Literally everything with USB can read FAT32, there’s some old or incredibly simple stuff out there that doesn’t read exFAT.
Manufacturers ideally want to spend as little as possible handling support for users, so they go with the option that isn’t going to result in returns from people who think it doesn’t work with their old printer or whatever.
I have a client that does HVAC work who needed help preparing a 128GB flash drive for loading firmware onto high end thermostats. Quickly ran the command to format as FAT32 because that’s what the thermostats require (and he indicated the firmware files would exceed the 32GB limit in the GUI)
Literally everything with USB can read FAT32, there’s some old or incredibly simple stuff out there that doesn’t read exFAT.
Manufacturers ideally want to spend as little as possible handling support for users, so they go with the option that isn’t going to result in returns from people who think it doesn’t work with their old printer or whatever.
Updated some recent Gigabyte mini-pc using EFI shell the other month. I had to have a USB flash drive with FAT32
Same with my JBL party box speakers, probably most audio gear with USB interfaces.
I have a client that does HVAC work who needed help preparing a 128GB flash drive for loading firmware onto high end thermostats. Quickly ran the command to format as FAT32 because that’s what the thermostats require (and he indicated the firmware files would exceed the 32GB limit in the GUI)
Are you formatting it using the windows disk manager? Any 3rd party tool will allow you to go above the 32GB limit.
The client was, so I ran the command for them to format the full 128GB as FAT32
I’ve had smart TVs that only updates with fat32 formatted USBs for firmware, for a concrete example.
Plus exfat has a LOT of caveats. Like no linking…
Could make it f2fs, but I’d bet Windows doesn’t support that.