"Load Content" and "Add Content" from Shares (SMB,etc.)?

RetroArch Windows devices
#1

At least in windows, choosing Load Content or Add Content gives a list of disks lettered C: D: E: etc to choose from, but some of us would rather use NAS, it would be great if the GUI could provide this option. Mapping drive letters and symbiotic links aren’t as flexible ways and seem more hacky…

As of now, using the built-in windows-like GUI of File->Load Content (not XMB), one can choose an individual file from a share using the windows Open GUI, but this is not perfect.

Is there some setting I am missing that would enable this or some trick with the cfg? Is there a way to “add content” from a network share by typing the address manually or something and then have it on the GUI that way?

Anyway it would be great to have this functionality.

This applies to other versions if they don’t have this either… I am thinking of applications like Kodi that have this and how great a thing that is to have.

#2

That would be a great feature. Like Kodi (XBMC) is supporting NFS, SMB, aso. to add directories to scan for content.

Thanks, Joe

#3

Building that into the program brings a huge amount of code and maintenance with it. We’ve discussed it many times before and just can’t justify the increased workload when you can handle that sort of thing through the operating system via Windows’ ‘map a network drive’ functionality, etc.

#4

I came across your post after trying to get to my roms through a mapped network drive, I mapped it as drive R but it will not show up under directory, any help would be appreciated. Thank you

#5

Did you ever get this to work? I have mapped drives and can get the directory scanned but the roms will not load if them are on a SMB share. I have created a iSCSI Target and that worked flawlessly but the problem there is I can not share targets across multiple Windows 10 PCs.

#6

Dunno what the problem would be. I use a SMB share to feed out ROMs to all of my devices.

#7

Working here as well.

Mapped the same share as the same letter on three different windows PCs, and placed the playlist on the SMB share, working perfectly (RA is installed in the same path on each PC as well.

The NAS also serve the roms for a Lakka box, but mapped as a NFS.

#8

Hi,

I’ve been suffering from the very same problem. Even though my SMB share is visible in my file explorer after mounting it as X:, I just can’t seem to see the mapped drive in RetroArch. :frowning:

#11

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#16

Since this is the top post when searching for SMB/CIFS support, I registered here to share my findings with you, since this is easy to fix in Windows and works without problems for me

Instead of having a dedicated drive letter, try to symlink a folder on your hard drive to a shared folder on your CIFS/SMB server. Open up the command line with administrative privileges and use mklink to add the desired target:

mklink /D "C:\RetroArch\roms" "\\server\games\roms"

A successfull return should look like this:

symbolic link created for C:\RetroArch\roms <<===>> \\server\games\roms

The link is still available after a restart and deleting it in file explorer will remove it permanently.

You may now enjoy all your games :v:

SCREENSHOT AS PROOF:

Screenshot 2022-02-08 211047
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1 Like
#17

Very handy! Thanks for registering just to share your elegant solution :slight_smile:

1 Like
#18

my pleasure :slightly_smiling_face:

Also it is funny, that after creating the symlink the connected network drives are showing up in RetroArch with they drive letters