Table of Contents

Frequently Asked Questions

General

What does Retro Game Cover Downloader do?

It scans your ROM folders, compares them with the cover art available in the community libretro-thumbnails repositories, and downloads the missing covers into a folder you choose.

Which systems are supported?

All systems published under the libretro-thumbnails organization. The list is discovered automatically from GitHub and cached locally, so new systems appear without an application update. Examples: NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, arcade boards, and many more.

Is it free?

Yes. The application is open source under the GPL-3.0 license. Cover art comes from the community libretro-thumbnails project and remains the property of the respective copyright holders; the application only downloads these publicly available files.

Does it work on macOS or Linux?

No. It is a Windows desktop application built with WPF and the .NET 10 Desktop Runtime.

Usage

Do I need a GitHub token?

No, but it is strongly recommended. Anonymous access is limited to about 55 requests per hour by the application (GitHub allows 60). A token raises this to 4,900 requests per hour (GitHub allows 5,000), which matters for large collections. See Configuration.

Does it rename or modify my ROM files?

Never. The application only reads your ROM file names to match covers. Cover images are written to a separate folder with the same base name as the matching ROM.

Can I download covers for several systems at once?

The application works one system at a time. Select a system, prepare, download, then switch to the next system. Preparation and downloading only take a few moments per system.

What about multi-disc games or zipped ROMs?

Matching is based on the file name without its extension, so Game (Disc 1).cue, Game (Disc 1).zip, and Game (Disc 1).chd all match the cover Game (Disc 1).png if one exists. Compressed ROMs are supported because the archive is never opened — only its name is used.

Does it scan subfolders?

No. Only the files directly inside the selected ROM folder are scanned. Point the ROM folder at each subfolder separately if your collection is organized that way.

Does it work offline?

Cover downloads require an internet connection. The systems list is cached, so the application can start and show systems offline, but covers cannot be fetched without access to GitHub.

How do I update to a new version?

The application checks for new releases at startup and via Help → Check for Updates. When an update is available, a banner links to the release page. Replace the extracted files with the new bundle — your settings are stored separately in %LocalAppData% and are preserved.

Data and privacy

Where are my settings and logs?

Everything lives in %LocalAppData%\RetroGameCoverDownloader. Use File → Open AppData Path to open the folder. See Configuration for the full list.

Is my GitHub token safe?

The token is stored in settings.dat, encrypted with Windows DPAPI scoped to your Windows account. It cannot be decrypted by another user or on another machine.

What is sent to the developer?

Anonymous launch telemetry (application id and version) and error diagnostics when something fails. ROM names, folder paths, and game names are not collected for analytics; they can appear inside error logs that are reported only when an actual error occurs. Since version 1.5.0, transient network failures, timeouts, rate limits, and cancellations are no longer reported. See Privacy.

How do I uninstall the application?

Delete the extracted application folder and, to remove all local data, the %LocalAppData%\RetroGameCoverDownloader folder.

Troubleshooting shortcuts

Symptom Where to look
Empty system list Troubleshooting
Repeated token prompts Troubleshooting
Rate limit countdown Troubleshooting
Covers not matched Troubleshooting
Download failures Troubleshooting

Still have questions?