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Hi Everyone, A new beta round has begun for Android for version 1.23. The first beta is out and introduces a major RetroAchievements update, improvements to the Boxes Grid games view, better streaming video handling, and additional diagnostics to help us track down startup, launch, and playlist issues. While the changelog is fairly straightforward, we would really appreciate focused testing, especially around the new RetroAchievements features. ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Testers: Things to Focus On Please help us validate the following: Beta-1: RetroAchievements: Log in from the new RetroAchievements main menu section, confirm your profile, stats, recent activity, recently played games, and leaderboard links load correctly. Test supported games to confirm achievement summaries appear on game details pages. Game Achievements Page: Open achievement sets for supported games and test Grid and List views, controller navigation, portrait and landscape layouts, sorting, searching, grouping, and filters such as earned, locked, missable, progression, and win condition achievements. Emulator Credentials: Test configuring RetroAchievements credentials for supported emulators, especially RetroArch, and confirm settings save and work after restarting the app. Achievement Notifications: Launch supported games through supported emulators, earn achievements if possible, then return to LaunchBox and confirm newly earned achievements are detected and shown correctly. Boxes Grid View: Test the Boxes Grid games view with large libraries. Please check scrolling speed, responsiveness, image fit options, spacing options, controller navigation, and touch navigation. Startup, Launch, and Playlist Diagnostics: If you run into slow startup, slow game launches, playlist save issues, missing playlist games, or playlist deletion problems, please report them. This beta includes additional diagnostics to help us track these down. Beta-2: Startup and Navigation: Test startup with both small and large libraries. Browse platforms, filters, playlists, and games, and test the Jump To menu with different sorting options. RetroArch Credentials: Enable Log into RetroAchievements on game launch and confirm your existing RetroArch settings remain intact. Test enabling and disabling Hardcore Mode, restarting the app, and launching multiple games. Platform Emulator Settings: Change the default emulator or RetroArch core for a platform, restart LaunchBox, and confirm the selection is retained. Game Progress: Check games marked Completed, Mastered, Continuous, or with other progress statuses and confirm their values remain correct after updating. Controller Navigation: Test navigation throughout Filters, Games, popups, and settings pages. On handhelds with a combined Back/Home button, confirm that holding Back does not repeatedly open and close the menu. New Emulator Support: If available, test the newly supported emulators and the new BBC Microcomputer System and Interton VC 4000 RetroArch core mappings. Android Compatibility: This beta updates LaunchBox to .NET 10 and .NET MAUI 10 and now requires Android 8.0 or newer. Please report any new crashes, visual issues, or navigation regressions. Beta-3: Dual-Screen Navigation: Test browsing platforms, filters, and games with separate Library and Details screens. Try swapping screens and opening settings. Confirm the Details screen follows your selection and clears correctly when a search returns no games. Controller Focus: Switch between screens using touch and controller input. Confirm the Controller indicator identifies the active screen, selection highlights appear only on that screen, and navigation returns to Library after closing an emulator or settings page. Game Details: Swipe through Overview, Achievements, Artwork, and Video. Check image sizing, animated clear logos, video playback, and quick actions for Download or Play, Favorite, Add to Playlist, and star rating. In-Game Companion: Launch games using different emulators and test the session statistics, achievement browser, and artwork views. Confirm earned achievements appear during the session and pressing Back/B on the companion screen does not stop the game. Achievement Refresh: Confirm achievements refresh when entering the companion achievement view, through manual refresh, and every three minutes while a game is running. Opening and closing achievement details should not trigger another refresh. Playtime Tracking: Play a game, close the emulator, and confirm playtime and play count are retained after restarting LaunchBox. NAS Connections and Imports: Test manual SMB connections using guest access and credentials, downloading games, re-importing platforms, and Update Games scans. Confirm existing metadata is preserved and games are not duplicated or incorrectly removed. Popups and Controller Navigation: Test menus, selection dialogs, achievement comments, and text entry on both single- and dual-screen devices. Confirm all actions, including Cancel, are reachable and readable in light and dark modes. General Stability: Test Manage Android Apps, emulator installation, and Jump To after deleting games or removing them from playlists. Please report crashes, repeated loading, or new navigation issues, including your device, Android version, and debug logs where possible. ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Beta 1 Changelog Added a new RetroAchievements section to the main menu. You can now log in, view your RetroAchievements profile, see key stats, recently played games, recent activity, and open the global leaderboard from LaunchBox for Android Added a dynamic RetroAchievements main menu label. The menu can show your selected RetroAchievements stat, such as score, achievements unlocked, games beaten, completed games, or mastered games Added a redesigned game achievements page for RetroAchievements. Game achievement sets now support Grid and List view modes, controller navigation, detailed achievement information, earned and locked badge states, unlock rates, achievement type badges, and responsive portrait and landscape layouts Added filtering, grouping, sorting, and searching to RetroAchievements game achievement sets. You can filter by progression, missable, win condition, earned, locked, and other achievements Added RetroAchievements progress summaries to game details. Supported games can show earned achievements, completion percentage, earned points, and RetroAchievements-provided beat and master time estimates Added an option to show or hide RetroAchievements information on game details pages Added optional LaunchBox achievement notifications. When returning from a supported emulator, LaunchBox can check for newly earned RetroAchievements and open the related achievement page Added support for configuring RetroAchievements credentials for supported emulators, including RetroArch Improved the Boxes Grid games view with faster scrolling, better responsiveness, and new image fit and spacing options Improved streaming video handling and media playback stability Improved startup and launch diagnostics with startup/load tracing, deferred Android startup work, and slow game launch reporting to help identify loading and launch issues in beta builds Improved playlist diagnostics and error reporting to help track down cases where playlist names, games, or deletions do not save correctly Fixed an issue where newly added playlist games could be missing when opening the playlist immediately afterward Fixed an issue with downloading media and logging in to EmuMovies Fixed a possible crash when the LaunchBox Themes folder was missing or inaccessible Fixed a possible crash on older Android versions caused by unsupported media foreground-service behavior Fixed an issue where preview videos could continue playing while launching a game Fixed several controller and touch navigation scroll issues across list and grid views ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Beta 2 Changelog Added a confirmation prompt before logging out of RetroAchievements Added support for the ARMSX2 Refresh emulator for Sony PlayStation 2 games Added support for new Android emulators: hakuX, PrimeHack Android, Mandarine, Mandarine-Neo, Eden Nightly, Strato, EmuCoreX, NetherSX2 Turnip, and EmuCoreV Added RetroArch core mappings for the BBC Microcomputer System and Interton VC 4000 Improved controller navigation smoothness in the Boxes Grid games view Improved startup speed, especially for larger libraries, by saving lightweight library information so LaunchBox can reach the main screen faster on future launches Improved the Jump To menu for games. It now shows choices matching the current Sort By option, such as dates, ratings, platforms, regions, and other available values Improved loading and navigation speed for filters and games pages, especially when browsing large platforms or changing views Updated LaunchBox for Android to .NET 10 and .NET MAUI 10, along with updated supporting libraries Updated the minimum supported Android version to Android 8.0 Improved popup appearance and controller navigation throughout the app, including more consistent colors and borders, more reliable input focus, and better on-screen keyboard handling Improved RetroAchievements auto-login for RetroArch so LaunchBox uses a dedicated configuration that includes the user’s existing RetroArch settings Improved the RetroAchievements profile settings by separating in-app and external emulator options and masking Web API key entry Improved the Manage Emulators page so its content is restored immediately after emulator installation or update attempts, including failed installations Improved Cloud Sync authentication diagnostics to help identify sign-in and token validation failures without collecting credentials or authentication tokens Fixed an issue where Android could downgrade Done / Mastered games after an app update, and hardened automatic progress tracking so blank configured values no longer clear existing progress Fixed platform default emulator and RetroArch core settings being lost after restarting LaunchBox, and corrected the default Nintendo Entertainment System RetroArch core Fixed RetroAchievements title matching so base games are not rejected when RetroAchievements also has matching subset entries Fixed an issue where LaunchBox’s RetroAchievements auto-login for RetroArch could force Encore Mode back on after users disabled it Fixed the Android RetroAchievements Games Beaten total to match Windows by including beaten casual, beaten hardcore, completed, and mastered games Fixed an issue where the NAS game download progress popup could appear as a blank white box while the download continued Fixed controller navigation on the Filters and Games pages after upgrading to .NET MAUI 10 Fixed an issue on some Android handhelds where holding Back could repeatedly open and close the main menu Fixed an issue where pressing Back on the Edit Platform Metadata page could return to the Filters page after displaying the Save or Cancel warning Fixed inconsistent or unreadable text in Cloud Sync, EmuMovies credential prompts, and other settings dialogs Fixed long messages being clipped instead of wrapping on the NAS Management page ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Beta 3 Changelog Added dual-screen support with separate Library and Details screens, controller-focus indicators, and options to swap screens or choose where emulators launch Added dual-screen Game Details pages for Overview, Achievements, Artwork, and Video, with animated clear logos and quick actions for Download or Play, Favorite, Add to Playlist, and star rating Added an in-game companion screen with session statistics, achievements earned during play, an achievement browser, and animated artwork Added automatic achievement refresh every three minutes during play, when opening the companion achievement page, and through manual refresh Added support for opening settings on the Details screen Added a Recently Played carousel to the platform Details screen with touch and controller navigation Added manual SMB connections by IPv4 address, with guest or authenticated access and connection testing Added an emulator selection popup showing Installed and Not Installed status Added indicators to help identify new settings Added community comments and a View on RetroAchievements action to achievement details Improved the RetroAchievements game page with clearer summaries, square achievement tiles, and selected achievement details in Grid and List modes Updated RetroAchievements terminology from Softcore to Casual Removed the legacy Banners Dual Screen platform view; existing selections now use Wheel with Details Fixed playtime not being saved correctly after returning from an emulator Fixed Manage Android Apps repeatedly reloading its list Fixed deleted games and games removed from playlists reappearing after using Jump To Fixed NAS downloads remaining on “Checking NAS connection” after the transfer started Fixed NAS re-imports and Update Games scans incorrectly adding, skipping, or removing existing games, while preserving existing library data Fixed RetroAchievements matching for titles beginning with tags such as Homebrew, Prototype, Demo, or Hack Fixed emulator installation completion handling after Android recreates the activity Fixed crashes when opening custom Arcade genres or selecting the LaunchBox root as a platform’s ROM folder Fixed crashes during Steam session validation and rapid page navigation Fixed crashes when opening, rotating, or leaving Filters and Games pages Fixed crashes when RetroAchievements data was unavailable while offline or because of DNS errors Improved Cloud Sync recovery after authentication expires Improved main menu initialization reliability Improved video failure handling, falling back to static artwork when media is unavailable or invalid Updated .NET MAUI to 10.0.90 and Community Toolkit to 14.2.2 Improved beta diagnostics and reduced unnecessary error reports Thank you for helping us refine LaunchBox for Android. Your testing and feedback continue to make the app better with every beta.

It's a known issue that started happening in the latest version. Will be fixed in the next beta that will be published soon 😉

Send it to my email (andriy@unbrokensoftware.com), and I'll check it when I have time

For both these issues, we will add extra logs in 1.23-beta-2 (or maybe 1.23-beta-1) for a better understanding of what's going on.

Thanks for the report. Could you please send us your LaunchBox/Logs folder and your LaunchBox/Data/Playlists folder, including the Backups folder if it exists? Also let me know your device model, Android version, LaunchBox version, where your LaunchBox data folder is stored, and whether the playlist comes back only after restarting LaunchBox. That should give us enough to see whether the playlist changes are failing to save or if old playlist files are being loaded again.

you can enable Debug Logs on the Options page (see screenshot) Then, when you reproduce the issue, you need to go to the LaunchBox folder -> Logs -> sort by newest and send the latest 2-3 log files.

What version are you running on? What device do you use? It will also be useful if you enable logs on the Settings page -> reproduce the issue again -> send the log file here. I could investigate it and fix it in the following beta. There is no limit to the number of roms if you have a license

You can find cores and download them for your game, place them somewhere in the LB folder, and select them for a platform/game on the platform/game Emulator Settings

Hello. You might have selected the wrong core. Try using other cores

The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller should work, but LaunchBox itself does not handle controller input once a game is launched. LaunchBox hands the game off to RetroArch, so in-game button recognition is controlled by RetroArch and Android. First, please confirm which RetroArch app LaunchBox is using for your Sega Genesis platform: RetroArch, RetroArch Plus, or a sideloaded RetroArch build. Each one has its own separate controller/config settings. Try opening that exact RetroArch app directly, launch the same Genesis game manually, then go to: Settings > Input > Port 1 Controls > Device Index Make sure the Nintendo Pro Controller is selected for Port 1. Then check: Settings > Input > RetroPad Binds > Port 1 Controls and bind the buttons there. After that, save the RetroArch config and launch the game again from LaunchBox. If the controller does not work in RetroArch directly either, then the issue is with Android/RetroArch seeing the controller, not LaunchBox. If it works directly in RetroArch but not when launched from LaunchBox, let us know which RetroArch version/package LaunchBox is set to use and which Genesis core you selected.

Hello, we know about the issue, and it'll be fixed in the next beta.

Sorry about that, and glad you got it working! Just as a heads-up, replies on the forum can sometimes take a bit longer than on Discord. So if you have an urgent issue or need a quicker response, Discord is usually the better place to ask. Thanks for your patience!

GameHub itself currently does not support external launch arguments, so LaunchBox can’t reliably launch games through it the same way it can with emulators that expose launch parameters. That’s why you’re seeing GameHub Lite / GameNative support instead of full GameHub support. You don’t necessarily have to switch if your setup works for you inside GameHub, but LaunchBox needs a launchable target it can pass a game/app into. Full GameHub doesn’t currently provide that. For 1.22, Steam import is focused on your Steam library/games. It is not scanning GameHub’s internal playable list or detecting separate non-Steam/special PC versions you added into GameHub. So if you have EA/PC versions that only exist inside GameHub and aren’t launchable externally, LaunchBox won’t be able to pick those up and launch them through GameHub automatically.

We know about this issue. Will be fixed in the next beta

No, it's a known bug We are working on it, so we will try to fix it by the next beta

Hi, that's what AI suggested: The physical mouse setup is handled inside RetroArch’s PUAE core. For Dungeon Master, try this: Connect the USB/Bluetooth mouse before launching the game. Launch the game with the PUAE core. Open RetroArch’s Quick Menu. Go to Core Options / Options > Input. Set Physical Mouse to Enabled. Leave Double disabled unless you are on a Linux/raw/udev setup; RetroArch’s PUAE docs say Double requires raw/udev input and proper mouse index setup. Set Mouse Speed to 100 to start. Close and relaunch the game after changing the option. Also, don’t worry if you don’t see “Mouse” as a normal Port 1 / Port 2 controller type. PUAE documents mouse support separately as an “Other controller” that is enabled by default.

Thanks for letting us know. We will investigate it and update you with some details

Welcome to the forums! At the moment, the Android app does not support 3D box images like the desktop version does. It currently uses the standard 2D box/front images. That said, 3D box support is something we could potentially add in the future, since the media does exist in the GamesDB. I’ll pass this along as a feature request.

Glad you got it working, and thanks for posting the fix. That setting tells LaunchBox to send the selected RetroArch core when launching games. Looks like the Shield needs that enabled for RetroArch to launch correctly. We’ll keep this in mind in case we need to make that option clearer or adjust the default.

As a workaround, try to select Custom Emulator (With Code) with these custom arguments "-n io.github.lime3ds.android/org.citra.citra_emu.activities.EmulationActivity -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d {file.uri} --activity-clear-task --activity-clear-top"

Hi, not yet

You must select the Vita3K folder from the left side (it looks like the RetroArch folder on my emulator in the screenshot):

Hi, thanks for letting us know. We will check it and let you know. If it's a real issue, we will try to fix it by the next beta.

Yes, it was added, but not included in the list of available platforms, as there wasn't an emulator that supported it. We will check the emulator you have sent and see if the platform will be added to the list. Thanks for letting us know. P. s. if we add it, it will be available in the following beta release

Can you also make sure that the path to the LaunchBox files is not changed? Maybe you have recently installed an SD card..