Dreaded starter clutch slipping/synthetic oil

After reading a bunch of posts regarding these 2 subjects, I still had a few questions. I finally got my bike ready to start. I drained out the old oil, replaced the filter and filled the crankcase with AMSoil 20w50 synthetic. The bottle says it’s for motorcycles and on the back it said the JASO MA/MA2 rating so I thought everything was fine. I attempted to start the bike and it sounds like the starter missed a couple times and eventually started the bike. I’ve watched a few clips on here and it sounds like my bike has the slipping starter clutch. I’m going to pull the starter tomorrow and spray towards the front of the engine in hopes the clutch plates might just be sticking. I wanted to post in here first in case it just doesn’t like my oil. I noticed on the bottle or the back it doesn’t say anything about wet clutches. Bike was sitting since 2020 so I’m sure that might be an aggravating factor.
*EDIT*
Leaning towards sticky clutch plates, when moving the bike back and forth in gear with the lever depressed you can still feel it dragging. I’ll just swap out the clutch plates and try to start it again.

 

I have not used that oil but as it is JASO rated it should be fine. However many people here use Shell Rotunda JASO rated which they have no issues with.

 

Wait a bit now. You are mixing two things (although you might be correct in that the oil is causing your issue).
The dragging clutch plates is a thing to do with clutch adjustment - the clutch on the XJs is really marginal in the throw you get from no pressure to completely released - sometimes aggravated by poorly routed or just duff cable, so the adjustment needs to be on the money.
Starter clutch is a totally different part of the engine, it refers to the sprag clutch, which when not spinning or spun in one direction travels freely, but spin it backwards and it locks, or "sprags", hence allowing the starter motor to spin the engine.
Oils with friction modifiers can make both these clutches slip, and it does sound like your starter clutch is slipping.
Do some searching on here, much has been written about the subject of correct oils, but JASO rated oil should be ok, I believe, but I'm no expert on it.

 

I’ve read a bunch of the threads on here in regards to the oil, I was having a hard time finding the motorcycle oil so I ended up having to buy the expensive stuff (at least here anyway) as for the starter clutch maybe I’m getting confused, one of the threads I read that even while in neutral if the clutch discs are sticking from years of sitting, it puts a strain on the starter clutch as it’s right in behind. When the bike did start and I put it in gear it stalled even with the clutch put in. This is my first bike with a starter clutch so I was unsure of what was going on. I’ll double check the cable today and I’m replacing the discs for peace of mind.

 

I emailed the company for specifics on my oil, I might just drain it and run Rotella anyways, I have the starter out in case there were teeth missing or something but I am having issues starting it now, it’s slipping more than it was yesterday when I tried. Once the oil is drained I will attempt to spray carb cleaner to get the synthetic oil as best as I can off the starter clutch before I drain it completely. As for the clutch adjustment, it seems to be bang on now, I read there should be no slack as the throw out fork takes up some slack.

 

I decided to flush my synthetic AMSoil and spray the starter clutch with carb cleaner, made sure my battery was fully charged and ran the Rotella 4T like was recommended and now my bike starts with no issues, it slipped a bit with the first couple pushes of the starter button but after that I turned over and started with no issues every time. The more I learn about these bikes it turns out the pickier I need to be, thanks everyone for the help!

 

- your clutch hand lever should have 2-3mm of free play (at the lever) when the clutch cable is properly adjusted.