement, and then just keeps looping the process. Ive seen other people on reddit with this problem but no solution, any ideas?
@@Phade101 It just didn't loop on our end. And you can't make it send the request again. Can always mount the external drive as device storage and add the games over the network to the respective folders. It's probably easier than this process we just don't have a video up for it as it wasn't available at the time of making this
The most consistant way across all apps with this update is to mount your external storage as device storage. Then you can transfer files over the network into the respective folders for each app and the apps will populate the games automatically(except retroarch you still have to scan folders). In a few days we will have a video up regarding this method we used it to get all the previous apps we were using working again.
![This Emulation Drive is NUTS! [Hyper Base Mix Review]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/iUYWxwLyUco/mqdefault.jpg)
this - clearly and to the point - shows how to make Retroarch access SD card in android 11 and later versions (confirmed for Android 13)
thank you good sir, this is youtube at its best
HOLY SHIT THIS WORKED THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. PERFECT INSTRUCTIONS
to clarify, I watched 3 other videos before this one that were not helpful and largely wasted my time
Thank you for this tutorial it helped me fix the problem with retroarch not seeing my usb.
IT WORKED!!!!! it didnt at first but i updated my shield to 9.02 version 11 then tried it again and boom it worked thank you so much was really trying not to fill up my shields memory with games im only going to play every once in a while
Are you using a shield pro or the tube version? I followed exactly the same and I couldn’t open and edit my retroarch.bin file. Everything ground to a halt
@@TheAngryKilt i have the shield pro
This worked beautifully. Thank you!
Thank you! File X-Plore was bugging on me but I was able to edit using Network share instead & following the same instructions for the config file
Video helped me TONS. THANK YOU
Little tip. Drop the midrange of the audio EQ on the background music. The human voice sits in the middle and this will leave a "hole" in the sound for ur voice to sit in and be heard a lot better.
Very useful thanks I'll check out more on doing this in future videos!
Can't get it to update the text file. It refuses to edit and goes back up to the top. A pain.
Edit: Had to file share my Nvidia shield with my PC, and edit the file in notepad. Those text editors on the Shield were a nightmare.
Still Can't get the retro arch to read the external
Excellent! Thank you, this fixed the problem! Cheers!
Muchas gracias!! Casi Había perdido la esperanza y el nivel de ira estaba por las nubes
2-26-2022 I factory reset (all devices), and installed ver 9.01, then reinstall all apps on all of 4 of my 2017 Shields. I completed the task about week ago. Today, I noticed that the button sound was back on 1 of my shields, followed by a notice to upgrade to ver 9.01. I thought it was a false display issue. I went to about, and checked the installed version. It showed ver 9. A week ago it was ver 11. Again thinking there must be some display error, I decided to test the version with "Set Orientation", which does Not work with ver 11. Installed, tested, and "Set Orientation" worked perfect. So, I wondered if any of the other shields had been down graded. Turns out, one other shield (i use the least) was down graded to ver 9. Of all those trying to figure out how to downgrade and mine did it on its own, go figure. Wish I could say I figured out how to down grade it, but I did nothing.
One observation: The 2 shields downgraded are connected wi-fi, while the other 2 are connected with an Ethernet cable.
Has anyone else experienced this?
3-8-2022 Update: After a week, wired shields still android 11, and android 9 on the wi-fi shields. The wi-fi shields are significantly faster in response times. the wired shields are starting to bog down and become unresponsive at times.
Very strange, I've never encountered an easy formal way to downgrade them either. Wonder what might be rolling them back will keep an eye on this for the Shields we go through as well.
Auto update toggled?
@@NDE108 The auto-updates where on prior to the downgrades. I turned them off on the down graded shields and left auto updates on for the android 11 shields. So far, no changes to the android 11 shields. The android 9 shields want me to update.
Much appreciated thanks!
I've factory reset, and installed 9.01. I've also update another shield with 9.01. No issues on the factory reset shield. The updated shield worked but was sluggish (push a button ect and a delayed reaction) in comparison to the factory reset shield. I ended up factory resetting the updated shield and now it works as well as the other shield. "App Backup and Restore" , ver up to 6.8.4 works with android 11,. 6.8.9 has a memory storage location issue. Alternate app is "App Backup" which is simple and works well. "Set Orientation" does not work, haven't found a replacement. Unfortunately, an ad blocker is almost a necessity, without it, some apps are sluggish and some not worth using because they slow to a crawl. I've also noticed that I am only able to use Wi-Fi. I can't figure out how to switch/utilize to my Ethernet cable connection.
I've also noticed this delay with the updated Shields. It's like their access to the storage is bogged down. If you scan too many games at once in the Retroarch app it freezes and closes. This used to happen but only after trying to scan like 10 folders at once. Now it happens at 2-3. Will try factory resetting prior to updating to 9.0.1 to see if it fixes this. Thanks for the tip!
@@RetroDrive You may also try clearing Cache by going to Settings-> Device Preferences->Storage->internal shared storage->scroll down to "Cached data" and hit enter or "a" on the game remote. Select "OK" to clear the cache. You may have to do this multiple times in a row in order to clear the Cache. The lowest I've gotten the Cache is around 20MB.
Worked, anyone that can't have access to data folder using x-plore switch to file commander (prem/mod) so they can glitch that access for u, then do as the clip.
File commander doesn’t show me what’s in the android folder pls help
@@Crestex59 premium version or modded version only i think.
@Retro Drive Can you point me towards the mentioned APK workarounds your on about please?
i plugged my shield in pc and activated files usb transfer via pc and i edited the file with my pc.
way more easy!
I can get as far as opening the new config file on xplore file text editor but when I locate the rgui_browser line and attempt to change it the input reverts to the bottom of the file everytime. I’ve tried downloading Shield TV remote and using that keyboard instead but it does the opposite and begins editing the first line of text in the file. It just does not let me input the name of sd file location. Help please!!
Same for me. Can't figure it out.
This was my problem as well. I finally was able to edit and save the file by selecting my default keyboard in android settings as leanback instead of gboard. Now.. There will still be the problem of the initial cursor click taking the input straight to the bottom of the file, but I scrolled up until I saw the line to edit and clicked and was able to edit the line. The leanback setting made it so that it didn't take it back to the bottom *again* while typing due to the virtual keyboard popping up again in the middle of typing which gboard was guilty of doing. Also, I used x-plore text editor to edit the file. Very sluggish but it worked. Fx editor was faster but would open the file as a new file which made saving impossible. Omg the entire process of editing this stupid line on an Nvidia shield was beyond frustrating. Good luck.
This update broke many old apps. Especially the 3DO emulator that is even better than the 3DO core on retroarch. However, the standalone emulator still works but it just can't access the USB hard drives anymore. And it's unfortunate that it is no longer being updated to work with the new drivers that this new updated forced all these apps to have or become semi-functional.
There may be a work around! It works for most systems after formatting the hard drive as device storage through the Shield settings menu. We have a video on this that goes over how to access the folders afterwards but we needed to make the whole video and link the update through here. It's a bit easier overall.
For some reason I got to the open retro arch.cfg and none of the folders in there can be opened. Someone help please?
Likewise. I am trying to open retroarch.cfg and doesn't open . Please help !!!
where exactly is the location of RetroArch on the NVIDIA internal storage, if you had to side-load it using ADBLINK? The only Android > data folder I see is on my USB drive, which RetroArch still can't see because I can't find the RetroArch cfg file to modify.
Got mine working but for some reason the PS1 games specifically are very inconsistent. Sometimes one might work, then randomly it'll make the app crash. Same game, same core. Very odd.
Can confirm this problem. Though the most recent update seems to have fixed most of the issues caused by 9.0, the ePSXe app is still struggling to even scan the drive without crashing.
I'm a little late to this party, but sweet Jesus: Mr cool saved the day! My gratitude is unmeasurable and my day is made. Thank you!
Retro arch won't even install on my 2029 shield pro
I can't open that text file to edit it. It is not accessible
When I try to enter /storage, it goes down to the very bottom of the page. Is there a way to fix this?
is it possible to add a 2nd storage locations as i currently need a larger usb stick?
When I try to type in the drive it goes all the way to the bottom
Yes it defaults to this I accidently hit enter right away and it jerks me to the bottom too. It starts your cursor at the bottom then when you hit enter it brings the screen to it. Just make sure you have the edit mode on then click the search icon and start typing and CLICK search don't hit enter to search.
data folder says "acces denied" on googletv 11
What if your setting up retroarch brand new with an external hard drive. When I go to retroarch cfg to do what you did it doesn't even find the browser. Any ideas?
The search at the top when you search browser doesn't yield anything? I have found you need to click it not press enter otherwise it just takes you to the bottom of the page. They released an update from Retroarch that you could download manually recently but I don't think they have any updates on the live version in the play store. It sounds like the retro arch version is different though and they may have made a change attempting to fix the problem so people don't have to follow this video? Unsure but maybe check and see if you can see your drive without following the video. If not then perhaps try a different search word maybe in the version you have the external drive is in a different part of the config file? Can't think of what else it might be.
@@RetroDrive thanks for replying. Yeah, I tried a different version of retroarch but it has same issue. Hopefully, they will put out a patch to fix this soon.
@@waynetech9446 You've probably tried these but if you download the APK from here which someone else linked below you can get a sort of patch to the current updates before they go live and it might provide a fix to your problem if you haven't tried it already.
buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/android/
@@RetroDrive genesis games e neogeo games works in 240p resolution retroarch emulation?
@@xani123123 I haven't checked the resolution settings they use because both systems run very well by default in retro arch.
Sup bro. I get all the way to trying to click the retroarch.cfg file and nothing happens. Doesn't open up another page. Really weird.... any advice
Going to add a new video soon but the simpler solution is to just access the storage via the network sharing option in the Shield. You can just drag and drop game files after setting up your external drive as device storage. First have to navigate to the device and set it up as storage, then migrate all the data to it(second step just have to click a button), then under storage there is an option to share on network. Access with a PC connected to the same network and you can drag/drop your files into the respective folders for each app.
@@RetroDrive yeah that would be fantastic. You would be the first one to post a video about that subject . I've searched around UA-cam and haven't found a tutorial for that fix for visuals . You'd be the first !
Same here 😢
I don't see "Internal Storage" listed... ugh...
Easier these days to bind the device as storage from the shield. It reformats it and erases everything then you can drop each game into the folders for the specific apps. We go over how to do the second part in another video. The first part can be tedious though as you have to add all your games again.
@@RetroDrive I had to share my Nvidia Shield with my PC, access the config file through there and it edit it in notepad. I simply could not get the edit to work on the shield.
Same problem for me with n64 and other emulators not the Dreamcast emulator tho and is happening on my San disk 128 gb the files are messed up keeps going to files app thr one that's not functional
Which app are you using to run the N64 and Dreamcast games? Pretty sure the Shield app functionality should be the same no matter which model Shield you have. So as long as you are using Retroarch if you follow the guide it should work. Not sure exactly where its going wrong for you so try to be specific.
They should be working now. There's also a 9.0.1 update for the Shield so give that a go too.
I’m using retroarch plus is it better ? I know more cores but which one is better retroarch or retroarch plus
It’s been working hahaha
But for n64 what’s the best core ?
dude next time leave the audio out so we can hear you better you have a low tone great video but if you gonna have music play at least SPEAK OUT WITH YOUR CHEST!
I love you
I found the browser directory but it won't let me edit it at all? Any ideas?
You clicked in the top right to change it from view mode to edit mode? Then search the file. If it won't let you click the button in the top right or that doesn't enable editing I might try to reinstall the app. Beyond that there is an easier work around that we will have a video out for soon. Turning your storage into internal device storage allows you to use the network to drag and drop the roms directly into the folders for each app. This way you can just refresh them and the games will show up on most apps. Will still need to scan for retro arch.
@@RetroDrive I figured it out it just wasn't as seemless as the video. But now the hard drive still won't show up. I wonder why nvidia had to go and screw up the shield tv like this.
@@TheRealBruceWayne01 Perhaps check the spelling? I think Nvidia had in mind that everyone was already using the network transfer system. Which is nice when you understand it but tedious to learn so most people like us would just dump games right on the hard drive and then scan the drive.
Not sure why they had to fix something that wasn't broken. I have 2 shields and 2 controllers that are kind of useless now.
Kinda works...still can't select my background image or even see the hard drive in that menu. I can only view the external drive in the load content and scan menus.
For which app? Have set up 8-10 of these using this method they are all still functioning and there have been no more major updates by Nvidia
@@RetroDrive There was the 9.0.1 update yesterday.
Anyway, the latest RetroArch nightly build fixed the problem.
@@Phallica-js7ht Good to know thank you for the update! The 9.0.1 update was available on the hotfix signup mentioned in the video about 10 days ago but it didn't provide a fix for RetroArch or any of the retro gaming apps. Perhaps RetroArch had an update as well? Will test it later thanks.
Unfortunately it doesn't work for me. Retroarch doesn't see a file or folder on my external drive. In what format should I format my disk?
Not work for me
Mouse not letting me write in text?
How did you change the word in text, I tried both mouse and keyboard nothing works as far as changing the text word
@@josephcheeks3049 In File Xplore? First you have to put the document in editing mode by clicking at the top right....then you search the document and then edit and save it.
Just download the latest nightly build of RetroArch, the problem is now fixed.
buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/android/
Bottom of the page.
There was no need to do all that I jus went to retroarch main page and downloaded the android 32 bit one...everything is working now
You mean the .apk they released 2 days ago or the one from March 3rd? The video was meant as a gap closer between when it came out almost 2 months ago and when those updates were finally released which was a few weeks after the video. But yes the proper APK is available now and will soon be applied to the Play Store update so no workaround is needed.
Hi, where is this apk do you have a link please?
Iv got retroarch plus of play store and it was working fine until update 🤦🏻♂️
@@chrisgidley8946 www.retroarch.com/?page=platforms
@@RetroDrive thank you for this one. The update version doesn t work for me
Also I have the tube nvidia wirh the 128 gb San disk
This would have been easier if you hadn't already done some steps.
@Retro Drive X-PLORE just wont let me gain access to the data folder, it asks me if i will allow access as a one time requirement, and then just keeps looping the process. Ive seen other people on reddit with this problem but no solution, any ideas?
@@Phade101 It just didn't loop on our end. And you can't make it send the request again. Can always mount the external drive as device storage and add the games over the network to the respective folders. It's probably easier than this process we just don't have a video up for it as it wasn't available at the time of making this
NO 9 MINUTE VIDEO IS EASY???
Will this work simar to arch browser I can't get external hdd to show any games
The most consistant way across all apps with this update is to mount your external storage as device storage. Then you can transfer files over the network into the respective folders for each app and the apps will populate the games automatically(except retroarch you still have to scan folders). In a few days we will have a video up regarding this method we used it to get all the previous apps we were using working again.
T'y