Random param.json parse errors when scanning ~20 games on ext1 (Itemzflow 1.14)

[CapsuleTechLabs]

Environment

• Console: PS5
• Firmware: 10.01
• Jailbreak: etaHEN 2.5B
• Itemzflow version: 1.14 (also tested with 1.13)
• Storage: PS5 extended storage mnt/ext1 (games in /mnt/ext1/appmeta/...)

Summary

When scanning around 20 PS5 game backups stored on mnt/ext1, Itemzflow randomly fails to parse some param.json files on each scan, even though the files are valid JSON and identical between runs.

Detailed behavior

• I have ~20 PS5 games on mnt/ext1 (each with .../TITLEID-app0/sce_sys/param.json).
• After the first scan, a large subset of games (around 15) show errors like:
  • json.exception.parse_error.101 ... unexpected end of input
  • Failed to get param.json for PPSAxxxxx.
• If I immediately run Scan again, those games now work, but a different subset (around 5 games) fail with the same parse_error.101.
• Repeating the scan toggles which games fail: the total number of games is the same, but the subset that fails changes on every scan (e.g. 15 fail / 5 OK, then 5 fail / 15 OK, etc.).
• PS5_Apps.db is rebuilt (I deleted it and let Itemzflow recreate it), but the random behavior persists.
• Permissions on ext1 are 777 for testing, so it does not look like a simple permission issue.
• The param.json files themselves are valid: for example, one affected title has a well‑formed param.json in
  /mnt/ext1/appmeta/[TITLEID-CustomName]/[TITLEID]-app0/sce_sys/param.json, and external validation confirms the JSON is correct.

What I suspect

• This looks like a race condition or file/stream handling bug in the PS5 vapp scan: some param.json files appear to be read partially or as empty on certain scans, causing nlohmann::json to throw parse_error.101 even though the underlying file is correct.
• The fact that different games fail on each scan suggests it is not data corruption but an internal limitation (e.g. shared buffer, max open files, or concurrency issue) when iterating through many titles on mnt/ext1.

Attachments

• itemzflow_app.log showing sequences like:
  • ... is a PS5 app.
  • An exception occurred: [json.exception.parse_error.101] ... unexpected end of input
  • Failed to get param.json for PPSAxxxxx.
• Example param.json used in the scan.

param.json
Log:
itemzflow_app.log