EmulationStation-DE ROMs Not Showing / Emulator Not Found Fix

fix-rom-folder-structure-so-es-de-detects-games (sortOrder=1, isMostHelpful)

How ES-DE finds ROMs: EmulationStation-DE scans a single root ROM folder and expects each system to be in a subfolder with a specific name. If the subfolder name is wrong, ES-DE won't detect any games for that system.

Default ROM root:

• Windows: C:\Users\{you}\ROMs\ (or the path you set during first-run setup)
• macOS: ~/ROMs/
• Linux: ~/ROMs/

Required subfolder names (examples — these must match exactly, case-insensitive on Windows, case-sensitive on Linux/macOS):

• ROMs\nes\ — Nintendo Entertainment System
• ROMs\snes\ — Super Nintendo
• ROMs\gba\ — Game Boy Advance
• ROMs\nds\ — Nintendo DS
• ROMs\n64\ — Nintendo 64
• ROMs\gc\ — GameCube
• ROMs\wii\ — Nintendo Wii
• ROMs\wiiu\ — Wii U
• ROMs\switch\ — Nintendo Switch
• ROMs\ps1\ — PlayStation 1
• ROMs\ps2\ — PlayStation 2
• ROMs\ps3\ — PlayStation 3
• ROMs\psp\ — PlayStation Portable
• ROMs\genesis\ — Sega Genesis / Mega Drive
• ROMs\dreamcast\ — Sega Dreamcast
• ROMs\arcade\ or ROMs\mame\ — MAME Arcade

The complete folder name list is in ES-DE's built-in help: from the main menu press Start → Guide → search "Supported Game Systems."

After moving ROMs to the correct folders: press Start → Game Collection Settings → Scrape All Games, or simply quit ES-DE and relaunch — it rescans on startup.

configure-retroarch-as-the-emulator (sortOrder=2)

ES-DE works best with RetroArch as its primary backend — one install covers dozens of systems via libretro cores. If ES-DE can't find RetroArch:

1. Install RetroArch from retroarch.com and note the install path (default: C:\RetroArch-Win64\retroarch.exe).
2. In ES-DE: press Start → Other Settings → Alternative Emulators. Scroll to a system and confirm it lists a RetroArch core.
3. If no emulator appears for a system, open Start → Other Settings → Custom Emulator Configurations and add the path manually.
4. Download the required cores inside RetroArch first: open RetroArch → Online Updater → Core Downloader → install the core for your system (e.g. mGBA for GBA, Snes9x for SNES). ES-DE passes the ROM to the core specified in its configuration.

RetroArch not in PATH on Linux/macOS: if ES-DE says "emulator not found" for RetroArch on Linux, install RetroArch via Flatpak (flatpak install org.libretro.RetroArch) and then in ES-DE set the emulator path to /var/lib/flatpak/exports/bin/org.libretro.RetroArch or use the Custom Emulator Configurations panel to set the full Flatpak command.

add-standalone-emulators-dolphin-pcsx2-duckstation (sortOrder=3)

For systems where a RetroArch core isn't ideal (GameCube, Wii, PS2, PS4, Switch), ES-DE can launch standalone emulators directly.

1. In ES-DE: Start → Other Settings → Alternative Emulators.
2. Scroll to the system (e.g. "GameCube") and press the button to change the emulator — ES-DE will show installed emulators it auto-detected.
3. If your emulator isn't auto-detected, go to Custom Emulator Configurations and add it manually:
   • Name: any label (e.g. "Dolphin")
   • Command: the full path to the executable, e.g. "C:\Dolphin\Dolphin.exe" -e %ROM%
   • %ROM% is the placeholder ES-DE replaces with your game file path

Common standalone command formats:

• Dolphin: "C:\Dolphin\Dolphin.exe" -e "%ROM%"
• PCSX2: "C:\PCSX2\pcsx2-qt.exe" "%ROM%"
• DuckStation: "C:\DuckStation\duckstation-qt-x64-ReleaseLTCG.exe" "%ROM%"
• Eden (Switch): "C:\Eden\eden.exe" -g "%ROM%"

After adding, go back to Alternative Emulators and switch the system to your new custom entry.

scrape-metadata-and-images (sortOrder=4)

ES-DE fetches game descriptions, release dates, and boxart from ScreenScraper (best coverage, requires free account) and TheGamesDB (no account needed, lower coverage).

1. Create a free account at screenscraper.fr.
2. In ES-DE: Start → Scraper → Scraper Service: ScreenScraper.
3. Enter your ScreenScraper username and password.
4. Under Content, choose what to download: Game Description, Rating, Release Date, Developer, Publisher, Box Cover Image, Fanart.
5. Click Start — ES-DE scrapes your library in the background. Large collections can take 30+ minutes; ScreenScraper has per-day rate limits on free accounts (~5,000 scrapes/day).

Scraping returns "No Match Found":

• ES-DE tries to match by game checksum first (most accurate), then by filename. Rename the ROM to match the official title and try again.
• Hacks, fan translations, and regional variants often don't have database entries — they'll always return no match.
• For individual mismatches: select the game in ES-DE → press X (or the assigned button) → Scrape → use the manual search field to find the correct entry.