Android TV 6.0.1 and extended FAT

[Jecht_Sin]

Any idea about what's going on with Extended FAT USB drives in Android 6.0.1? Yesterday I did some extensive testing with 2 USB HDD, I formatted both as extended FAT and not a single one was recognised. I only had the option in Settings to format them. So I reached the conclusion that Extended FAT wasn't supported (which bugged me because I was sure few weeks ago I was reading an exFAT formatted SD card connected via an USB adapter).

Today I've found a old 4GB key, formatted it as exFAT and now the television sees it normally, in X-plore (a file mamanger) included.

Actually, while writing this, I decided to reformat one of the two USB HDD as exFAT again. Now it is readable!! I wanna cry.. This and the WiFi in this television (49XD8099) have been the worst IT nightmare in all my life.

[Kuschelmonschter]

The memory subsystem in the recent Marshmallow update seems totally broken, also see my personal bug tracker.

[Jecht_Sin]

At this point "totally broken" seems like an understatement. It is possessed by an evil entity. Any time I try to test something new I get a new misbehaviour! 

Anyway, since we are here.. Is it problematic only with exFAT or also with NTFS? With FAT32? Not that I will use the last two (I am with macOS, so no NTFS for me. And FAT32 has the problem of small files), just as an information Then does it make any difference (in your experience) using GPT instead of MBR?

[kinggo01]

NTFS seems fine apart from writing permission.

[Kuschelmonschter]

I also use NTFS for my Kodi timeshift buffer. I read somewhere that the Android/Linux driver is better compared to exFAT.

As for GPT vs. MBR I have no real clue. You might want to try it out and report back .

[Jecht_Sin]

All I can tell (for now) is that today both USB devices are on MBR, with exFAT filesystems. And they showed. Actually, they still do. I am not sure how much it has to do with the exFAT drivers, since from the other threads it seems even  the USB devices formatted as ext4 disappear.

Tomorrow I will receive a couple of (fast) 64GB USB 3.0 keys and, against my best judgement since that seem bugged as well, I'll try to extend the internal memory, also using the second USB key as external "SD card". I'll format the latter as MBR/exFAT since it is what I am using now and that is up and running.

Then if anything goes wrong I'll check with adb and logcat. I mean, I already wasted three days with this junk, I must see the end of it. In the worst case all I'll have to do is yet another "reset to factory settings".

[Jecht_Sin]

I don't believe this, another message I posted disappeared. It seems to happen after I edit a message and leave the window open for somet time, probably until it signs out. Crap. Not only the tv is a bug fest, even the forum!

Anyway, in short I wrote that right now both USB devices are on MBR/exFAT. And they are still showing. There is a difference, though: if I try to copy a file to the USB key, I get the typical message about setting the permission and then it fails due to the lack of hidden file manager. Trying to copy to the HDD I get straight an error:

Impossibile to write in the file <PATH TO FILE>

Invalid path <PATH OF THE DEVICE>

Tomorrow I'll get two new USB 3.0 keys. And I'll do some more testing, extending the internal memory included (which was the reason why I started this). In the worst case I'll have to do yet another "reset to factory settings". I'll report how it goes.