Rebooted PC & Launchbox Lost All Content

[Starwind Amada]

I had to reboot my PC and I opened Launchbox and EVERYTHING is now gone. Every imported game is gone. I had over 10,000 games listed and now I have to import everything all over again and after that edit multiple file names. This process takes hours and for absolutely no reason everything is now gone. I even rolled back from the disaster that is 14.0 and it made no difference. All because I rebooted my PC. 

Also, it's on the C drive with a ton of non-game files and yet it lost everything.

Edited Thursday at 05:14 AM by Starwind Amada

[JoeViking245]

12 hours ago, Starwind Amada said:

I even rolled back from the disaster that is 14.0 and it made no difference.

In your LaunchBox folder, is by chance one of the subfolders [also] named "LaunchBox"?

[Ravenloft]

What is the install path for Launchbox? Is it under your profile or its own directory at the root of C ?
If under your profile "C:\Users\<Profile Name>\LaunchBox" it is possible that your profile was corrupted. You can check the Users directory for old profile ddirectories.
When you imported your games originally did you opt to move them to the LaunchBox\Games directory?

 

[Starwind Amada]

3 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

In your LaunchBox folder, is by chance one of the subfolders [also] named "LaunchBox"?

Yes

[Starwind Amada]

3 hours ago, Ravenloft said:

What is the install path for Launchbox? Is it under your profile or its own directory at the root of C ?
If under your profile "C:\Users\<Profile Name>\LaunchBox" it is possible that your profile was corrupted. You can check the Users directory for old profile ddirectories.
When you imported your games originally did you opt to move them to the LaunchBox\Games directory?

 

F:\LaunchBox\Core\LaunchBox.exe

But there's also C:\Users\tiger\LaunchBox

 

And no, I left the games where they were, in various locations among my drives.

[JoeViking245]

38 minutes ago, Starwind Amada said:

Yes

That 2nd "LaunchBox" folder is most likely where it got reinstalled to.

39 minutes ago, Starwind Amada said:

F:\LaunchBox\Core\LaunchBox.exe

But there's also C:\Users\tiger\LaunchBox

When you ran the install wizard and selected the location to (re)install it into, you chose
F:\LaunchBox\
or
C:\Users\tiger\LaunchBox\

When reinstalling, you need to choose the root location of where you want it installed. The install wizard will add "LaunchBox" to the location you select. Then right before you click the final Install button, (in this case) it would have showed you
F:\LaunchBox\LaunchBox\
or
C:\Users\tiger\LaunchBox\LaunchBox\

Resulting in 2 separate LaunchBox installs. (sticking with the "F" drive location for simplicity)
1)  F:\LaunchBox\LaunchBox.exe
2)  F:\LaunchBox\LaunchBox\LaunchBox.exe

The latter one (2) should open an empty LaunchBox (which would be the re-install). And the 1st one (1) should have your [original] collection.

Here's an article about Installing, Updating, and Managing LaunchBox.

[Starwind Amada]

54 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

That 2nd "LaunchBox" folder is most likely where it got reinstalled to.

When you ran the install wizard and selected the location to (re)install it into, you chose
F:\LaunchBox\
or
C:\Users\tiger\LaunchBox\

When reinstalling, you need to choose the root location of where you want it installed. The install wizard will add "LaunchBox" to the location you select. Then right before you click the final Install button, (in this case) it would have showed you
F:\LaunchBox\LaunchBox\
or
C:\Users\tiger\LaunchBox\LaunchBox\

Resulting in 2 separate LaunchBox installs. (sticking with the "F" drive location for simplicity)
1)  F:\LaunchBox\LaunchBox.exe
2)  F:\LaunchBox\LaunchBox\LaunchBox.exe

The latter one (2) should open an empty LaunchBox (which would be the re-install). And the 1st one (1) should have your [original] collection.

Here's an article about Installing, Updating, and Managing LaunchBox.

I deleted the F drive one but now the C drive one won't open. I click on it and nothing happens. Run as admin has the same result. No message about another instance or anything.

[JoeViking245]

14 minutes ago, Starwind Amada said:

I deleted the F drive one but now the C drive one won't open. I click on it and nothing happens. Run as admin has the same result. No message about another instance or anything.

So, from Windows Explorer, you double-click C:\Users\tiger\LaunchBox\LaunchBox.exe and nothing happens.

If you double-click C:\Users\tiger\LaunchBox\LaunchBox\LaunchBox.exe, does anything happen?

Can you try reinstalling and selecting the C:\Users\tiger\ folder as the install location (then double-check before clicking the final Install button that is says C:\Users\tiger\LaunchBox)?

 

Side note, don't ever run LaunchBox as Admin.  It won't hurt anything, but it will make some things in LB not work corectly.

[Starwind Amada]

21 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

So, from Windows Explorer, you double-click C:\Users\tiger\LaunchBox\LaunchBox.exe and nothing happens.

If you double-click C:\Users\tiger\LaunchBox\LaunchBox\LaunchBox.exe, does anything happen?

No. I get the little blue rotating circle for a few seconds and that's it.

21 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

Can you try reinstalling and selecting the C:\Users\tiger\ folder as the install location (then double-check before clicking the final Install button that is says C:\Users\tiger\LaunchBox)?

 

Side note, don't ever run LaunchBox as Admin.  It won't hurt anything, but it will make some things in LB not work corectly.

Tried that. Still doesn't work.

[Starwind Amada]

Now I'm trying to delete all instances of LB and it keeps telling me a file is in use. Task Manager has no LB-related files in use.

[Starwind Amada]

I deleted Launchbox from the C drive. Complete deletion. Now it's installed on the F drive and only the F drive. 

 

Yet it still refuses to open because it thinks Launchbox is already running. It is not. If it was I wouldn't be trying to install it. There are no running processes in Task Manager yet the software thinks there are. It has no idea what's going on and refuses to properly function.

 

I have done everything I can to mitigate this problem and the software simply is incapable of running. 

Edited Saturday at 02:39 AM by Starwind Amada

[JoeViking245]

54 minutes ago, Starwind Amada said:

it thinks Launchbox is already running. It is not. If it was I wouldn't be trying to install it. There are no running processes in Task Manager

If you look in the Details section of Task Manager, you'll probably see it running there. Another option when that happens is to restart the computer.

[Starwind Amada]

1 hour ago, JoeViking245 said:

If you look in the Details section of Task Manager, you'll probably see it running there. Another option when that happens is to restart the computer.

Nope. Just looked under the Details tab. Nothing regarding Launchbox.

[JoeViking245]

7 hours ago, Starwind Amada said:

Nope. Just looked under the Details tab. Nothing regarding Launchbox.

Looking in the Details section, it doesn't show LaunchBox.exe at all?  If it thinks it's already running, it will show.

 

Did you install using version 14.0.1?  (LaunchBox-14.0.1-Setup.exe)  If not, which version?

 

9 hours ago, Starwind Amada said:

Yet it still refuses to open because it thinks Launchbox is already running.

Can you share a screenshot of the message box where it's saying another instance is already running?

 

When you installed it [fresh] on the "F" drive, did it go all the way through the install without any errors? 

Did your Windows Defender or another virus protection software you may have installed on your system detect anything and blocked something during install?  Double check their protection history to make sure.

Is "F" a local disk drive (HDD or SSD inside your PC) or a network drive?

When it was done, did it bring up the Welcome Wizard window? It would have on a fresh install.

[Starwind Amada]

Virus protection didn't detect anything. 

 

See, it's not in Task Manager

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, Starwind Amada said:

Virus protection didn't detect anything. 

See, it's not in Task Manager

Thanks.  I see "F" is a local SSD.  How about the other questions?

[Starwind Amada]

The install wizard doesn't come up. Just gives me the message about another instance. The installation went through just fine but the software won't open.

[JoeViking245]

24 minutes ago, Starwind Amada said:

The installation went through just fine but the software won't open.

What version of LaunchBox did you install?  e.g. LaunchBox-14.0.1-Setup.exe

And you did get the Welcome to LaunchBox screen at the end of the initial install?
It just won't re-open now because "another instance is running"?

 

Did you try rebooting the PC?
And after doing so and you try to start LaunchBox, does it still say, "another instance is running"?
If so, you must have Windows set to start LaunchBox when you turn on your computer.

 

[Starwind Amada]

Yes, 14.0. I checked the startup apps and Launchbox was either not listed or it was disabled. So either way that wasn't the problem. 

The problem I think is that it turns out Launchbox still is on the C drive but I can't delete it because it says the file is open. If it was open I would be using it and not having this problem in the first place. Once again, it's not in Task Manager and like I said, I'd be using it if it were open. 

Also, I tried Microsoft Powertoys to try to delete the folder but when I selected it and clicked "Unlock with File Locksmith" (a feature in PowerToys) it said NO RESULTS. 

 

This is a bunch of BS

Edited Saturday at 04:40 PM by Starwind Amada

[JoeViking245]

On 9/5/2026 at 9:39 AM, Starwind Amada said:

Yes, 14.0. I checked the startup apps and Launchbox was either not listed or it was disabled. So either way that wasn't the problem.

One thing odd with that is, as of v14.0, LaunchBox will allow separate instances of LB to open. So if one instance, say from C:\users\tiger\LaunchBox\, is already running, and then you go to open one from F:\LaunchBox, it will open a 2nd LaunchBox.

When you try to open one for a version prior to 14.0 and another instance (from an install in a different folder) is already running, you'll get the error message you previously showed. Even if the instance already running is v14.0 or later, if the 2nd instance is prior to v14.0, you'll get that error.

Which makes me think, when you try to open the 'fresh install' on the F drive, it's not v14.0 (or later).

You can for sure see what version it is by checking the file Properties of F:\LaunchBox\Core\LaunchBox.exe.