ES-DE Migration
If you’ve been using EmulationStation Desktop Edition (ES-DE) and want to switch to Cocoon Shell, you can bring your existing media and metadata along. Cocoon can import your box art, screenshots, and game info so you don’t have to re-scrape everything from scratch.
What Can Be Imported
From an ES-DE setup, Cocoon can pull in:
- Game metadata — Titles, descriptions, developers, publishers, genres, release dates, ratings, play counts, and more (from
gamelist.xmlfiles) - Media files — Box art/covers, screenshots, fan art, logos/wheels, and other images
Importing from ES-DE
- Go to Settings → Library & Data → ES-DE Migration.
- Point Cocoon to your ES-DE data folder.
- Choose what to import:
- Metadata — Game info from
gamelist.xmlfiles - Media — Artwork files from ES-DE’s media directories
Media Type Mapping
ES-DE and Cocoon organize media a little differently. During import, you can configure how ES-DE’s media types map to Cocoon’s:
| ES-DE Type | Cocoon Type |
|---|---|
| Covers / Box Art | Icon (grid tile) |
| Wheels / Logos | Logo (hero overlay) |
| Fan Art | Hero (hero background) |
| Screenshots | Screenshot |
You’ll see these mapping options during the import process so you can adjust them to your preference.
Exporting from Cocoon
Going the other direction? Cocoon can also export your library data in ES-DE format:
Settings → Library & Data → Export Metadata
This creates gamelist.xml files for each platform, which can be read by ES-DE or other frontends that use the same format.
Good to Know
- Cocoon’s media folder structure is compatible with ES-DE by default — both use
downloaded_media/{platform}/{mediatype}/organization. - The import process matches games by their filename, so your ROMs need to have the same names in both setups.
- Importing won’t overwrite data you already have in Cocoon — it only fills in what’s missing.
- If you’ve already scraped some games in Cocoon, the import will skip those and only add data for games that don’t have it yet.