Setup cloud synchronization for the save files on your RetroPie

This script will setup different things on your RetroPie in order to automatically sync save files to a cloud service supported by rclone

Just install this via

wget -N -P ~/scripts/rclone_script https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Jandalf81/rclone_script/master/rclone_script-install.sh;
chmod 755 ~/scripts/rclone_script/rclone_script-install.sh;
~/scripts/rclone_script/rclone_script-install.sh;

and follow the instructions.

I strongly recommend reading this page completely before actually doing this! You can also look at these Wiki pages to better understand what this script does:

• Step-by-step guide through the installer
• RCLONE_SCRIPT in action
• Guide to the RCLONE_SCRIPT menu
• How to manually move your savefiles
• This also allows you to sync your progress with RetroArch on Android and Windows!

Let me give you a rundown of the things this script will do:

1. The script will install the RCLONE binary. It will be downloaded directly from their website as the binary installable via apt-get is quite old, sadly. RCLONE actually is what allows us to use a number of different cloud services, see their website for a complete list. The script will then ask you to define a remote. That is the other side used for the synchronization. That remote has to be called retropie, the script will not continue without it. Please consult the RCLONE documentation on how to configure remotes for different cloud services
2. Then, PNGVIEW will be downloaded, compiled and installed. That will be used to show you notifications when up- and downloading save files.
3. IMAGEMAGICK will be installed via apt-get, this will be used to actually create images containing the notifications which are shown by PNGVIEW
4. The other scripts you see here will now be downloaded. They are used to control RCLONE whenever it needs to sync your save files. Notice that there's also a script to remove all of this from your RetroPie. A new menu item in the RetroPie menu will be created which let's you control some aspects of RCLONE_SCRIPTS. Then, you'll be asked to enter the desired name of the remote SAVEFILE base directory. All your synchronized files will go into this directory.
5. Some scripts from RetroPie will be changed so they call one of the scripts from step 4 which then calls RCLONE... Sounds complicated but you don't have to do anything
6. Right next to the ROMS directory, a new directory SAVES will be created, containing a subdirectory for each system. This is where your savefiles will have to be locally now. See this wiki page on how to move the savefiles there, that will not be done by the script
7. The setup script will now create the remote SAVEFILE base directory and one subdirectory for each system RetroPie supports at the remote destination (if necessary)
8. Your RetroPie will be configured so each system uses it's own local directory for saves. Before, RetroPie looked for these files in the ROMS directory (which made syncing them without accidentially uploading a ROM - ILLEGALLY - so much more difficult)
9. The settings you entered during installation are then saved for future reference

That's it, setup is complete. If you already have some save files within the ROMS directory you need to move them to their subdirectory within the SAVES directory now. Afterwards, reboot your RetroPie so the new menu item shows up

Whenever you start or stop playing a game, the accompanying save files will be down- or uploaded to the configured remote:

• starting a game will trigger RCLONE to download save files for the game from the remote
• stopping a game will trigger RCLONE to upload save files for the game to the remote

Of course, all of this only works if your RetroPie has access to the configured cloud service.

In the RetroPie menu, there will also be a new menu item "RCLONE_SCRIPT menu". Starting this menu item will let you...

• start a full sync to up- and download newer files to and from the remote, so each side should have the latest save file for each game afterwards. Please note that this will also download save files even if the accompanying ROM is not on your RetroPie.
• toggle a setting to enable or disable the synchronization when starting or stopping a ROM. With this, you can temporarily disable that process. You'll get a warning, though
• toggle a setting to enable or disable showing a notification for the synchronization process

Well, I have two big reasons:

1. I wanted an offsite backup of my save files. I have started Chrono Trigger so many times and always lost the save by tinkering with my RetroPie...
2. I wanted to be able to seamlessly continue playing on another machine. Now I can...
   • start the game on RetroPie, play for an hour, save and automatically upload to DropBox
   • download the save file to Android via DropSync and continue playing there via RetroArch for Android (don't forget to upload afterwards!)
   • continue playing on my PC which is synced automatically via the DropBox client (which also uploads again automatically)
   • then return to RetroPie, which auto-downloads the save when I start the game there

Of course! I'm a hobby programer, so this script might have errors I just haven't found yet. I'll do my best to fix them, though. There are some things which just will not work with any sync, e. g. conflicting file changes. I strongly advice you to only change one side of each synced save file. In other words, don't play Chrono Trigger on you RetroPie and on your PC simultaneously and expect to keep both save slots intact...

First of all: You don't have to. I made this script for myself first of all. I'm happy already if someone else can use it. I only ask you to report any problems or feature requests here.

If you really want to thank me, you could use this DropBox referral link to create your account there. This will give us both 500 MiB extra (on top of the default 2 GiB) when you install the DropBox client. That will be enough for a good number of save files... ;-)

These are the sites I used as source:

• https://rclone.org/dropbox/
• https://rclone.org/commands/rclone_copy/
• https://rclone.org/filtering/
• https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Runcommand#runcommand-onstart-and-runcommand-onend-scripts
• https://github.com/AndrewFromMelbourne/raspidmx
• https://www.zeroboy.eu/tutorial-gbzbatterymonitor/