[Other] How to import and preserve custom box art

[PodunkPedant]

Re-posted from Discord, by request

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Hi, I've been struggling to troubleshoot this on my own for a while but have definitely hit a wall. I have several packs of high quality 2dboxes, 3dboxes, miximages, etc. that I would like to use in RomM. I'm trying to figure out how to do the following:

1. Import local images in bulk
2. Overwrite existing images along the way
3. Preserve other providers
4. Prevent a refresh / scan from reverting back to IGDB / SGDB images

For background, I'm using a fresh install on Unraid using a single platform (GBA) to test things out for now. I already have all the roms scanned and matched to every service except Moby. I've tried scraping local assets using an ES-DE gamelist, re-ordering providers in the config, moving or renaming the local images, adding paths to images in the gamelist, and various iterations of unmatching, updating, and re-scanning different combinations of providers. So far, nothing I've tried has been able to accomplish any of my goals.

The ES-DE import feature sure seemed like it was designed to do exactly what I'm looking for -- if in a clunky and roundabout way -- but it has only caused me frustration. I decided to use multi-file rom folders for the whole platform (⁨/library/roms/gba/Game (USA)/Game (USA).zip⁩) since I have quite a few hacks and translations (⁨/Game (USA)/hack/Game (USA) (hack v1.0).zip⁩) that I want filed under the base game in RomM's database. All of that appears to be supported from what I read in the docs, but I think it's causing several problems when using the ES-DE assets. I've managed to get a few games to find a match in the gamelist, but it won't always import all of my custom images and I can't figure out how to fix that.

But even if I figured out how to import my images somehow, I'm still not confident that a single rescan / refresh won't immediately undo all that work. From my testing today, de-prioritizing IGDB / SGDB posters doesn't seem possible. And I apparently need IGDB to group clones.

I'm completely stuck at this point, so I'd appreciate any help or advice. Thanks.