Fresh install - how to reinstate my gameslist.xml and all my preview videos/images?

GtBFilms

I've been putting off upgrading my PICADE to Retropie 4.4 from 4.3, as it's recommended I do a fresh install.

My problem with that is that I've spent countless hours manually updating the metadata for all my games to add video previews etc.

So my question is, if I take a blank SD card, do a fresh RetroPie install, setup my USB audio and powerblock again, is there an easy(ish) way for me to restore all my ROMS, gamelist.xml, video previews, scraped metadata, still images, etc to the new install?

I don't relish the prospect of manually adding the links to the video previews all over again.

Or under the circumstances is the best option to attempt to update what I've got to 4.4?

Cheers

Pi Model or other hardware: rpi 3
Power Supply used: Official 3A rpi
RetroPie Version Used (eg 3.6, 3.8.1, 4.1 - do not write latest): 4.3
Built From: RetroPie Website image download
USB Devices connected: USB soundcard
Controller used: PICADE control panel

mediamogul

@gtbfilms said in Fresh install - how to reinstate my gameslist.xml and all my preview videos/images?:

is there an easy(ish) way for me to restore all my ROMS, gamelist.xml, video previews, scraped metadata, still images, etc to the new install?

I don't use video previews myself, but as for still images and metadata, all you have to do is transplant /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/downloaded_images and /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/gamelists to the new install. Videos should be no different, as long as you transplant them to the same location they existed at before. The same also goes for ROMs at home/pi/RetroPie/roms. However, if you're running them off of an external USB using the recommended method, you'll need to follow that proceedure again.

ClassicGMR

When I did the original setup I used a 256GB USB drive instead of using the SD card. On that initial setup I installed Selph's scraper. I had the Selph scraper set to save everything into the /<system>/images/ folder. It also saved the gamelist.xml file into the rom folder.

The three systems I have set up since then I have set up a blank SD card with the RetroPie system installed. After setting up the controllers/keyboard I want to use on the system it's ready to go.

Using WinSCP I have SSH'd into the Raspberry Pi system and copied the directory from the USB drive to the new SD card locations.

Example:

/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes
this folder contains the roms and the gamelist.xml file generated
/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes/images
this folder contains the images scraped

So when I set up the new SD card I copy the entire "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nes" directory (including the "images" subfolder) to the new SD card. When I load Emulationstation it reads the gamelist.xml file and everything is already set up.

ppuspfc

I don't think it's a perfect fit for all your problems, but in this project:
https://github.com/PRElias/win10_emulation_station/tree/choco-auto-install

I built a powershell script which put video and marquee TAGs based on the name of your ROMs on you gamelist.

Copy the gamelist_manager.ps1 to your ROMs folder and execute it as admin.

Worth a try