Retroarch 1.8.4 for PS3 freezes during any attempt at scanning for rom's.

Retroarch 1.8.4 for PS3 (newest jan 2020 version from brewology) on CFW 4.5.1 Rebug Lite (cobra 8.2 i think).

First off thanks for reading this and your time.

So Retroarch PS3 freezes during any attempt at scanning for rom's. If I use the scan tool and point it to the main directory it starts to scan the first file and freezes the system with 0% showing at the bottom left and the file name of the first rom. It does the same if I point it to the game system folder the roms are in (eg Sega - Genesis), and again even if I scan for a single file and point it directly to a game rom. By freeze I mean the screen freezes, all movement stops, buttons are all unresponsive and I must shut down the PS3 manually. I can load the roms through load content and they work fine but when I try to scan the same rom I just played, it does not work. The only way i found to not freeze it is to do a manual scan. It does not freeze but it does go to 0% and does not progress further than that. I have attempted to scan working roms from a usb stick and the PS3 hard drive as well to rule out a usb error of some kind. I have also uninstalled RetroArch and reinstalled it. Then updated the data base and info files before trying again but I get the same issue. My folder structure on my usb is GAME ROMS/ (then sep folders for each system eg) Nintendo - Nintendo Entertainment System/ (then the files). I've spent hours reading through forums with no luck. Should I try to install an older version? It seems like it hangs when first going to query the database, maybe there it a way to point it in the right direction? Or a tool that I could use to scan and make a playlist and manually place it into a specific folder on the PS3 RetroArch directory.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

Start by reproducing the PS3 freeze with the scan tool using both USB and hard-drive ROMs, then compare it with loading content and a manual scan. Inspect the scan path and the database and info files involved in the first query. Done means scanning completes or fails without freezing, with the affected ROM folder types covered.