Can't transfer save data from standalone dolphin to RetroArch

RetroArch Windows devices
#1

I have been playing Zelda: Wind Waker on standalone Dolphin on Windows 10, but during my playthrough, I have discovered the wonder that is RetroArch, and I want to move completely from standalone Dolphin.

What I am having trouble with is copying the save files from standalone Dolphin to RetroArch. This is what I have tried…

I have tried copying %HOMEPATH%\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\GC\MemoryCardA.USA.raw and %HOMEPATH%\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\GC\SRAM.raw to %HOMEPATH%\AppData\Roaming\RetroArch\saves\User\GC\

Dolphin is not loading my save data and there is no files in any of the three save slots in the Wind Waker title screen.

When I delete MemoryCardA.USA.raw and SRAM.raw in %HOMEPATH%\AppData\Roaming\RetroArch\saves\User\GC\ it does not prompt me to format the memory card like I would expect it to.

Unlike before, it also prompts me if I would like to display in progressive scan mode or not. I have tried both yes and no, and neither make a difference that I have noticed so far.

I have also tried copying the entire Dolphin-x64\Sys folder into %HOMEPATH%\AppData\Roaming\RetroArch\saves\User\ and my save slots are still empty.

To be clear, I am not trying to transfer save states; just the memory card data so that I can resume where I left off in my playthrough in standalone Dolphin.

#2

ok, so I was FINALLY able to figure this out. What I ended up having to do was use standalone dolphin’s memory card manager to export a .gci and put that in retroarch’s gc save. More specifically, in the memory card manager, I opened %HOMEPATH%\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\GC\MemoryCardA.raw and exported the gci to %HOMEPATH%\AppData\Roaming\RetroArch\saves\User\GC\USA\Card A\

You can open Dolphin’s memory card manager by running dolphin and clicking tools > Memorycard Manager (GC)

#3

You can set Dolphin to use per-game GCI folders instead. Click “config”, go to the “GameCube” tab, and change “Slot A” from “Memory Card” to “GCI Folder”. Now Dolphin will use exactly the same format as the RetroArch Dolphin core.