AstroBob

Hi there, thanks for the report and sorry for the issues here. Regarding Big Box lockups, we are tracking a known issue bug report which has some workaround that might help here. Can you please give it a try and let us know if that helps with the freezing situation - Bug Report: Big Box Freezes After Being Left Idle The TLDR is to try changing Big Box's Video Playback Engine from VLC to Windows Media Player Let us know how you get on Cheers,

Fantastic, yeah apart from the eXoPlugin the rest are default LaunchBox plugins that will have been re-created. So unless you specifically need those other 3rd party plugins seems like you're good to go.

Hi folks, With the release of LaunchBox for Windows 13.19, a significant structural change was made under the hood—the transition to .NET 9.0. This update brings major improvements and positions the app for exciting developments in the future. However, as part of this change, all third-party plugins were required to be tested and (potentially updated) to be compatible with .NET 9.0. We’ve received numerous reports of users experiencing crashes when launching LaunchBox after updating to this version, and the most common cause of these crashes is outdated third-party plugins that have not been updated for .NET 9.0. If you’re experiencing crashes and use third-party LaunchBox plugins, please read below carefully to troubleshoot the issue. How do I know if an outdated plugin is causing my crash? A clear indication is that LaunchBox will crash during the loading splash screen, throwing an error before exiting. One of the most common error messages users encounter is: (Inner Exception) “BinaryFormatter serialization and deserialization have been removed.” If you see this error or similar, it’s highly likely that an outdated plugin is causing the crash. How can I identify which plugin is causing the issue? 1. Check the error message. The plugin name is usually referenced in the error details. 2. Temporarily remove all third-party plugins. Navigate to your LaunchBox\Plugins directory. Move all third-party plugins out of this folder. Try launching LaunchBox again. 3. If LaunchBox loads successfully, then one of the removed plugins is the culprit. 4. Reintroduce plugins one by one until you identify the one causing the crash. Which plugins are known to cause issues? 🚨 AddToGamesDB • This plugin has been unsupported for years and is recommended for removal. 🚨 OmegaSettings • This plugin is commonly pre-installed on certain prebuilt arcade machines from Extreme Home Arcade. • If you’re using one of these machines, you’ll need to remove this plugin for LaunchBox 13.19 to work properly. I’ve identified the problem plugin—does that mean I can’t use it anymore? Unfortunately, yes. If you want to continue using LaunchBox 13.19, you will not be able to use the outdated plugin unless it is updated by its developer. What can I do? If the plugin is essential to your setup, consider reaching out to the developer: Check the support tab on their forum post (if applicable). Contact them directly through their original source to inquire about a potential update for .NET 9.0 compatibility.

@inukshuk99 thanks for the report, the problematic plugin is the AddToGamesDb plugin, as that one has not been updated for LaunchBox 13.19. This plugin is no longer supported by the developer anyways, so please delete it from your LaunchBox\Plugins directory, and this should fix the error. Cheers,

Hi there, Thanks for the report here, this is actually a known issue in 13.19. If you edit the Dolphin Emulator's setting, where you specify your command line parameters you'll also see an option called Attempt to hide console window on startup/shutdown. There is currently an issue with this setting which we're working on to address, but the result is that Dolphin doesn't launch in fullscreen, even though the command line parameter is correct. If you turn that option off, it should launch correctly in fullscreen. Sorry for the confusion caused here, we're working to address this issue and I'll let you know once that has been rolled out. Cheers,

Absolutely, if you contact support@unbrokensoftware.com, they will be able to provide you with an installer.

LaunchBox is DRM-free, giving you full control over which version you choose to install. Whether you want to stay on the latest cutting-edge betas or maintain a specific version for a dedicated build, upgrading (or downgrading) LaunchBox is straightforward. This guide will cover everything you need to know about installing, updating, and managing your LaunchBox installation. Installing LaunchBox Downloading the Setup File If you're new to LaunchBox, you can download it from our official website: 🔗 Download LaunchBox Enter your email address and hit the download button. A download link for the setup.exe file will be sent to your email. Run the installer and follow the setup process. 🚨 Important Note 🚨 Even if you’re bringing over an existing LaunchBox build, it’s recommended to run the installer at least once to ensure you have all required dependencies, such as .NET Core 3.1 Runtime, which is essential for LaunchBox to function correctly. Choosing an Installation Location During installation, you’ll be asked to choose where to install LaunchBox. It is highly recommend to Install the main LaunchBox build on an internal SSD for optimal performance. Games and media files can be stored either as part of the main build or on external or network drives and configured later. Once installation is complete, LaunchBox is ready to use! Updating LaunchBox By default, LaunchBox notifies you whenever a new official version is available. When you launch the application: A pop-up will indicate a new version is available. The update will download in the background. You’ll be prompted to install the update—just follow the wizard to complete the process. Managing Update Preferences You can modify update settings under: Tools > Options > General > Updates Here, you can: Disable automatic update checks. Enable/disable automatic downloads. Opt into beta releases (see below for details). You can also manually check for updates via: Menu > Help > Check for Updates Updating to Beta Releases What Are Beta Releases? Before every official release, we publish multiple beta versions featuring new features, improvements, and bug fixes. These are released early so the community can test and provide feedback before the final release. How to Enable Beta Updates To opt into beta updates: Go to Tools > Options Enable Update to Beta Releases You’ll receive notifications about beta updates just like regular updates 🚨 Important Note 🚨 Beta versions may contain bugs or experimental features. If you encounter issues, report them in our Beta Testing Forum, including detailed steps to reproduce the issue. Downgrading LaunchBox In rare cases, you may need to revert to a previous version of LaunchBox. While downgrading is generally safe, we strongly recommend backing up your data first: Backup your data: Go to Tools > File Management > Create Data Backup Find your previous version installer: Each version you install (official or beta) is saved in LaunchBox\Updates Run the installer for the version you want to downgrade to. 🚨 IMPORTANT: Selecting the Correct Directory 🚨 At the stage where you’re asked to choose which directory to install LaunchBox to: DO NOT select the existing LaunchBox folder directly. Instead, choose the root folder where LaunchBox is located. Example: If your LaunchBox directory is in C:\Games\LaunchBox, select C:\Games, allowing the installer to append \LaunchBox automatically. Incorrect path example: If you choose the existing LaunchBox directory, you’ll get a path that looks like this C:\Games\LaunchBox\LaunchBox 🚨 WARNING 🚨 If you do this, the setup wizard will install a new instance inside your existing one 😱 This is the cause of many LaunchBox issues down the line, so avoid this at all costs! ⬆️ Can you see the problem here? DO NOT do this! With that in mind, follow the setup wizard to complete the downgrade. Reinstalling LaunchBox Reinstalling the same version is rarely needed but can help if certain files become corrupted, or you have been instructed to do so by our support team Follow the same steps as downgrading but select the same version installer as your current build. 🚨 Ensure you select the correct installation path (see above) 💡 Tip: While a full history of installers is saved in LaunchBox\Updates, you can safely delete older installers if not needed. For more housekeeping tips, check our FAQ on managing LaunchBox. For upgrading, downgrading and re-installing, your data files should be intact. Just take note of where the install directory is when downgrading or re-installing. By following this guide, you’ll be able to confidently install, update, downgrade, or reinstall LaunchBox while maintaining a smooth experience. Happy gaming! 🎮

Okay, what you can try is navigate to LaunchBox\Themes, and then temporarily remove any custom theme that is not `Default` or `Old Default`, then reload LaunchBox. Please let me know if that enabled you to start Big Box

Thanks for the update there. Okay, now that the first error is addressed, lets focus on this new one. Can you confirm: How often does this error appear when opening Big Box (i.e does it appear right after opening in, randomly, when accessing certain views etc?) What theme are you using? If you aren't using the default theme, does changing to the default theme have any effect? Does this error occur if you switch to a different view within Big Box? If you're able to reliably reproduce this issue, can you please record a video showing how and when the error occurs? This will be incredibly helpful in us helping to identify this Please keep me posted

Hi @leefaster I've broken this out into a new topic, since after giving this a quick test, startup videos do appear to still be working correctly on our side. To confirm how you need to have set this up Inside your LaunchBox\Videos folder, you need to create a directory called startup. In that directory is where you place your startup videos (it doesn't matter what those are called) If that isn't how you've got it setup, can you confirm what your directory setup looks like, and what you've named each of your folders and files? Cheers,

Okay, next thing to test: Do other file formats for the same platform auto-import correctly (i.e .ISO or .bin/.cue?) Second, go to Manage Platforms and for the affected platform edit it. Then go to the Folders tab, and under Game, what path is set there? Note that for the auto-import to work, you need to be adding games to the folder that is specified here Let me know how you get on

Can you do a fresh restart of your machine kill any LaunchBox processes that are running from the task manager, and then try re-opening the application? I'm still not 100% clear what is happening when you try to open the application if you're saying that no errors are being shown. If it helps, could you record a screen recording of walking through the process so that we can try to narrow this down?

Has this been working for you in previous releases? One thing to rule out is in your data folder you'll see a file called ImportBlacklist, this keeps just of games that were previously imported, deleted and marked not to be imported again. Can you temporarily move that file out of that directory to see if that helps. If not, the next thing to narrow down would be your specific build. The best way to test this is to install a brand new LaunchBox instance (on the same drive but different location), and set it up to auto-import a few steam games. It would be interesting to see how a fresh build handles them, or if it still doesn't pick anything up. Let me know

Thanks for the updates folks, the team is working on a fix and we hope to have this addressed as soon as possible. In the meantime, you can follow the guide here if you want to roll back to a previous version 🔗 Downgrading LaunchBox We'll update this post once we have a more permanent fix in place. Thanks for bearing with us here.

You can simply bulk select all the games and go to Edit > Metadata, then follow the wizard to change the Platform field from MS-DOS, to Windows. It may ask if you want to move all media as well, to which you want to choose yes. They should then appear correctly under your windows platform.

Gotcha, thanks for that! I think I've got this, there is a known issue atm relating to the Attempt to hide console window on startup/shutdown option. If you turn that option off, will it launch correctly in fullscreen?

Hi there, Can you go to Tools > Manage > Storefront click the cog next to GOG select *Set Windows Import Platform* and then follow the prompt to select Windows as the import platform? That should stomp them from being imported as DOS. Let me know if that works.

Hi Folks, Thanks for the report, however, this should have been addressed in 13.19. The fix was: I've just given this another test and it appears to be working, here's what I'm doing: Take a .exe file and drag/drop it onto LaunchBox When asked what type of game files are you importing, I select None of the above Follow the wizard to import the game The resulting import shout NOT have the Use emulator to play this game check under Launching > Emulator Please let me know if you're import games differently that produce a different result where this option is still remaining checked

Hi @Fursphere, I’m splitting this into a new topic since I can successfully use Steam auto-imports on version 13.19. This way, we can troubleshoot your specific issue together. The first thing that comes to mind—have you ever deleted Steam games from your LaunchBox library in the past? With auto-ROM imports enabled, if you delete a storefront game from your library, LaunchBox tracks that and won’t try to auto-import it again. To re-import the game, you’ll need to go to Import > Steam Games and use the wizard there. If you use the manual import wizard, are you able to import Steam games that way? A good way to verify this is to install a game on Steam that you’re certain has never been imported into LaunchBox before and see if it's able to be auto-imported. If that doesn’t work, we’ll need to know more about your Steam installation. Can you confirm where Steam and LaunchBox are installed? Are you using any symlinks, or do you have files spread across multiple drives? Let me know and we'll try and get you sorted

Hi there, Thanks for reaching out, we have an FAQ that addresses this specific issue. Please have a look through it here and let me know if you have any further questions. The TLDR is that not all themes affect the game discovery center since it's relatively new. If you prefer Big Box to load to another view that does support theming, you can go to `Options > Views > Default Startup View` and select a different section to use

@xevious1974 I've split this off to it's own thread to troubleshoot. The error you're seeing is because the AddToGamesDb plugin has not been updated for LaunchBox 13.19. This plugin is no longer supported by the developer anyway, so please delete it from your LaunchBox\Plugins directory, and this should fix the error. Cheers,

Hi there, Thanks for the report here, may I confirm a few things to try and narrow this down: Are you updating an existing build to 13.19, or are you installing a brand new instance of LaunchBox? Does the crash happen consistently? I.e if you re-run the installer, does it continue to crash at this stage? If you're updating a build, can you use the same installer located in LaunchBox\Updates to install a brand new build, and see if the issue occurs? Let me know and we'll try to get you sorted.

Hi there, Thanks for report, I've run some tests on this but unfortunately haven't been able to replicate the crash. Can you please confirm: Are you able to reliably reproduce this crash every time you run the cleanup media, or does it happen sporadically? Before you run the cleanup media, can you tell me all of the options you have checked (i.e images, videos, etc) Does it make any different if you run the cleanup for a specific platform VS all platforms? Please let me know and we'll try to get you sorted.

Hi there, Thanks for the report here. May I confirm a few things to try and narrow this down: Can you walk me through specifically what you are changing in order for the image to show up for a different game? Are you able to reliably reproduce this for certain games? Or it only happens for specific games When the issue occurs, if you go to View > Media > Refresh All Images does the correct image display For the game displaying the wrong image, if you edit it's metadata and go to the Media > Images tab, do you see the incorrect image as one of the available images? Let me know and we'll do our best to get you sorted. Cheers,

HI @jevcleem Thanks for the report here. I've split this into a new topic so that we can investigate. May I confirm a few things to help narrow this down: What version of Dolphin are you using? Can you send a screenshot of your Edit EMulator window for Dolphin? Can you also share your settings for the Startup Screen, Running Script and Exit Script sections for Dolphin Let me know and we'll get you sorted. Cheers,