mgba pokemon firered leafgreen will not load .sav

[clarkthechef]

Sorry in advance if this is already answered in another thread I didn't see.
I just got mGBA to run some pokemon roms I got with a retroarch handheld. I cannot get the rom to load a .sav file but it will still create a new one when saved through the game menu. I am on windows and I am sure im doing something stupid. The files are in the same folders as the roms, and I am loading alternate save.

[endrift]

I'm not sure where Retroarch puts the save files but I know it uses .srm instead of .sav.