All scraped data and games in favorite list are gone oO'

Maegirom

Greets. I'm using emulationstation in a Raspberry pi 3. After some weeks running all fine I have had a weird issue today.
First, let me explain...
I've been managing favorites and metadata for weeks. I'm testing 1 by 1 in my +4000 game list (arcade/mames). If I like it, I scrap it individually, and add to favorites. The goal is having a favorites list with my previously tested and most liked games and from then on use only that list as my "main game list".
I'm noob. I'm sure it's not the most proper way, but it was working. I were in "K" letter, 100 games+/- added correctly to favorites. Many on and offs and everything was running fine (metadata saved, scrpaed pictures were showing, favorite list ok and growing...)
BUT today I have started ES and all my favorite list was empty except by 4 last games I added to the list (why 4 games were still there?), AND all the new scrapped stuff I did it's just gone. No pictures. Only the default descriptions that some rooms had by default.
I have done nothing different. Just play a game from arcade menu. If I like it, I scrap it and add to favorites and so on.
Every shutdown has been safe and complete. "Metadata save on exit" is ON. What's going on?
Note: Download images folder for arcade games still keeps scrapped images in it, but nothing is showed in ES.

I'm a completly noob with commands. I do not even havePuTTy. SO, is there anyway to make this process (scrap just the games I'm interested in and create a favorite lists with them) safe and easy?
Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I forgot to mention: I have found several gamelist.xml files in several folders. Don't know if paths are correct, or maybe one of them has been corrupted, etc.

mitu

@maegirom Please give us more details about your system: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

Maegirom

Let's see if I can give all the info. I'm noob and I'm not totally sure how to check all this:
Raspberry pi 3
Retropie 4.3 (checked in retropie setup menu, in ES)
Build from: I'm launching from berryboot. Is this what it's asking for?
Power supply? Not sure, the one that came with the pi. (It was a gift) Are you asking for voltage? EDIT: Ok, adapter reads 5V and 2500mA, what I think it is the recommended specs, right?
I have running the retropie image in an external hard drive (with his own power adapter, so not sucking energy from Pi)

Anyway... I have done the Steven Selph's Scraper method (exiting ES with f4, then commands, etc...) It seems all was fine. But now after switching menus for a while (arcade, ness, megadrive...) suddenly I'm starting to suffer font and pictures corruption. I see white and grey squares/boxes instead of letters, and scraped pictures become giant white squares. If I reboot it looks fine again but after switching a while the problem shows again.
NOTE that this issue had happened before, but just occasionally after changin between themes (only have 2 themes, sygnus and carbon)
Maybe my system is corrupted in anyway? Should I perform a reinstall?
The problems have become worst as I've adding systems and rooms. When I used it for the first times (with just a few systems/rooms) it did not give problems
I have read that it could be a gpu memory issue if I have many systems installed? Don't know, I'm totally lost about this
Thanks

mitu

@maegirom Your initial issue - with the disappearing favorites - could be from the scraping. If you choose to Overwrite the game info in the scraper options, instead of Append, then it will overwrite your gamelist file. The gamelist also stores the favorite flag, which was probably cleared from the file during scraping. Other flags include last played, play count - if you check those you might notice they're not correct.
If you want to keep your process of hand picking the games, I suggest you use the Append option and add the game to favorites after scraping OR use Custom Collection to store the list of games. Look up in the wiki how to add a new Custom Collection and how you can add a game to it. Or jus use the built-in scraper if you don't want video snapshots.

For the 2nd problem you mentioned - graphical corruption - it might be because of the VRAM settings or video snapshots usage. Lower the VRAM size in the ES options and - if you use video snaps - use the OMX Player to play the videos. It's also a setting in the Emulationstation screen menu.

Maegirom

thanks for your response. Sure I've not expressed well (english is not my language sorry). I was scrapping the games I like one by one, I mean, in ES: start menu->edit metadata-> Scrap (at the bottom). I was doing this game by game, turned on and off the system many times without problems. I didn't do anything different than this when the problem appeared. And I was doing as you say: first scrap and then add to favorites. Many days doing this without problems, and suddenly this morning... plop!

ANYWAY... I have scraped all systems with Steven Selph's Scraper method and it shows all pics, except nintendo ones (nes), dunno why. I'll start to add games to favorites again -sigh- and let's see.
What is that append option you are talking about? where is it? I think I haven't noticed it anywhere.

And about white blocks, I'll try to reduce VRAM (I assume it is VRAM limit option in ES menu, right?) Interestingly, I would have thought that I would have to increase this amount, not reduce it.
It's adviced to update drivers or something? (LOL, I even don't know if this thing uses drivers. I defend myself very well in windows environment, but raspberry pi is a new world for me)
Thanks again

mitu

@maegirom said in All scraped data and games in favorite list are gone oO':

What is that append option you are talking about? where is it? I think I haven't noticed it anywhere.

I only used the scraper from the RetroPie-Setup menu, where the Gamelist appears alt text
I didn't use it from the command line and I don't know what's the default.

It's adviced to update drivers or something?

If you like to get bugfixes and new features, yes, but it's not mandatory. Make sure to update from the RetroPie-Setup menu, as explained in the docs.