Where Does Mednafen Store Config and Saves?
Mednafen config file and save files beside your ROMs, in its portable by default layout.
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Mednafen keeps things plainly: one mednafen.cfg for every setting, and save files written next to the ROMs that produced them. There is no registry involvement and no hidden app data maze. The emulator looks wherever it runs, which makes the whole setup trivially portable.
That simplicity has one edge. Because saves scatter across ROM folders by design, a tidy ROM library doubles as a tidy save library, while a messy one hides progress everywhere. Centralizing ROMs in one folder is the single habit that keeps Mednafen backups sane.
Where Mednafen stores this, by platform
[Mednafen folder]\mednafen.cfg
The cfg holds every core and video option in plain text. Battery saves and save states sit beside their ROMs with per core extensions. Copy the emulator folder plus ROM folders for a full migration.
~/.mednafen/mednafen.cfg
Same portable philosophy as Windows: config beside the binary, saves beside the ROMs. A base directory override exists for users who insist on separating the two.
Frequently asked questions
how do i back up mednafen saves and settings
Copy mednafen.cfg plus the save files sitting beside your ROMs. Save states use per core extensions in the same folders, so grabbing the ROM directory wholesale catches everything that matters.
can mednafen store saves somewhere else
Open mednafen.cfg in a text editor and flip the filesys entries, or launch with -filesys.path_snap etc. Most users simply keep ROMs organized and let Mednafen write alongside them, which is the path of least resistance.
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