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Troubleshooting

Work in progress

This section is still being worked on, some errors migth be present

Have you tried restarting?

The classic IT solution, works more often than you think.

Do note that switching between Desktop Mode and Game Mode is not a restart. Properly restart your device and see if the issue is resolved.

Is the EmuDeck installer not downloading or completing?

Internet issues are an increasingly common issue among Steam Decks, even if your internet works perfectly fine on other devices, or you have the latest and fastest internet. You may notice that EmuDeck isn't installing properly, or is taking a long time time to install. You may notice these same internet issues when you try to browse the internet or download a game and the internet speeds are much slower than you would expect.

You can fix these issues by adjusting your DNS, in System Settings within Desktop Mode, in Configure Network Settings.

Note: If you are noticing unexpected behavior with RetroAchievements causing errant controls or freezing, consider trying the below steps.

Here's How:

  • Click the bottom left icon in the taskbar (Steam Deck icon), click Settings in the list, open System Settings.
  • Click Connections on the left.
  • On the IPv4 tab, change the Method to Automatic (Only Addresses).
  • In the DNS Servers box, enter 1.1.1.1.
  • Click the IPv6 tab at the top, change the Method to Disabled.
  • For good measure, restart your Steam Deck.
  • Go to Settings.
  • Select Network & internet.
  • Select Wi-Fi or Ethernet depending on your connection.
  • Under DNS server assignment, select Edit.
  • From the drop-down menu, select Manual.
  • Turn on the IPv4 toggle switch.
  • Under Preferred DNS, enter your desired address: 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8
  • Open the Windows Start menu.
  • Click on the gear icon to open the Settings menu.
  • Select Network & Internet.
  • Enable Use the following DNS server addresses.
  • Under Preferred DNS server, enter your desired address: 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8

Note: If the above steps still do not fix the issue for you, you can try switching to a 2.4 GHz WiFi network if your ISP provides you with one.

Is everything up to date?

It is recommended you keep emulators up to date. Update Flatpaks through Discover, AppImages/Binaries through the emulator's self-updater or through EmuDeck, and Windows Executables through EmuDeck.

It is recommended you monitor and use the Discover store to update any system libraries as well. Not updating these system libraries can cause Flatpak emulators to stop working.

Do you have the correct BIOS or ROM file types?

Visit the Cheat Sheet to learn which BIOS and ROM file types you need.

In some cases, .7z and .zip are not correct file formats.

Performance or audio quality unexpectedly bad?

There may be a number of reasons for this, but your first debugging tool should be to ensure that the Framerate limit is off and that the Refresh Rate is set to 60.

To find these options:

  1. In Game Mode, press the QAM (... button)
  2. You may need to open the game first to see if you created a per-game profile
  3. Press the Battery icon
  4. Select Advanced View
  5. Scroll down and set te Framerate Limit to Off and Refresh Rate to 60
  6. Performance or audio quality unexpectedly bad

These are the recommended settings for emulated games. If you would like to change these settings, use the Use per-game profile toggle. This toggle will only apply these settings for the game currently open.

Are you playing in Desktop Mode?

Generally, it is recommended to use Game Mode to play your ROMs. However, if you are in Desktop Mode, make sure to hold the start button for 3 seconds to switch your controller configurations to gamepad configurations.

With gamepad configurations enabled, your controls will work and you may also use combo hotkeys to exit out of a game.

Are your ROMs or BIOS valid?

Do you have a good ROM or BIOS dump? Corrupt, incomplete, or incorrect ROMs or BIOS can be a common reason why your game does not work. Transferring between two systems can be one reason for incomplete ROMs. If your ROM works on another machine, that does not mean it will work on the Steam Deck if the transfer was incomplete.

If your ROM is not valid and you have ensured that it was transferred correctly, you may need to re-dump. You can find dumping guides here

Path not writable?

If you are seeing an error message that states your path is not writable, this typically means that you have a space in your SD Card or external drive name.

To fix this issue:

  1. Open the KDE Partition Manager in Desktop Mode
  2. You may need to set a sudo password first. To do so, open Konsole, type passwd, and enter a password. It will not be visible for security reasons. After pressing enter, you will be prompted to type it again to confirm
  3. Locate your SD Card or external drive and right click, click Unmount
  4. Click Properties
  5. In the Label box, give your SD Card or external drive a name without a space
  6. Click OK
  7. Locate your SD Card or external drive and right click, click Mount
  8. Re-run EmuDeck and your SD Card or external drive will be writable

Game unexpectedly muted or missing audio?

Sometimes, games may accidentally mute themselves with no discernible reason. Fortunately, the fix is easy.

  1. In Desktop Mode, open the emulator you use to launch the ROM
  2. For example, if your ROM is a PlayStation 2 game, open PCSX2
  3. Open your ROM
  4. If the emulator launched in full screen, hold R1 and press the Select button until you see the desktop or taskbar
  5. Click the Speaker icon in your taskbar
  6. Click the Applications tab
  7. Click the Speaker icon below the application name to unmute the application
  8. A red line through the Speaker icon indicates that it is muted. If there is no red line, that means there should be audio outputting from the emulator

Have you tried resetting the emulator or tool through EmuDeck?

Sometimes after installing EmuDeck, you may notice an emulator's configurations were not set properly or you tweaked something on accident and you do not remember the default settings.

You may reset an emulator's configurations in the Manage Emulators page.

Tutorial

  1. Open EmuDeck on your desktop.
  2. Click the Manage Emulators button.
  3. Select which emulator configurations you would like to reset in the drop-down menu.
  4. Click Reset configuration, wait a moment.
  5. Your selected emulator has been reset.

Have you checked out the various emulator and tool pages?

The wiki has a separate page for each emulator and tool installed by EmuDeck. You can find the emulator pages grouped under their company name on the sidebar.

ROM not launching? Does your ROM have a special character in the name?

There may be a couple of reasons for this. One blanket solution is to ensure your ROM does not have any special characters in the name.

Special characters may include apostrophes, pluses, or characters with acccents.

Here are a few examples:

  • é in Pokémon
  • ' in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
  • + and ' in Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury

If your ROM has a special character, rename the file itself and re-run Steam ROM Manager after renaming your ROMs.

Did you turn on Proton?

There is outdated info on the internet that indicates you need to set Proton on games added by Steam ROM Manager to Steam. Turning on Proton is not necessary. DO NOT set Proton Compatibity on any emulated games. Do NOT set STEAM_COMPAT_MOUNTS in parameters.

Do not open the Compatibility screen in Game Mode. Do not touch any of the settings on the Compatibility screen in Game Mode. This only applies for emulated games.

Using Cemu as an example:

proton

Is the Gamescope Flatpak installed?

The Gamescope Flatpak can cause crashes with the various Flatpak emulators installed by EmuDeck. Even if you do not recall installing it, it is recommended you double check. If the Gamescope Flatpak is installed, make sure to uninstall it. This section will cover how to both identify if it is installed and how to uninstall it.

  1. In Desktop Mode, open Konsole, and type flatpak list
  2. See if you can find an entry titled org.freedesktop.Platform.VulkanLayer.gamescope
  3. If you see it in the list, you have the Gamescope Flatpak installed, this may cause crashing in other Flatpak applications
  4. To uninstall (highly recommended), in Konsole, type flatpak remove org.freedesktop.Platform.VulkanLayer.gamescope and press enter to uninstall the Gamescope Flatpak

If you do not have it installed, you may try entering this command in case you accidentally overlooked it in the flatpak list command. If you do not have it installed, this command will return a generic error message.

For more information on this issue, see this GitHub comment https://github.com/ValveSoftware/gamescope/issues/1239#issuecomment-2053572427 and this GitHub issue: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/gamescope/issues/1239

Steam ROM Manager

Did you exclude the game in Steam ROM Manager?

When parsing an app list in Steam ROM Manager, it is easy to misclick and accidentally exclude or hide a game. Excluding a game will hide it from the parsed app list preventing it from being added to Steam.

To "un-hide" a game:

  1. Open Steam ROM Manager
  2. Click the Exceptions button
  3. Locate or search for your game in the list
  4. Click Remove exception
  5. Click the Save button
  6. If you do not click the Save button, the game will still be hidden from the app list
  7. Generate an app list and your game will appear

If your game was not in the exceptions list, your issue lies elsewhere, make sure you are using the proper file types.

Did you turn on duplicate parsers in Steam ROM Manager?

For some systems, there may be more than one option (RetroArch core or standalone emulator) to play your game. If you enable all of the respective options for a single system, you will have duplicates in your app list with each entry correlating to a different emulator option.

For example, the Nintendo DS system can be played through both a standalone emulator and a RetroArch core. If you enable both parsers, you will have duplicates with half that will launch through the standalone emulator and half through the RetroArch core. These can be identiifed by the "Collections" tab in Game Mode. However, if you prefer to only use one option for a system, make sure the other option is disabled.

Are you seeing missing artwork? Are you getting axios errors?

These axios errors mean that there is a potential network issue causing connection problems between Steam ROM Manager and the website it scrapes its art from, https://www.steamgriddb.com/.

If you are seeing these issues, wait 24-48 hours and try again.

CloudSync

First Step: Make sure these files exist:

Before anything else, let's make sure we are using good DNS, a lot of internet providers use really bad DNS that prevents downloading or even fast browsing, this will make your internet connection faster and more reliable. DNS is the system in charge of knowing what IP corresponds to each web domain. Here are instructions on how to change them:

  • Click the bottom left icon in the taskbar (Steam Deck icon), click Settings in the list, open System Settings.
  • Click Connections on the left.
  • On the IPv4 tab, change the Method to Automatic (Only Addresses).
  • In the DNS Servers box, enter 1.1.1.1.
  • Click the IPv6 tab at the top, change the Method to Disabled.
  • For good measure, restart your Steam Deck.
  • Go to Settings.
  • Select Network & internet.
  • Select Wi-Fi or Ethernet depending on your connection.
  • Under DNS server assignment, select Edit.
  • From the drop-down menu, select Manual.
  • Turn on the IPv4 toggle switch.
  • Under Preferred DNS, enter your desired address: 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8
  • Open the Windows Start menu.
  • Click on the gear icon to open the Settings menu.
  • Select Network & Internet.
  • Enable Use the following DNS server addresses.
  • Under Preferred DNS server, enter your desired address: 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8

Once you have good DNS in place try installing cloudSync from the EmuDeck app and check these files:

  • Emulation/tools/rclone/rclone.exe or just rclone if you are on linux. If this file doesn't exist you need to reinstall cloudSync from the EmuDeck app.

  • Alternatively you can download it manually from here:

  • Emulation/tools/rclone/rclone.conf, this is where your settings are, if you don't have this file try to reinstall CloudSync. - If the file exists but the provider you chose is empty or the file doesn't even exist, try setting cloudSync in another computer and then copy the rclone.conf file to the other machine.

One of my devices is not uploading / downloading saves

Let's see if the files are being synced but the issue is in the emulator not finding them.

  • Open your emulator of choice on one of the devices and left it open.
  • Go to Emulation/saves/your_emulator and create an empty file, test.txt for instance.
  • See if you get any notification about the uploading happening.
  • Now go to your cloud provider website and check EmuDeck/saves/your_emulator, see if the file is in there.

a) The file is there

Great, that means that device can upload saves just fine! You can check next step

b) The file is not there

Bad news, time to check everything again, make sure you followed the First Step: Make sure these files exist

I have two Ryujinx / ryujinx saves folders

if you have two Ryujinx folders, one with capital R and another without you need to:

  • Make sure Ryujinx or ESDE is not running.
  • Backup both folders outside the Emulation/saves folder from the machine that has the most up to date saves.
  • Delete both folders from every device.
  • Delete both folders in your cloud provider.
  • Double check, make sure there is no ryujinx or Ryujinx folder anywhere.
  • On Windows: reset SRM settings from Manage Emulators so the save folder is created.
  • On Linux: reset Ryujinx settings from Manage Emulators so the save folder is created.
  • Copy your saves from the backup you did to any

My Ryujinx saves are being synced but the emulator doesn't see them

Ryujinx has an issue: it creates a save folder for each game but in the order you launched them, so game A can be folder 1 in one device but the same game A can be folder 3 on another device. This is a real pain.

  • Go to Emulation/saves/ryujinx in the device that has the oldest saved games, enter inside each folder and delete the contents.

  • Reset Ryujinx settings from both Windows and Steam OS in Manage Emulators.

  • Launch Ryujinx from the device that you deleted all the saves, it should have downloaded all your saved games now. Do any change in any game, save and let it upload in the background ( it takes a few seconds depending of the network connection )

  • Launch Ryujinx in the other device and check if the saved game is the same as in the other system.

Logs

If none of the troubleshooting sections above worked for you, gather photos and a log so you can request support in EmuDeck's Discord or Reddit.

If you do not have an easy way of gathering photos, take a few photos with your phone. As long as the information can be captured, the quality of the photo does not matter!

How to get the EmuDeck Log

If you have been sent this link on Discord, follow the below steps to locate a log so you may share it with the person you are chatting with on Discord. These logs will allow the person to investigate the issue in further detail.

Method 1

  1. In Desktop Mode, open the EmuDeck application
  2. Click Fetch Log File
  3. Share the URL with the person providing you support

Method 2

  1. Open $HOME/.config/EmuDeck/logs
    • On a Steam Deck, this path may be /home/deck/.config/EmuDeck/logs
  2. Right click emudeckSetup.log, click Share --> Pastebin...
    • It may appear blank, you can see the full log by clicking the raw button on the Pastebin page
  3. Share the Pastebin URL with the person providing you support
    • If you do not have a way of sharing URLs easily, share the alphanumerical string at the end of the URL with the person providing you support
    • You may need to type this manually, however the alphanumerical string is fairly short
1. Open `appData/EmuDeck/logs`
2. Right click `emudeckSetup.log`, click `Share --> Pastebin...`
  - It may appear blank, you can see the full log by clicking the `raw` button on the Pastebin page
3. Share the Pastebin URL with the person providing you support
  - If you do not have a way of sharing URLs easily, share the alphanumerical string at the end of the URL with the person providing you support
    - You may need to type this manually, however the alphanumerical string is fairly short