Batocera ROMs not showing / game list not updating after adding files

update-game-list-in-emulationstation (sortOrder=1, isMostHelpful)

After adding any ROMs, trigger a manual game list refresh in EmulationStation. This is required every time — Batocera does not auto-scan while running.

1. Press Start in EmulationStation to open the Main Menu.
2. Navigate to Game Settings → Update Game List.
3. Wait for the scan to complete. The system wheels and game lists will update with your new titles.

Single-system scan (faster): If you only added games to one system, navigate to that system's row in the EmulationStation system list, press Select (or long-press on the row), and choose Update Game List for a focused scan instead of scanning everything.

Still not showing after scan? Confirm the files are in the correct system subfolder — see Solution 2.

place-roms-in-correct-batocera-subfolder (sortOrder=2, isMostHelpful=false)

Batocera expects ROMs in system-specific subfolders under SHARE/roms/. Files placed at the root of the share or in the wrong folder are silently ignored by the scanner.

Common correct paths (access via Windows network share \\BATOCERA\share\roms\ or directly on the SD card / internal drive):

• SNES → roms/snes/ — extensions: .sfc .smc
• PS1 → roms/psx/ — extensions: .chd .bin+.cue .pbp
• PS2 → roms/ps2/ — extensions: .chd .iso
• GameCube → roms/gc/ — extensions: .iso .rvz .gcz
• Wii → roms/wii/ — extensions: .iso .rvz .wbfs
• GBA → roms/gba/ — extension: .gba
• Nintendo DS → roms/nds/ — extension: .nds
• Switch → roms/switch/ — extensions: .xci .nsp
• MAME / Arcade → roms/mame/ — extension: .zip (must match the exact MAME ROM set version Batocera ships with)

After moving files into the correct subfolder, run Game Settings → Update Game List again.

show-systems-with-no-games-to-confirm-detection (sortOrder=3, isMostHelpful=false)

If you are unsure whether Batocera can see your ROM files at all, enable the "Show Systems with No Games" option to make every supported system visible regardless of game count.

1. Press Start → UI Settings → Show Systems with No Games → ON.
2. Navigate to the system in question. Run Update Game List.
3. If your games appear now but were invisible before: the system was hidden because it had zero games prior to your addition — confirmed fixed. Turn "Show Systems with No Games" back off once your ROMs appear normally.
4. If games still do not appear even with this option on: the files are not being scanned — check folder placement (Solution 2) or transfer method (Solution 4).

fix-usb-or-network-share-not-connected (sortOrder=4, isMostHelpful=false)

If you transferred ROMs via USB drive or network share and the files are not visible at all inside Batocera, check the transfer connection before troubleshooting the scan.

USB drive:

• Batocera auto-imports from USB drives formatted FAT32 (≤32 GB) or exFAT (larger drives). NTFS is not reliably supported and may be silently ignored.
• If the drive is not recognized, reformat it to FAT32 or exFAT and copy the ROMs again.
• After the drive is recognized, Batocera may copy files to its internal ROM storage — run Update Game List once the copy finishes.

Network share:

• On Windows, open File Explorer → Network → BATOCERA, or type \\BATOCERA in the address bar.
• If BATOCERA does not appear: confirm Batocera and your PC are on the same Wi-Fi/LAN network, and that Samba is enabled in Batocera: Main Menu → System Settings → Services → Samba → ON. Restart Batocera after enabling Samba.
• After a successful transfer, press Start → Game Settings → Update Game List.