MAME - will re-importing romset change anything?

[Surfdeign]

If I re-import my MAME romset using the full set importer, will it change any of my current settings such as hidden/broken games, favorites or playlists? Asking because I originally imported as no-clones and I want to import clones as additional apps now.

Thanks for any info.

 

[sundogak]

I assume you are speaking to the MAME Arcade Full Set import feature.  If you just do an import again and don't remove any of the existing files (i.e., delete, reimport) then anything that is LB specific data will remain such as hidden, broken, favorites and playlists.  However, anything you customized that is part of the MAME XML metadata (pulled from the MAME.EXE) such as game name, description, genre, play mode, etc will be overwritten back to whatever MAME thinks it should be (Genre and Play Mode in particular to watch for). 

Additionally, if you do this way, if during a previous import you had included Casino games and then subsequently checked to exclude, the casino games from the first import will remain (i.e., importer won't delete it). This trick is useful if you just wanted a few from a type but don't want to prune that category again.  

Best before doing import is to make data backup of LB XML data files.  Go to Tools, File Management, Create Data Backup and then try import.  Then do a check of things you wanted to carry over.  You can always restore backup if something isn't working as expected.