Images randomly corrupt in Beta version of LaunchBox

[Madhead]

I have recently updated to the Beta version of LaunchBox and it has fixed a lot of things. Everything seems faster and videos are finally stable again. However, I have noticed random images are being corrupted for whatever reason in the library, It's often only one image in a collection, like for example 1 or 2 3D Box Art images for a single platform here and there. I have to keep redownloading them upon discovering them, and it may eventually end up corrupting an image I edited myself at which point there's no way to get it back. I have included an example of the image corruption in this post. It's the game "Geist" for GameCube, 3D Box Art. Just discovered that it was corrupted today. I had to zip it up for some reason too as it wouldn't upload.

Geist-01.zip

[MysterNybble]

Try the final 14.0 release recently released, hoping that your issues are limited to the beta, but let us know!

[Madhead]

Just now, MysterNybble said:

Try the final 14.0 release recently released, hoping that your issues are limited to the beta, but let us know!

I've updated to it today, and have since discovered the corrupted file. I'm hoping it was from the beta as I've only had 14.0 for a couple hours so far.

[MysterNybble]

Got it, I'll see if I learn anything from the corrupted file, but otherwise, let us know if you see anything else happening.

[Madhead]

7 minutes ago, MysterNybble said:

Got it, I'll see if I learn anything from the corrupted file, but otherwise, let us know if you see anything else happening.

Will do. I actually discovered the image corruption a couple weeks ago in the beta, I perhaps should have posted a thread then but I'll keep an eye out.

[MysterNybble]

1 hour ago, Madhead said:

Will do. I actually discovered the image corruption a couple weeks ago in the beta, I perhaps should have posted a thread then but I'll keep an eye out.

I looked as best I could, and the file is oddly the right size, and two small sections of the pixel data were somehow overwritten. So really it could be a million things, temporary storage, filesystem, RAM, NAS, sync issue while saving, the list goes on. The date of the files tracks as to something that happened a couple of weeks ago so 🤞 it was a fluke? I can't rule out that LaunchBox itself didn't play a role, but it definitely doesn't look like a partial download, nor do we 'touch' the file in many places other than getting it there.

You might want to take this as reason to be cautious to look at other external factors and make sure you have a backup of anything that's improtant to you if it does turn out to be hardware or something unwanted happening elsehwere.

[Madhead]

On 8/15/2026 at 8:39 PM, MysterNybble said:

I looked as best I could, and the file is oddly the right size, and two small sections of the pixel data were somehow overwritten. So really it could be a million things, temporary storage, filesystem, RAM, NAS, sync issue while saving, the list goes on. The date of the files tracks as to something that happened a couple of weeks ago so 🤞 it was a fluke? I can't rule out that LaunchBox itself didn't play a role, but it definitely doesn't look like a partial download, nor do we 'touch' the file in many places other than getting it there.

You might want to take this as reason to be cautious to look at other external factors and make sure you have a backup of anything that's improtant to you if it does turn out to be hardware or something unwanted happening elsehwere.

Sorry for the late reply. Yeah I haven't noticed anything corrupting lately either in the newer versions. It could have been my hardware, SSD or whatever, but you'd think it would still be an issue if so? Maybe it was that particular Beta? Who knows? I do have my LB setup backed up onto an external HDD actually so it's safe in that sense. Thanks anyway.

[Madhead]

On 8/15/2026 at 8:39 PM, MysterNybble said:

I looked as best I could, and the file is oddly the right size, and two small sections of the pixel data were somehow overwritten. So really it could be a million things, temporary storage, filesystem, RAM, NAS, sync issue while saving, the list goes on. The date of the files tracks as to something that happened a couple of weeks ago so 🤞 it was a fluke? I can't rule out that LaunchBox itself didn't play a role, but it definitely doesn't look like a partial download, nor do we 'touch' the file in many places other than getting it there.

You might want to take this as reason to be cautious to look at other external factors and make sure you have a backup of anything that's improtant to you if it does turn out to be hardware or something unwanted happening elsehwere.

Hiya mate, the issue seems to have cropped up again after updating to the new beta. I have been replacing clear logos with higher quality ones over the last couple weeks and have noticed no corruption of any image in that time, other than after the update to the beta. Since then I’ve found 3 corrupted images in the same folder. I'm not sure the cause, maybe you have an idea at this point? It seems to happen after I refresh the image cache, but even then I can't confirm it as just simply refreshing doesn’t always cause it, in fact mostly it doesn't. I'd be willing to stay on the beta, but if its corrupting images, some of which I've created or edited myself and aren't on the database, it seems like a risk. It could be my PC or SSD, but it coincides with beta updates so much that it seems unlikely to be anything else to me. 

[Maddoc1007]

I dont know if this has anything to do with image corruption but in Cache-BB It places hundreds of blank images into the Bigbox cache all these non images are exactly 11.4kb each and when in the hundreds this is a lot of wasted space caused by launchbox as you can see by the supplied image. I am on the latest stable as i no longer will update to betas.  I would also like to point out that it does not do this for any clear logos only the boxart.

[Maddoc1007]

Well i checked this out on a Launchbox build i have for magazines comics etc and the same behaviour there, cache bb seems to create blank placeholders of 11.4kb for artwork i dont use like screenshots, discs etc.  These are images i do not use for this build but bigbox creates blank images for them, this is stupid behaviour as it takes up a lot of room that is badly needed on hard drives, yet launchbox cache does not do this behaviour and only caches images you have in your build, this is something that needs to be looked into and fixed as hard drive space is a premium these days especially in cost.

[Madhead]

18 minutes ago, Maddoc1007 said:

Well i checked this out on a Launchbox build i have for magazines comics etc and the same behaviour there, cache bb seems to create blank placeholders of 11.4kb for artwork i dont use like screenshots, discs etc.  These are images i do not use for this build but bigbox creates blank images for them, this is stupid behaviour as it takes up a lot of room that is badly needed on hard drives, yet launchbox cache does not do this behaviour and only caches images you have in your build, this is something that needs to be looked into and fixed as hard drive space is a premium these days especially in cost.

I was actually talking about actual images in the database getting visual corruption that affects the file visually. I've provided an example in this post to download. It doesn't let me upload the image straight, so I have to zip it. 

mb.zip

[JoeViking245]

Crazy messed up!  

 

1)  Is this an image downloaded from the LaunchBox Games Database?
2)  Is this an image downloaded from EmuMovies?
3)  Is this (and I think you said it is) a .png you created and saved?

Did the file you zipped and attached come direct from your \LaunchBox\Images\[platform]\Clear Logo\ folder (I'm assuming it's a Clear Logo)?

If (3) above, did you manually it add to the Images/../../ folder?  Or did you edit the game and browse to the image file and LB copied it into the respective folder?  Some other means?

At any point after the image was added to and associated with its game, did it look "normal"?  Then later got corrupted?

[Madhead]

59 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

Crazy messed up!  

 

1)  Is this an image downloaded from the LaunchBox Games Database?
2)  Is this an image downloaded from EmuMovies?
3)  Is this (and I think you said it is) a .png you created and saved?

Did the file you zipped and attached come direct from your \LaunchBox\Images\[platform]\Clear Logo\ folder (I'm assuming it's a Clear Logo)?

If (3) above, did you manually it add to the Images/../../ folder?  Or did you edit the game and browse to the image file and LB copied it into the respective folder?  Some other means?

At any point after the image was added to and associated with its game, did it look "normal"?  Then later got corrupted?

1) No, I got it from SteamGridDB I think. But I've seen corruption from all sources. Ones I got from LB, Emumovies, or ones ive dragged from Google Images. As long as it's in my database, it's susceptible.

2)...

3)No, It's from SteamGridDB init.

I added the file to a zip file cos it wouldn't upload as a straight image for some reason on my end. Looks like you've managed to. Yes it was from my Arcade Clear Logo folder. It's a Sega Naomi game I believe.

In this particular case I used the SteamGridDB Scraper plugin (which I highly recommend btw if you need high quality logos that aren't on the main DB). In case you think that could be the culprit, It's not because logos from all sources have been affected, also 3D Boxes and Cart/CD images too. It seems any PNG file with transparency. I don't think I've encountered a JPG or even a PNG file with no transparent pixels that's glitched. I can't be sure it's only transparent PNGs that get corrupted because I might find a JPG down the line, but just for you to note.

All the images I add or download look normal after I add them, of course. Ones I remember directly adding are getting nuked like this. It's jarring mang