[UWP/Xbox] Manual scan cannot read external USB drives - playlists always empty

[fly6886]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• This is a bug in RetroArch frontend
• I have searched the existing issues

Description

Platform: Xbox Series X, RetroArch UWP build (latest)

Bug description

The manual/automatic content scanner always finds 0 games on an external USB drive, across all systems (PS2, PS1, SFC/SNES, FC/NES, DC, PSP, ...).

Expected behavior

Scanning a folder on external USB storage should create a playlist with the games found.

Actual behavior

Scan completes but reports 0 items. No playlist is created.

Facts that rule out config mistakes

• Load Content > Browse Files CAN browse and launch games from the same USB drive (so the files and cores are fine)
• The playlists folder itself (RetroArch\playlists) is read from the USB drive without any problem
• File extension filter, system name and core are all set correctly

Suspected root cause

UWP sandbox does not grant broadFileSystemAccess, so directory enumeration on external storage fails, while direct file reads (Browse Files) work.

Workaround (confirmed working)

Generate .lpl files on a PC and copy them into the playlists folder - playlists appear and games launch normally.

Related reports

• (UWP) Xbox One Only? Playlists Arnt Created After Scanning #11108 (closed, same issue)
• Xbox One X doesn't show all scanned ROMs; delete app doesn't delete config files #10527 (open)

Request

Please enable external USB storage enumeration in the UWP build, or document this as a known limitation so users stop hitting it.

Expected behavior

Scanning a folder on external USB storage should create a playlist with the games found.

Steps to reproduce the bug

1. Put game ROMs/ISOs on an external USB drive connected to Xbox.
2. Open RetroArch UWP on Xbox.
3. Go to Import Content > Manual Scan.
4. Select the external USB folder, set system name and core correctly, start scan.
5. Scan completes with 0 items; no playlist is created.

Version/Commit

1.20.0

Bisect Results

No response

Present in the nightly version

I don't know

Platform & operating system

Xbox Series X (UWP)

Affected Cores

All cores (issue is in the content scanner, not a specific core)

Environment information

Xbox Series X, external USB 3.0 drive

Relevant log output

[samysilva]

Note for anyone landing here with playlists not being created on Xbox:
there was a separate bug where the UWP file rename discarded its
destination path, so playlist writes silently produced nothing on any
storage. Fixed in 86d1bf8 (2026-08-18).

If your build predates that commit you will hit it. The XboxEmulationHub
release tagged 08-19-2026 was built from 2026-08-17 code, so it still has
the bug despite the tag date.