Linking Your Emulator

Linking your emulator

PKForge does not run inside your emulator and does not need root. It reads the folder your emulator already saves into, after you give it access once through Android's folder picker.

A linked folder is called a storage unit. It stays linked across restarts, and every Pokémon save found inside it appears on the Home shelf.

The steps

1. On Home press Y (Link), or open Settings > Link an emulator. Choose the platform:

2. Choose your emulator. Each platform lists the emulators PKForge knows:

Game Boy / Game Boy Color, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS:

3. Read the short guidance, then press Choose folder:

4. In the Android picker (see Choosing the right folder if you are unsure where to look), open the emulator's save folder and press Use this folder, then Allow:

5. PKForge scans the folder and tells you what it found:

Your games are now on the Home shelf.

Which emulators, which folder

Platform	Emulator	Pick this folder	Save files	Page
GB / GBC	RetroArch	RetroArch/saves (or the whole RetroArch folder)	.srm	RetroArch
GB / GBC	Pizza Boy C	the folder holding its .sav battery saves	.sav	Pizza Boy
GB / GBC, GBA	Linkboy	its saves folder	battery saves	Linkboy
GBA	RetroArch	RetroArch/saves	.srm	RetroArch
GBA	Pizza Boy A	the folder holding its .sav battery saves	.sav	Pizza Boy
DS	melonDS	next to your ROMs, or melonDS's save folder	.sav	melonDS
DS	DraStic	DraStic/backup	.dsv	DraStic
DS	RetroArch	RetroArch/saves	.srm	RetroArch
GameCube	Dolphin	the GC folder, a region folder, or Card A / Card B	.gci	Dolphin
3DS	Azahar / Lime3DS	the user folder you chose in its setup (the one containing sdmc)	main	Azahar / Lime3DS
3DS	Citra MMJ	citra-emu (through the Citra MMJ entry in the picker)	main	Citra MMJ
Switch	Eden	its files root (the folder containing the emulated storage)	main, *.bin	Eden

Not in the list? See Other emulators and Single save file.

How PKForge finds your saves

• The game is detected from the file's content, not its name or extension. Renaming a file never changes which game PKForge thinks it is.
• File names only act as a quick first filter: files ending in .sav .srm .bin .dat .gci .dsv .bak .main, or with no extension, are read. Empty files and files larger than 32 MB are skipped.
• Folders that never hold battery saves are skipped to keep scans fast: states, cheats, config, cores, shaders, screenshots, thumbnails, system, playlists and similar. RetroArch's roms folder is skipped too.
• Save states are never read. PKForge edits the battery save (the in-game save), which is what the game loads when it boots normally.
• A scan runs once each time PKForge starts. After adding new saves, use Settings > Misc > Rescan games.

"No saves found"

If a link finds nothing, the folder still stays linked and PKForge tells you where to point instead. The usual causes:

1. Wrong folder. See Choosing the right folder.
2. Wrong level of folder. Pick the folder that contains the saves (or its parent), not a file and not an unrelated folder.
3. The emulator keeps saves elsewhere. Many emulators have a "save folder" setting. Check it and link that folder.
4. The file is not a Pokémon save. Files that look like saves but do not read as one are counted as rejected in the scan report.
5. Android hides the folder. Some emulators keep saves in Android/data/..., which newer Android versions do not show in the picker. Export the save from the emulator and use Single save file.

Settings > Misc > Scan report shows what was scanned, accepted and rejected, and why. You can copy it and send it to us on Discord.

To remove a link: Settings > Manage linked storage > Unlink. Your files stay on the device.

Emulated consoles (3DS, Switch)

Saves inside Azahar, Citra MMJ or Eden live in the emulator's emulated SD card or NAND and are edited in place. PKForge asks you to confirm before connecting and backs the file up before every write. Close the emulator first.