Developer ITotalJustice continues to update Sphaira , the evolved interface designed as an alternative to the traditional hbmenu for modified Nintendo Switch consoles .

The latest version introduces a number of significant improvements and fixes aimed at making the user experience even smoother and more complete.

Also fixed a bug that caused native SD card folders to appear empty in the file browser, while added the ability to mount external hard drives via FTP.

A bug that caused the left side menu to incorrectly appear within the “misc” options has been fixed, as well as a malfunction related to activating the FTP option from the network menu, which prevented the service from restarting.

The internal update has been improved to act on all Sphaira related paths , making the automatic update system more reliable.

Additionally, a workaround has been implemented for users using a file-based emuMMC, which was causing issues when copying files to the same SD, dumping games, and during installations.

While using emuMMC on partition is recommended, this patch will work around the most serious issues.

On the performance side, the hashing system now uses multithreading, reaching speeds of over 80 MB/s on SD and over 100 MB/s on HDD. File copying also benefits from multithreading, recording a performance increase of approximately 2.5 times in operations from SD to HDD.

Finally, new updates have been included for the Russian (by @redraz ) and Portuguese (thanks to @ninstar ) translations, as well as improvements to the Impeeza build by @impeeza .

Characteristics

Sphaira ‘s main menu automatically lists all files .nroin the directory /switch/, allowing you to not only launch them, but also sort them, delete them, and create direct links to them.

From the program you can access other sections, such as the file browser or the app store, using the and keys .

The file browser, accessible via , offers functions such as cut, copy, delete and rename, also allowing multiple selection via the button . In addition, it is possible to create forwarders for files that have a predefined association.

Sphaira also integrates an app store based on the hb-appstore API , ensuring compatibility between the two platforms. Applications can be downloaded and manifests installed in the same directory used by hb-appstore , avoiding conflicts.

Another interesting feature is the support for custom themes. Sphaira includes three predefined themes, Abyss , Black and White (still in progress), but it also allows users to add other custom themes by placing them in the directory /config/sphaira/themes/.

Each theme can include music files in format BFSTMand detailed visual specifications. Additionally, new themes can be downloaded via the “Themezer” feature, with installation managed via NXThemes Installer .

The forwarder functionality is particularly versatile: Sphaira allows you to create direct links for files .nroand associated files, such as emulated game ROMs.

For example, if a Game Boy Advance game is placed in the directory , while the mGBA/roms/gba/ emulator is already installed on the console, it will be possible to create a forwarder that uses the game’s icon and an automatically generated name.

The file association system allows you to link specific extensions to certain applications, making the user experience seamless and customizable.

For example, files with the extension .gbaor .gbccan be associated with emulators such as mGBA or Gambatte . This system supports both single ROMs and ZIP archives, where Sphaira automatically detects the contents to determine the icon and file association.

For the nostalgic, Sphaira also supports the use of GBS files, which contain audio tracks from Game Boy games. These files are played randomly as background music, with a maximum duration of 45 seconds per track, until silence is detected.

Sphaira also includes a number of additional features such as a built-in (albeit limited) web browser, support for nxlink for developers, an “InfaRed Sensor” application to use the Joy-Con’s infrared camera, and the ability to replace hbmenu as the default launcher, creating an automatic backup for restore.

Changelog

Fixed an issue where native (SD) folders in the file browser would appear empty in the information.
Enabled support for mounting external hard drives via FTP.
Fixed a bug that caused the left side menu to be displayed as an option within the “misc” menu.
Changed the built-in update system to update all Sphaira related paths.
Fixed a bug that prevented the FTP service from restarting when enabling or disabling the corresponding option in the network menu.
Introduced a temporary workaround for those using file-based emuMMC (partition-based use recommended), which caused problems with file copying (SD -> SD), game dumping and installation.
The hashing system now uses multithreading, with speeds over 80 MB/s on SD and over 100 MB/s on HDD.
File copying is also now multithreaded, resulting in approximately a 2.5x performance increase in SD to HDD operations.
Added Russian translation by @redraz (pull request #151 ).
Updated Portuguese translation by @ninstar (pull request #152 ).
Impeeza build improvements made by @impeeza (pull request #144 ).