best filesystem for android discs

apologies in advance if this the wrong place to post. whats the best filesystem for android phones and tablet memory cards etc, ntfs doesnt work (at ;east not for me unless i am doing something wrong) fat or fat32 isnt practical because of the size limitations and ext4 doesnt work on all systems, i dont care too much about speed as long as its not snail speed

 

Since v2.2, Android has always supported FAT32, EXT3 & EXT4 (Android is Linux-based after all). Some "newer" (Kit-Kat+) may support exFAT but it's not officially supported (it's a proprietary MicroSloth FileSystem). MicroSloth said in 2019 that exFAT would be moved into the Linux kernel but I don't think there's an official timeline.

If your Android device supports SD Cards at 64gB or greater, it just might support exFAT (since most of those cards come pre-formatted as exFAT devices).

 

I always use exFAT on my SD/Micro SD Cards. Works perfectly with Android

 

exFAT, ext4, f2fs. Latter 2 are not supported by Windows.

 

thanks for all the replies but whats the best for compatibility over 4gig with android while still being compatible without needing any hacks or special software, portable is preferable and free but i dont mind paying for something thats good

 

If you want compatibility with current/up-to-date Windows (Windows 10 and 8.1) give a try to exFAT. Windows has support for that. Some older Android devices may not support exFAT out-of-box. Give it a try. Without experimenting you will not know if your Android device supports exFAT.

 

its my understanding that both NTFS and exfat have licensing issues, and windows builtin formatting tools the option to choose exfat for drives over 4 gig fat32 size limit. and drives larger than 32 gig for exfat but i am probably wrong on this

 

Microsoft released exFAT specs publicly. Vanilla Linux kernel has support for exFAT since 5.4. Android OEMs probably have to license some patents related to microSDXC and exFAT is default for these cards, so I guess they pay some money related to exFAT. Some smartphone vendors had exFAT years before vanilla Linux.
Anyway as a consumer you should not care about patent fees, at least if you don`t modify OS binaries. It is OEMs job.
You pay for Windows OS (I guess you use Windows, because ext4 is a compatibility problem for you), microSD cards, smartphone. Fees for patents should be paid by Microsoft, smartphone OEM and microSD cards vendors.