Awesome video. I’d love to see a similar video for those of us who have the full EmuDeck install on an SD card and who are not worried about losing save game files. I’m planning on upgrading to SD OLED, so this would be very helpful to get setup quickly on the new device.
If you don't care about saves? Technically moving the card and doing a clean install of EmuDeck on the destination machine. I recommend when you move to the new machine, use my v3 EmuDeck setup and a virtual symlink install location.
Do you have a video guide on using multiple Sd cards with emu deck? Like one for psx-ps3 and one for switch etc.? I can’t figure out how to do it correctly. Thanks in advance. Your videos are a great help.
Thanks! I do not - because I don't recommend you do it. There is no way to "cleanly" do it - everything is a workaround or gimmick to get working. Using the symlink methodology here MAY work but only IF you name all your SD cards exactly the same name. Even then? I don't think it will work - but if you try it? Let me know how it goes ... if it works "right"? I'll do a video :D
I'm still wondering why they are able to create emu deck, but even in the newest version of the import tool they are not able to write the correct text on the top and it's still confusing...
@@Darkuni I got dozens of errors with... "Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supported by C library. Using the fallback 'C' locale." when running the export tool on my old steam deck. The roms were also not saved. I formatted an external 8 tb hd drive with ext4 and emudeck is installed on the sd card. When installing emu deck on my new steam deck oled on the sd card the installation didn't continue after it tried to configure dolphin for widescreen.
Hey what about custom emulator configurations like custom controller profiles on dolpin or addons/mods on yuzu? Do those get ported over when doing the export? I'm setting up an emulation sd card for a christmas gift for my girlfriend (she's not savvy enough to setup all of this stuff) but I'm doing it on my deck, then I need to port over all of the configs. Roms are on an sd card. What's the best way to approach this?
I'm afraid my expertise on emulation ends at about PS2. I don't personally use Dolphin or Yuzu outside of a passing glance from time to time. I'm sure there are other channels, though, that cover more modern emulation.
I setup Emudeck via your "Ultimate Emudeck Beginners Guide v3" only I didn't have a microSD at the time so I installed everything to the Decks internal drive. I just got a new microSD and want to redo the install only using your "EmuVirtual" method with the symlink for the sake of expanding my ROM collection. I'm hoping to back up everything from my Decks internal drive to a separate external drive using the method from this video. Then factory reset my Steam Deck and do a fresh Emudeck install using the "EmuVirtual/Symlink" approach this time. If I install everything exactly the same only with the install location now being on the new micro SD rather than the internal drive as with the original install, will I still be able to import all my backed up data form the external drive afterward and all will be well and working? Thanks a ton by the way, your videos are incredibly helpful!
i have all my rooms and emudeck installed at microsd card, but the saves are in a system file, so if i change the steamdeck i just have to move the saves files right? All the other stuff is going to be at micro sd also. But the new instalation of emudeck is going see those files? Or do i have to transfer all data even if its in a micro sd card
You need your saves - they are scattered between the SD card and internal storage. These tools make sure you don't lose anything. Once you have your backup, insert your original SD card into the new Deck - install Emudeck and when asked point to the SD card for install. Then restore your saves. You SHOULD be okay, but if the mount point of your SD card changes between Decks? You will have a ton of things NOT work. Hopefully that won't be the case.
Thanks for this! If I originally installed Emudeck onto my micro SD and plan to move that card to my new deck, do I just need to worry about saving the saved files and configuration files since the roms are already on there? Also, do you have a tutorial on how to backup saves from the Heroic Games Launcher? (Specifically an Amazon prime game)
At 2:15 you click a button to skip copying over your games. I do not have the option to skip, and if I close out the window and reopen, it makes me reinstall. Any advice on how to proceed?
@@Darkuni got it. Ran the import tool, got a success, opened Emulation Station through Steam. I get a message that no game files are found, it's pointing to /home/deck/emulation/roms instead of my SD card with all my roms. Is there a GUI way to change which directory it looks for? Otherwise I can manually type the correct directory into ES DE
@@steamedslacks558 Resetting the config shouldn't have messed with any of that. I think you have a "split" set up going on. Some of your stuff is external, some of it is internal - and you can't mix them. I would check /home/emulation and copy everything you can from there to the SD card. Hop on our discord and maybe we can help out.
Hi, i was chatting with you on your SSD cloning vid about some stuff as I was having problems with my SSD which I "thought" I had fixed - games ran well for a couple of days then bam! back to 10/15fps 🤦🏻😭. So, I have decided i am going to have to re-image. So, i have sourced some folders from standalone emulators (Duckstation, PCXS2, Dolphin, Citra, Cemu and Ryujinx) - hopefully meaning I can get these back to how they are now after re-image. All my Emudeck bios, roms, etc are on my Micro SD. So, in theory, with Emudeck at least, all I need to back up are the internal saves. So, once i have re-imaged, can I install Emudeck, point to my Micro SD, then use the import tool to bring in my non micro SD saves to the SSD?
@@Darkuni damn 😭 Re-image went fine upto Welcome screen. Can't setup my Deck now as none of the controls work. Hopefully Valve will take it on as RMA.
@@Darkuni feel such a fool 🤦🏻 All I had to do was tap the text panel for WiFi password and the keyboard came up! All set up now. Next stage, reinstall the games!
Can you backup and restore everything without using an external drive? Just by backing up directly onto the same SD card that the games are originally on, and restoring them on the new Steam Deck using the same SD card? Thanks
Thank you for the video! I just have one question sorry if it’s a noob one - I have been using Emudeck on my Steamdeck but never touched Emulation Station before. Do I need that when I import/export? (About to factory reset my steam deck to be repaired and just trying to make sure I have everything saved before then) Normally I just load my emulated games directly in steam library is that alright ?
Here is the deal ... you are going to lose everything you injected into Steam. Everything. You're going to have to set it all back up. Import/Export will NOT save them. Emulation Station (aka ESDE)? Will be saved. Steam injections are fragile, they aren't the way most emulation lovers care to consume. ESDE is the "industry standard". It WILL survive this process because it isn't a "hack" (which is what Steam ROM Manager and injecting games into Steam is - a hack). What you are saving with these process (for the most part) is the save games that are tragically linked to internal storage. They LOOK like they are on the SD card, but they aren't. Those that expect EmuDeck to be "self-contained" on the SD card learn quickly that it isn't - and when they reformat the Deck, they lose A LOT. Again, you'll lose everything injected into Steam. One of the MANY reasons I do not recommend using Steam Rom Manager. The only reason I recommend injecting a game is if you MUST remap controls because the "global" config of ESDE for that platform doesn't align well with the game. Good luck to you!
@@Darkuni much appreciated! I have all 'roms' on micro SD and just want to get everything Emudeck transferred to new NVME drive I am installing. Hope that makes sense?
Do you know how i can backup my mame 0.256 flatpack install so dont have to update some roms cause discovery store always wants to update and install the lastest build . im fine in windows as pc tech but can find that info nowhere?
Might not be able to help you out there ... I'm a FB Neo guy 99.9% of the time (I want retro achievements) and use a nice, reliable old MAME rom set with it. For the 2 or 3 games I need MAME for? I just flip the emu in Emulation Station and all is well. I do not have the issues you speak of :D
Hey! It's me again. So... I am up to the import process and I'm reinstalling Emudeck and everything with it. But this is probably the most confusing part because won't my sd card end up having two "emulation" folders, except the new one is now empty?
I'm so confused. There was an emulation folder and the emudeck backup I made. I expected there to be two emulation folders, but there's only one and none of the save data is there anymore? Did reinstalling emudeck overwrite the entire emulation folder?
@@Darkuni the oled one. the games are loading fine but only the lcd is finding save data. when I right click on a gc game on dolphin it says no save data found, but on the lc when I do the same thing, it takes me to a .var folder within the home which is like greyed out and not showing up on the oled at all. this really makes no sense to me because I selected my sd card when setting up emudeck on both consoles.
@@Darkuni unfortunatly no. when i tried to start a switch game in ES-DE it sayed that ruijinx wasnt installed proberly. i couldnt setup yuzu as alternative switch emulator. so i tried to re-injecting the appimage file into application folder. now its possible to start the games threw steam rom manager shortcuts directly to steam. but anyhow its not injecting all switch games. some are missing. and threw ES-DE same problem. cant open yuzu there .... any idea?
I transferred the SSD from my LCD to my OLED model. I used the migration tool to transfer my emudeck from internal to a micro SD card. It is working, however all those same files still exist on my internal SSD taking up space. Does the migration tool not actually move them? Is it safe to erase what's on the internal SSD now?
I did everything correctly and most my roms are playable on my OLED Deck now but my saves are all gone which really sucks. It told me everything had successfully been imported as well.
The same happened to me, except that the tool completely purged my Emulation folder. All my ROM's, Saves, everything just gone. Lost around 60 hours of playtime from various games. My install was on the internal storage. It makes me curios if it only works when it's installed to an SD Card or some other added storage location. After losing it all, I've just been demoralized to even bother setting it up on my new LE OLED. I had mentioned it to one of my friends and he had attempted using the other day as he was resetting his SteamDeck and the exact same thing happened to him and he's just not bothered because of it.
@@Darkuni yeah idk. I can just confirm that everything was purged on mine. I don't use any external or added storage so I know it was all internal. I had just been playing Xenogears the other day on it and I ran the too and now none of the emulators will launch, either in desktop or in Game mode. When I checked the folder it was no longer around 30GB in size, but something like 200Kb. Friend didn't have as many, but all his was gone as well
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
Love the games on the reshoot steam deck!!! Geometry wars and lethal company!!! And thanks for reshooting for the extra clarity
Awesome video. I’d love to see a similar video for those of us who have the full EmuDeck install on an SD card and who are not worried about losing save game files. I’m planning on upgrading to SD OLED, so this would be very helpful to get setup quickly on the new device.
If you don't care about saves? Technically moving the card and doing a clean install of EmuDeck on the destination machine. I recommend when you move to the new machine, use my v3 EmuDeck setup and a virtual symlink install location.
Do you have a video guide on using multiple Sd cards with emu deck? Like one for psx-ps3 and one for switch etc.? I can’t figure out how to do it correctly. Thanks in advance. Your videos are a great help.
Thanks! I do not - because I don't recommend you do it. There is no way to "cleanly" do it - everything is a workaround or gimmick to get working. Using the symlink methodology here MAY work but only IF you name all your SD cards exactly the same name. Even then? I don't think it will work - but if you try it? Let me know how it goes ... if it works "right"? I'll do a video :D
Thank you so much for this one!
I'm still wondering why they are able to create emu deck, but even in the newest version of the import tool they are not able to write the correct text on the top and it's still confusing...
Not a priority?
@@Darkuni If I publish a software I try to make it as good as possible and remove any bugs.
@@zzzzzap I'm with you. I spent over a year with a Beat Saber playlist editor. Busted ass on it to be bug free.
@@Darkuni I got dozens of errors with... "Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supported by C library. Using the fallback 'C' locale." when running the export tool on my old steam deck. The roms were also not saved. I formatted an external 8 tb hd drive with ext4 and emudeck is installed on the sd card. When installing emu deck on my new steam deck oled on the sd card the installation didn't continue after it tried to configure dolphin for widescreen.
Hey what about custom emulator configurations like custom controller profiles on dolpin or addons/mods on yuzu? Do those get ported over when doing the export? I'm setting up an emulation sd card for a christmas gift for my girlfriend (she's not savvy enough to setup all of this stuff) but I'm doing it on my deck, then I need to port over all of the configs. Roms are on an sd card. What's the best way to approach this?
I'm afraid my expertise on emulation ends at about PS2. I don't personally use Dolphin or Yuzu outside of a passing glance from time to time. I'm sure there are other channels, though, that cover more modern emulation.
I setup Emudeck via your "Ultimate Emudeck Beginners Guide v3" only I didn't have a microSD at the time so I installed everything to the Decks internal drive. I just got a new microSD and want to redo the install only using your "EmuVirtual" method with the symlink for the sake of expanding my ROM collection. I'm hoping to back up everything from my Decks internal drive to a separate external drive using the method from this video. Then factory reset my Steam Deck and do a fresh Emudeck install using the "EmuVirtual/Symlink" approach this time. If I install everything exactly the same only with the install location now being on the new micro SD rather than the internal drive as with the original install, will I still be able to import all my backed up data form the external drive afterward and all will be well and working? Thanks a ton by the way, your videos are incredibly helpful!
Shouldn't be a problem. Be happy to be available via discord when you do it - help you out with any logistics.
@@Darkuni Thanks so much for the quick reply and offer! I just might do that if I have questions/issues along the way.
@@Darkuni Already hit a snag smh. DMd you on Discord.
i have all my rooms and emudeck installed at microsd card, but the saves are in a system file, so if i change the steamdeck i just have to move the saves files right? All the other stuff is going to be at micro sd also. But the new instalation of emudeck is going see those files? Or do i have to transfer all data even if its in a micro sd card
You need your saves - they are scattered between the SD card and internal storage. These tools make sure you don't lose anything. Once you have your backup, insert your original SD card into the new Deck - install Emudeck and when asked point to the SD card for install. Then restore your saves. You SHOULD be okay, but if the mount point of your SD card changes between Decks? You will have a ton of things NOT work. Hopefully that won't be the case.
Thank you for this!
nice video :D
what also could be very interessting is how to backup and restore none steam games on the steam deck :)
I have a plethora of ideas surrounding a video of this nature!
@@Darkuni cant wait for that, continue your awesome work :)
I, too, would like a video of this.
Thanks for this! If I originally installed Emudeck onto my micro SD and plan to move that card to my new deck, do I just need to worry about saving the saved files and configuration files since the roms are already on there?
Also, do you have a tutorial on how to backup saves from the Heroic Games Launcher? (Specifically an Amazon prime game)
Pretty much should do the trick. No I don't cover Heroic on this channel.
@@Darkuni Thank you!
At 2:15 you click a button to skip copying over your games. I do not have the option to skip, and if I close out the window and reopen, it makes me reinstall. Any advice on how to proceed?
@@steamedslacks558 say you are going to do it manually, the click open folder, then it should continue
@@Darkuni got it. Ran the import tool, got a success, opened Emulation Station through Steam. I get a message that no game files are found, it's pointing to /home/deck/emulation/roms instead of my SD card with all my roms. Is there a GUI way to change which directory it looks for? Otherwise I can manually type the correct directory into ES DE
@@SteamierSlacks try resetting the esde config...
That fixed it. Somehow ended up losing my saves and metadata in the process, but all my roms are up and running at least. Thank you for the responses!
@@steamedslacks558 Resetting the config shouldn't have messed with any of that. I think you have a "split" set up going on. Some of your stuff is external, some of it is internal - and you can't mix them. I would check /home/emulation and copy everything you can from there to the SD card. Hop on our discord and maybe we can help out.
Is their a way just to backup saves only because I might not want to do it on the cloud saves?
The saves are scattered between the SD card and internal storage: ruclips.net/video/KsIjG5Hekhw/видео.html
Hi, i was chatting with you on your SSD cloning vid about some stuff as I was having problems with my SSD which I "thought" I had fixed - games ran well for a couple of days then bam! back to 10/15fps 🤦🏻😭. So, I have decided i am going to have to re-image.
So, i have sourced some folders from standalone emulators (Duckstation, PCXS2, Dolphin, Citra, Cemu and Ryujinx) - hopefully meaning I can get these back to how they are now after re-image.
All my Emudeck bios, roms, etc are on my Micro SD. So, in theory, with Emudeck at least, all I need to back up are the internal saves. So, once i have re-imaged, can I install Emudeck, point to my Micro SD, then use the import tool to bring in my non micro SD saves to the SSD?
I believe so...
@@Darkuni wish me luck 😅
@@Darkuni damn 😭 Re-image went fine upto Welcome screen. Can't setup my Deck now as none of the controls work. Hopefully Valve will take it on as RMA.
@@tenbob1973 Use the touch screen to get by. At some point, the controls should start working again.
@@Darkuni feel such a fool 🤦🏻 All I had to do was tap the text panel for WiFi password and the keyboard came up! All set up now. Next stage, reinstall the games!
Can you backup and restore everything without using an external drive? Just by backing up directly onto the same SD card that the games are originally on, and restoring them on the new Steam Deck using the same SD card? Thanks
...Probably ... I can't imagine why it wouldn't work, but I haven't tried it.
Thank you for the video! I just have one question sorry if it’s a noob one - I have been using Emudeck on my Steamdeck but never touched Emulation Station before. Do I need that when I import/export? (About to factory reset my steam deck to be repaired and just trying to make sure I have everything saved before then)
Normally I just load my emulated games directly in steam library is that alright ?
Here is the deal ... you are going to lose everything you injected into Steam.
Everything. You're going to have to set it all back up. Import/Export will NOT save them.
Emulation Station (aka ESDE)? Will be saved. Steam injections are fragile, they aren't the way most emulation lovers care to consume. ESDE is the "industry standard". It WILL survive this process because it isn't a "hack" (which is what Steam ROM Manager and injecting games into Steam is - a hack).
What you are saving with these process (for the most part) is the save games that are tragically linked to internal storage. They LOOK like they are on the SD card, but they aren't. Those that expect EmuDeck to be "self-contained" on the SD card learn quickly that it isn't - and when they reformat the Deck, they lose A LOT.
Again, you'll lose everything injected into Steam. One of the MANY reasons I do not recommend using Steam Rom Manager.
The only reason I recommend injecting a game is if you MUST remap controls because the "global" config of ESDE for that platform doesn't align well with the game.
Good luck to you!
@ so if I used emulation station in the future instead of steam rom manager I wouldn’t have lost everything ? Just want to confirm this for next time
@@Pluschan Yepper.
@@Darkuni thanks for your help!!
I assume this backs up all your emulators you had on your previous deck? Even the ones not 'supported' anymore? Tnx Great tutorial!
It doesn't backup binaries, no. My latest EmuDeck tutorial covers the "reinsertion" of "unsupported" emulators :D
@@Darkuni much appreciated! I have all 'roms' on micro SD and just want to get everything Emudeck transferred to new NVME drive I am installing. Hope that makes sense?
@@Jwingnutt Backup this way. Copy off your "other" appimages. Then use my latest tutorial to install EmuDeck fresh, and restore with this method.
@@Darkuni TY, you have so many videos can you link your latest tutorial? Much appreciated and thanks for responding, that is awesome!
@@Darkuni bought a Sabrent USB 3.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure and just copied it that a way :) appreciate you!
Do you know how i can backup my mame 0.256 flatpack install so dont have to update some roms cause discovery store always wants to update and install the lastest build . im fine in windows as pc tech but can find that info nowhere?
Might not be able to help you out there ... I'm a FB Neo guy 99.9% of the time (I want retro achievements) and use a nice, reliable old MAME rom set with it. For the 2 or 3 games I need MAME for? I just flip the emu in Emulation Station and all is well. I do not have the issues you speak of :D
@@Darkuni thanks for taking time to anwser me !
Hey! It's me again. So... I am up to the import process and I'm reinstalling Emudeck and everything with it. But this is probably the most confusing part because won't my sd card end up having two "emulation" folders, except the new one is now empty?
Okay, I just finished the entire process... but it didn't transfer my save data???
I'm so confused. There was an emulation folder and the emudeck backup I made. I expected there to be two emulation folders, but there's only one and none of the save data is there anymore? Did reinstalling emudeck overwrite the entire emulation folder?
I tried copying over the save data from the backup I made, and it still doesn't see save data
Which system(s) are you having issue with?
@@Darkuni the oled one. the games are loading fine but only the lcd is finding save data. when I right click on a gc game on dolphin it says no save data found, but on the lc when I do the same thing, it takes me to a .var folder within the home which is like greyed out and not showing up on the oled at all.
this really makes no sense to me because I selected my sd card when setting up emudeck on both consoles.
do u know how its gonna be with yuzu now that its not officially included? i still got yuzu in my old library
You'll have to move to something else once you find something that the last build of yuzu doesn't run
sorry could you maybe say it some different? i didnt get it :D (english not native language)@@Darkuni
@@doneltremp Everything should be fine.
@@Darkuni unfortunatly no. when i tried to start a switch game in ES-DE it sayed that ruijinx wasnt installed proberly. i couldnt setup yuzu as alternative switch emulator. so i tried to re-injecting the appimage file into application folder. now its possible to start the games threw steam rom manager shortcuts directly to steam. but anyhow its not injecting all switch games. some are missing. and threw ES-DE same problem. cant open yuzu there .... any idea?
@@doneltremp I would drop by the discord for help...
I transferred the SSD from my LCD to my OLED model. I used the migration tool to transfer my emudeck from internal to a micro SD card. It is working, however all those same files still exist on my internal SSD taking up space. Does the migration tool not actually move them? Is it safe to erase what's on the internal SSD now?
They most definitely do NOT "move" - they "backup" or "copy". What's taking so much space? Curious ...
@@Darkunitons and tons emulation lol
@@toyotayoda BILLIONS and BIIIILLLLIONS OF FILES ....
I did everything correctly and most my roms are playable on my OLED Deck now but my saves are all gone which really sucks.
It told me everything had successfully been imported as well.
Which saves are you missing? What platform? I'm curious...
The same happened to me, except that the tool completely purged my Emulation folder. All my ROM's, Saves, everything just gone. Lost around 60 hours of playtime from various games. My install was on the internal storage. It makes me curios if it only works when it's installed to an SD Card or some other added storage location.
After losing it all, I've just been demoralized to even bother setting it up on my new LE OLED. I had mentioned it to one of my friends and he had attempted using the other day as he was resetting his SteamDeck and the exact same thing happened to him and he's just not bothered because of it.
@@Techington it's really weird The tool doesn't actually move or delete anything it just makes a copy.
@@Darkuni yeah idk. I can just confirm that everything was purged on mine. I don't use any external or added storage so I know it was all internal. I had just been playing Xenogears the other day on it and I ran the too and now none of the emulators will launch, either in desktop or in Game mode. When I checked the folder it was no longer around 30GB in size, but something like 200Kb. Friend didn't have as many, but all his was gone as well
@@Techington Can you explain the source and destination you used?