Need simple solution for Favorites not saving

strells

OK, so what should be my order of operations if I want to shut down the power to my cabinet? Use the shut down in ES and then power off Pi?

mitu

@strells Use the shutdown menu in Emulationstation and that's it. Do you have an additional power switch attached to the Pi ? If yes, power if to off after the shutdown.

kelkyko

@mitu Hello, I've looked at a number of suggestions on this and still can't seem to get it right. I can't seem to get my retropie to save favorites and last played games. I know how to set it up in retropie, but when I exit, I get the error messages:

Error parsing XML file "/home/pi/.emulationstation/gamelists/mame-libretro/gamelist.xml"! no document element found

I'm confused about either permission rights or the file not existing. Is there an easy solution to this that someone can recommend so I don't corrupt my SD card or brick my raspberry pi?

Much appreciated in advance and thanks!

mitu

@kelkyko said in Need simple solution for Favorites not saving:

I get the error messages

That error message is from the start-up, it's only shown on the screen when you exit.

Please add some info about your system, as detailed in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

kelkyko

@mitu The error only shows up on exit; it does not appear there are errors on startup. I'm using a raspberry pi 3 b+. I can't tell what version of retropie is running, but I believe is 4.1. The linux version is 4.14.

kelkyko

@mitu It boots up normally and then I go in and create favorites. The folder gets created, and I can see the games I save there in emulation station. But then when I exit normally (either quit emulation station or reboot it within emulation station, once it is back up there are no favorites.

mitu

@kelkyko You haven't provided all the information asked in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first. Are you using a 3rd party image or you installed from the image at retropie.org.uk/download ?

kelkyko

@mitu I'm sorry. I'm really confused by all the information I need to provide. No I'm not using a 3rd party image. I am using a Raspberry pi power source.

Clyde

@kelkyko The favorites are saved in the file gamelist.xml. The gamelists are saved either in ~/.emulationstation/gamelists/[SYSTEM_NAME]/ or ~/.emulationstation/gamelists/[SYSTEM_NAME]/, depending if and how you scraped the games' information. [SYSTEM_NAME] is the resp. directory in ~/RetroPie/roms, the ~ is the shorthand symbol for the current user's home directory, e.g. /home/pi.

I would check if the gamelist of the system in question is saved correctly after changing the favorites and quitting Emulation Station (ES).

Mark some games as favorites, e.g. in the arcade system.
Exit ES via the Main Menu or by pressing F4.
Enter the following commands. Everything behind a # is just a comment.

sudo apt install xmlstarlet  # install xmlstarlet if it's not already installed (needs internet access!)
cd ~/RetroPie/roms/arcade      # change to the system's rom directory
ls -l gamelist.xml           # list the time the gamelist file was last changed
xmlstarlet sel -t -m "/gameList/game[favorite='true']" -v name -n <gamelist.xml  
                             # display all games with the <favorite> tag set to "true"

The gamelist's modification time should match the moment when you left ES. The fourth command should lists the games that you marked as favorites before. The success or failure of these commands may help us to pin down the source of the problem.

Enter exit to leave the command console and return to ES.

edit: Some additions and corrections I forgot, my apologies.

kelkyko

@clyde thanks for the reply. when I type ls -1 gamelist.xml it says "ls: cannot access "gamelist.xml': No such file or directory

Clyde

@kelkyko Then it might be in the alternative location ~/.emulationstation/gamelists/arcade. Try that path after the cd command. If the error occurs again, show us the output of the second of these commands (but execute both in that order):

sudo updatedb
locate gamelist.xml

Just to be sure, you are using the correct system in the path? (arcade or wherever else your roms reside in).