Native ROM Caching from NAS
Overview
The Archive Cache Manager plugin previously allowed LaunchBox to cache ROMs from a NAS (Network Attached Storage) to a local drive for smoother gameplay and better performance. Unfortunately, this plugin no longer works with recent LaunchBox updates, and the original developer is no longer maintaining it.
This request is for LaunchBox to natively support a similar caching system, allowing users who store games on a NAS to benefit from local caching, reduced load times, and greater flexibility.
Proposed Functionality
Option to retain extracted ROMs after play (instead of deleting them from the temp folder).
Allow extracted ROMs to be stored in folders organized by platform, e.g.:
LaunchBox\ThirdParty\7-Zip\Temp\Nintendo Entertainment System
This helps with per-folder settings in emulators like RetroArch.
Ideally, also allow copying non-zipped ROMs (e.g. .rvz, .iso) from the NAS to local storage before launching, though support for zip files alone would already be valuable.
Provide settings to manage and clear the cache manually or automatically.
Why This Matters
✅ Makes LaunchBox more NAS-friendly without relying on third-party plugins.
✅ Improves performance and reliability when launching games over the network.
✅ Maintains compatibility with emulator configurations that depend on ROM paths.
✅ Reduces wear on NAS drives and avoids repeated network transfers.
This functionality would be a huge help for users with large, NAS-hosted collections, and many are currently avoiding updates just to keep the old plugin working. Native support would ensure long-term stability and official integration.
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Comments14
Mar 21, 2025
PinnedThanks for the request! Have fleshed this out and opening up to the community for discussion.
Clutz450
Mar 24, 2025
Wow! This looks great! Thanks for rewording my original post. I’ll share this with everyone in the Archive Cache Manager forum post. Since the status is labeled as “Open to Community”, what exactly do you need from the community that would help move this along? Like, there are already people in the Archive Cache Manager forum post trying very hard to get the plugin working again, and I’m sure they would love to help make this become an official part of LaunchBox. Thank you.
AstroBob
Mar 24, 2025
No worries at all! Open to Community is a status we apply to feature requests once they’ve been fleshed out enough that the goal and use case are clearly defined, and the request is ready for community discussion and upvotes.
Your request was already very clear and well thought out — we really appreciate that! This is just part of a process we’re trying to adopt to make sure every request on the board is easy to understand. That way, when the community discusses or upvotes them, they have a solid grasp of what the feature would look like and the problems it aims to solve.
In terms of moving it along, upvoting and adding any additional use cases that this feature could solve will be very helpful in getting it on deck
duerra
Mar 25, 2025
Incorporating Archive Cache Manager exactly as it was designed would be a chef’s kiss. It does (did) allthethings, and superbly well.
william_luiz
May 4
This still relevant. Having all of ACM features natively working on launchbox wolud be so much helpful.
Clutz450
Apr 4, 2025
It looks like someone was finally able to get the Archive Cache Manager plugin working on the latest version of LaunchBox. See here for more details.
https://forums.launchbox-app.com/topic/35010-archive-cache-manager/page/10/#comment-487394 I would still love to see this functionality added to LaunchBox natively, so hopefully the work that has been done so far with this plugin will help out the LaunchBox devs to achieve this. Thanks.
Tayley
Apr 5, 2025
I’m 100% on the boat, i’m one of those guys who’s stuck on an old LaunchBox version because that plugin stopped working, and some of my platforms rely on it to work properly.
megashub
Apr 6, 2025
Only thing I’d add is a way to configure the amount of time a rom is cached before it gets aged off.
Example:
Age off after X days any cached rom which has not been played.
This would allow games which are played frequently to remain stored locally, while aging off infrequently played games automatically. So pulls from NAS would only occur the first time a NAS-stored game is played, and once something has aged off because it sat unplayed for too long and is later launched again.
fflexx
Oct 16, 2025
Is this still being internally discussed? I’d absolutely love this, or if someone could take over Archive Cache Manager and maintain it
fflexx
Oct 16, 2025
In regards to use cases, having a way to utilise my gigabit networking set-up to move uncompressed roms across to my ssd, keep until I mark the game as complete or for a period of time is what i’d most like.
stigzler
Nov 14, 2025
This would be a good feature. Also, if someone does code this, add some facility to choose whether to keep + reuse unzipped roms in the future after playing roms with large zip files (e.g. Gamecube). Either add default setting and/or user prompt “do you want to keep the unzipper version (faster boot next time)
Malkav
Jan 26
Long time since i didn’t update it or used it, but bigbox profile has a module that reproduce most of the archive cache manager feature, and since it’s an external program, it probably still work just fine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3SGPnVr8SU
ojed4r
May 4
Having this feature available in LaunchBox natively would be highly appreciated. For people like me that have most of our ROMs zipped, it has been difficult for us keeping LaunchBox updated since we rely on the Archive Cache Manager plugin to use this feature, and this plugin hasn’t been updated, so every new version of LB introduces compatibility issues. Therefore, we are forced to downgrade to previous versions, on my case v13.18 because every version after has a bug with startup screens while extracting zipped ROMs. Hope one day this indispensable feature gets implemented.