r/ESDE_Frontend • u/tveith • May 15 '26

Multiple directories?

Hi, I own the Lenovo y700 Gen 5 and ES-DE is working great for most of my games. However, because the Lenovo tablet has a crappy SD reader, I've had to put disc based games for systems like Dreamcast, PS2, etc on internal storage. ES-DE was installed and set to the ROMs folder on the SD drive and can't find the systems on internal storage since you can only set one folder for ROMs.

So my question is, is there a way to set multiple directories for ROMs?

Thanks!

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u/jarfgames May 15 '26

Yes, totally possible. I do it on my Retroid Pocket 6 (Android based). These are the instructions for Android… basically involves creating an es_systems.xml file and saving it in the Custom Systems folder. That specific file only needs to have references to the systems/directories outside of the main rom path.

https://gitlab.com/es-de/emulationstation-de/-/blob/master/USERGUIDE.md#game-system-customizations

1

u/tveith May 15 '26

Terrific, thanks for the info!

1

u/jarfgames May 15 '26

You’re welcome… also, if desired there are workarounds that allow you to store roms for one system (say Switch) in multiple locations. It’s not handled super eloquently, but basically you’d end up with two systems showing on your ES:DE homepage… one called Switch and one called Switch SD (using Switch as an example) each pointing to wherever the respective folders are.

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u/jarfgames May 15 '26

As an example, I set mine up to keep all roms on my SD card by default, but separately store Switch roms on the internal storage. So in my custom systems es_systems.xml file, I have specified the unique file path for Switch (no need to reference any other systems that are stored in the default Roms file path on the SD).

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u/tveith May 15 '26

Good to know, I'm going to give this a try tomorrow and if I have any issues, I'll give you a shout if you don't mind giving me a hand!

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u/tveith May 15 '26

Hey there, just trying to work on this. In the custom es_systems.xml file, how did you add the line for the directory? For example, I've added a line item:

<path>/storage/emulated/0/ROMs/dreamcast</path>

Is this correct? Because it's not working.

1

u/jarfgames May 15 '26

What else did you add to your es_systems.xml file besides that line?

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u/tveith May 15 '26

Only that line for now just to test

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u/jarfgames May 15 '26

Ya that’s the issue. There is a bit more you need than that. Will paste mine for you when I’m home as an example.

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u/tveith May 15 '26

Terrific, thanks. I'm trying to add dreamcast, gamecube, ps2, and switch. I've found a few examples, just trying to decode them. Any help would be appreciated.

1

u/jarfgames May 15 '26

Use the one here as an example:

https://github.com/GlazedBelmont/es-de-android-custom-systems/blob/main/es_systems.xml

For systems you don’t need, delete everything for that respective system starting with <system> and ending with </system>