Annoyed by missing game media

[DeadVoivod]

From time to time I check missing game media, to see if I forgot one or the other. Usually they're all done. 

Today when I checked, there were around 50 games missing media throughout several categories, and I just wondered how that happened? 

So I have now to spend hours again to redo them, which is very time consuming, considering they were already done. 

How is it possible that media goes missing, got deleted? I did not even run the cleanup media, so that's not the issue.  

[faeran]

6 hours ago, DeadVoivod said:

From time to time I check missing game media, to see if I forgot one or the other. Usually they're all done. 

Today when I checked, there were around 50 games missing media throughout several categories, and I just wondered how that happened? 

So I have now to spend hours again to redo them, which is very time consuming, considering they were already done. 

How is it possible that media goes missing, got deleted? I did not even run the cleanup media, so that's not the issue.  

Hi @DeadVoivod, sorry to hear about your missing media. @sevenalive is right, normally media would not just disappear, so definitely make sure that there's nothing wrong with your disk.

Another thing to check would be to make sure you don't have any extra files within your Data\Platforms folder. Sometimes when using external scrapers, extra files that conflict with LaunchBox may be added there without a user's knowledge. You should only have 1 file per platform.

[DeadVoivod]

15 hours ago, sevenalive said:

I would run crystaldiskinfo and see if you got SMART errors. Also run Chkdsk in case there's file system corruption. If you got both, then your storage device is def failing and failing fast. if CDI doesn't say "Good" and instead said "BAD" or "FAIL" or "WARN" then it's your storage drive failing.

Hours again? Are you using the games missing media feature? (change from platforms to games missing media, say yes to the refresh). then you can filter it down even further. Just do that, ctrl-A to select the games, then tools > download metadata/media. 

Are you not doing that?

Disks are fine, no problem with that. 

And of course I'm doing that, that's how I check anyways from time to time, mainly for clear logos as I'm using them to display. But yesterday morning Emumovies was very slow and took 1-2 minutes per game to scrap, that's what I meant that it takes long. And I'm quite pedantic when it comes to media, so I might spend one or the other minute more per game. 

Like I said, games entries were still present including metadata, gone was the media, images, video, music, pdf.  

I'm not using external scrapers for LaunchBox and platform xml files are fine. 

Here my LaunchBox disks, main (E:) and backup (G:). 

Edited September 8, 2021 by DeadVoivod

[DeadVoivod]

It happened again. Currently doing my Amstrad CPC set, after adding letter S, I checked for missing media, and it found in CPC category 96 games without media. But everything was done. 

I then checked my Image folder and can see that the images are existing. I just don't know why it doesn't show them? A refresh doesn't help either. 

Doing a "download metadata and media" did the trick then, but why is it even happening? 

Could it be a cache problem?

Edited October 5, 2021 by DeadVoivod

[kurzih]

1 hour ago, DeadVoivod said:

It happened again. Currently doing my Amstrad CPC set, after adding letter S, I checked for missing media, and it found in CPC category 96 games without media. But everything was done. 

I then checked my Image folder and can see that the images are existing. I just don't know why it doesn't show them? A refresh doesn't help either. 

Doing a "download metadata and media" did the trick then, but why is it even happening? 

Could it be a cache problem?

I don't know if this related but I had some media files "disconnected" from their game entries when the default game name had an extra space after the name on the online database, especially with CPC and some with ZX Spectrum. How it happened: when I "download metadata and media" just for the metadata, without selecting images - it then "lost" the connection of images that had that naming error since the latest versions(?) of Launchbox will automatically remove those empty spaces (I assume) from the end of names in your local database. This is what I've concluded with my troubleshooting. I saw in my images folder cases like "gamename -01.jpg" instead of "gamename-01.jpg" and that resulted in the "images gone" scenario with those games with extra space in the end. The images have to be named the same to be connected to their games, even some extra space will make a difference.

A couple weeks ago I did go and submit those fixes in the actual online database (removing that empty space after the default name) and after doing a new metadata update with all images - no more issues . Maybe you have games that still have that empty space after the title name on the database (the extra space can only be seen when editing the game's default name on the online database).

Can you give us any specific example of game entries? And also see in your image folder of those missing images that they don't have an empty space between the name and -01.png/jpg etc.? Or maybe your case is totally unrelated.

Edited October 5, 2021 by kurzih

[DeadVoivod]

I noticed that after redownloading the metadata and media that I got 2 entries for each game, as the old one was still existing, and what I noticed is that the same image was now named BMX Freestyle-02 and the old one BMX Freestyle -02, exactly what you said. 

But how do you prevent that from happening?

Edited October 5, 2021 by DeadVoivod

[kurzih]

8 hours ago, DeadVoivod said:

I noticed that after redownloading the metadata and media that I got 2 entries for each game, as the old one was still existing, and what I noticed is that the same image was now named BMX Freestyle-02 and the old one BMX Freestyle -02, exactly what you said. 

But how do you prevent that from happening?

The only way to get this completely fixed at the moment is to remove that extra space from the game entry on the online database (the images are saved based on the game's name). When the name is correct, then the media files will stick with the game and won't be "disconnected" after a metadata update. Unless the developers come with a easier solution that tackles these "empty space typos" automatically @faeran?

Maybe someone has already submitted the fix, but to make sure I've just submitted the removal of that empty space from the game you mentioned: https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/games/details/108676 the moderation queue is longish at the moment so you might only see the fix within 12-48 hrs.

Edited October 5, 2021 by kurzih

[C-Beats]

Hmm, I'll take a look at the code base. We SHOULD be trimming all strings (removing leading and trailing spaces) when we save games. I know I just recently had to add some in Add/Edit game to the beta that's out now, but not sure that'd affect data set by the import or download metadata tools. I'll double check them and see what I can do from the code side, and then see if I can tap on Jason to take a look at the DB records.

[DeadVoivod]

Thanks Kurzih for the insight, never thought that it could be something like that, if it happens to be.

And also thanks C-Beats for looking into the problem, so far it only happened with the CPC games and the Atari 800. C64 maybe, cannot remember now.