Screenscraper error API closed for non-registered members

retronick

@thelostsoul I had ALLOT of trouble trying to figure this out. I tried to use /opt/retropie/supplementary/scraper/scraper ss_user myusername

Which seemed to work but didn't resolve it. The way I got it to work was to go to /opt/retropie/supplementary/scraper/skyscraper and edit the config.ini file.

In that document there is a line that says #userCreds="user:password" and a line above it that I altered to just say [screenscraper]. Then I removed the hashtag symbol from both lines, added my user and password in and saved it. It solved the problem and seems to be working no trouble.

Hope that helps

thelostsoul

@retronick I ended up waiting until next day, when I could use the site without user password. Whenever I run into the same issue, I'll look up here first. Thanks for the suggestion. Thank you to mitu too, I could start the program in said roms folder. But I guess it didn't recognize my settings and I didn't want ruin my current setup.

DeweyCox

@retronick I tried what you posted but under /opt/retropie/supplementary/scraper there is no skyscraper and no config.ini.
What am I missing?

mitu

@DeweyCox said in Screenscraper error API closed for non-registered members:

/opt/retropie/supplementary/scraper

That's not the installation folder for Skyscraper, it's the installation folder for Steven Selph's scraper. Skyscraper is installed in /opt/retropie/supplementary/skyscraper.

SJD1969

This post is deleted!

SJD1969

@retronick said in Screenscraper error API closed for non-registered members:

@thelostsoul I had ALLOT of trouble trying to figure this out. I tried to use /opt/retropie/supplementary/scraper/scraper ss_user myusername

Which seemed to work but didn't resolve it. The way I got it to work was to go to /opt/retropie/supplementary/scraper/skyscraper and edit the config.ini file.

In that document there is a line that says #userCreds="user:password" and a line above it that I altered to just say [screenscraper]. Then I removed the hashtag symbol from both lines, added my user and password in and saved it. It solved the problem and seems to be working no trouble.

Thank you - followed your insructions and now it works.

Greakon

I followed this but I cant edit the .ini, It says:

Permission denied.
Error code: 3
Error message from server: Permission denied

mitu

@Greakon What command are you using to edit the file ?

top-specci

@mitu said in Screenscraper error API closed for non-registered members:

The scraper.cfg doesn't support storing the user/password, you'll have to use the command line and add the parameters (-ss_user/-ss_password) needed to authenticate with your user account when scraping.

I'm using "Steven Selph's Scraper" (not Skyscraper):
Actual I'm running in same error message, so unshure if there is "only" a server overload or the login/password is no longer stored.
Because last weeks srapping works when starting from the shell # retropie_setup.sh

Also unclear, where my login to screenscaper is "stored", I Have have a login/password but where in RetroPie must this entered (because before it works and I have not use any command line ...)

mitu

@top-specci said in Screenscraper error API closed for non-registered members:

Also unclear, where my login to screenscaper is "stored"

As I said, you'll need to use the command line parameters for user/pass, there's no configuration file for storing it, not when using Steven Selph's scraper.

top-specci

Yes, but the grabbing is started from the menu "2: Scrape chosen system", where can I enter here login/password?

You understood what I mean?
It works before from this menu-option, so what is the binary (or shell script) I have to add the login/password?
imho this was not necessary till now ....

mitu

@top-specci said in Screenscraper error API closed for non-registered members:

Yes, but the grabbing is started from the menu "2: Scrape chosen system", where can I enter here login/password?

You'll need to run scraper from the command line and not through the RetroPie-Setup script.

top-specci

@mitu said in Screenscraper error API closed for non-registered members:

You'll need to run scraper from the command line and not through the RetroPie-Setup script.

Always? Is this new? Not working anymore from the menu? Was there a change?
7 days ago it works from the menu !?!?
This is what I don't understand (or: wondering) ....

mitu

@top-specci said in Screenscraper error API closed for non-registered members:

Always? Is this new? Not working anymore from the menu? Was there a change?
7 days ago it works from the menu !?!?

Please re-read the whole topic.

thelostsoul

@top-specci said in Screenscraper error API closed for non-registered members:

I'm running in same error message, so unshure if there is "only" a server overload

You can open the website and see directly if there is an overload: https://www.screenscraper.fr/

This info is found on the right top. You can see both CPU of the server are under heavy load (average: 97%). Only API Access is allowed, I guess that means only registered members. The smiley face also indicates that Not Registered members have no access.

Just wait some hours or sometimes even days and try again.

top-specci

I read the whole topic, believe me ...
There was also skyscraper, but

Actuall I only have to grab 10 (new) games, so it seems easier to download the images and movies manually and editthe gameslist.xml also manually

I try to undestand:
There is a menu to grab (and this was working last week),
and now I only get the information I have to use the command line ...

Ahh,
is this what you mean:
When using the menu I only able to download as a unregistered user,
and if I want to download as a registered user: This is only possible withe the command line.

BTW: Is it normal that the login on https://www.screenscraper.fr is not working with Chrome, in IE it works (for me)

Trebloth

Hi all, I stumbled on this topic in an attempt to solve the same issue the original poster was having (specifically, the fact that the scraper.cfg file doesn't save the username and password settings from ScreenScraper.fr). While a few people chimed in with bits and pieces of information, I'm going to give as much feedback / answers as possible to the initial problem.

To reiterate, this is specifically dealing with Sselph's Scraper (just referred to as 'scraper' most of the time). Some comments were talking about sky scraper, which I have not used and this information does not apply to.

Problem: running Sselph's scraper when ScreenScraper.fr is overloaded produces errors and does not work. We want to put in our login information to screenscraper.fr when running Sselph's scraper to bypass this issue as a registered user.

To get things to work cleanly, I deleted everything that was already in the images folder, as well as the gameslist.xml file.

Solution:

Exit emulation station (main menu -> quit -> quit emulationstation)
You will now be at a command prompt that says pi@retropie:~ $ (exact location text may be different if you left the command prompt from a different location)
typing 'ls' (short for list) will show you the folders and give you an idea of where you are.
cd RetroPie (this is case sensitive)
cd roms
ls (again, to see you roms folders)
cd (the folder you want to go to if you want to scrape one set of roms at a time like i did, in my case it was cd pcengine)

Now, this took me a few tries to get right, but what I figured out was that when running the command line, you have to tell it every single option that isn't default. For me, that meant telling it to use ScreenScraper.fr (-console_src=ss), download videos (-download_videos=true), download marquees (-download_marquees=true), and entering my username (-ss_user=[myusername]) and password (-ss_password=[mypassword]).

My command that finally worked was as written below (without the () symbols of course).

/opt/retropie/supplementary/scraper/scraper -console_src=ss -download_videos=true -download_marquees=true -ss_user=(insertusernamehere) -ss_password=(insertpasswordhere)

And to add, just type emulationstation to restart it.

Hope this helps someone! And thanks to everyone else who added some of the pieces that finally helped me put it all together.

thelostsoul

@Trebloth Its great to have a posting that is organized as a step by step tutorial and proven to be working. As an additional note, you could create a script out of the command, so next time you just call the script without worrying about settings.

WeirdH

I never used the command line, but instead scrape with screenscraper.fr from the retropie setup, like @top-specci said above. I use this method and it works for my needs (very basic info scraping with me manually editing the gamelist.xml to preference afterwards).

Granted, it's not the best option if you need to scrape hundreds of games, but for adding a handful of new entries, it's functional.

Colombia20102018

@mitu hello, I am having a lot of issues understanding the information. It is very high level for me and from all the different posts I see around the Internet, it seems I am not alone. I read the docs but some of the information assumes certain level of knowledge that I don't have. I registered at the screen scraper.fr page. All I want to do now is to go to Retropie to add my user and password so I can scrape all the roms to get video snaps. I see comments such as run it from the roms folder. How do I get to the roms folder to run it? Other comments say edit the config.ini. How do I edit it? How do I get there?
I would really appreciate if a step by step or video on how to do this could be shared. For example, step 1. from your emulation station type F4. step 2. type this command (....) and this path(...) to reach the roms folder. Step 3. now type this command (...) and this path (...). Step 4. Now that you are here do this, edit that, type there, change that, etc. Step 5. Save this way. Step 6. Now go back to emulation station this way. I am sure a step by step will save so much time to so many people that to play some games is all they want :). Thank you and Happy New Year