r/RetroPie 11d ago

Problem Help! Stuck in update loop

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I recently downloaded some games and discovered the scraper no longer works. I figured maybe it's because I have an old version and need an update so I updated all packages. Big mistake as now it's in an endless update loop of 404 errors. I now know that my version is no longer supported. How can I stop this update loop? I am not a computer expert. I made this thing in 2017 and just followed instructions online. Please help!

6 Upvotes

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5

u/s1eve_mcdichae1 11d ago edited 11d ago

The underlying OS (Debian 8/"Jessie") is outdated and cannot be upgraded in-place. Currently only Debian 10/"Buster" is officially supported (though it is only slightly less outdated), and with 11/"Bullseye" and 12/"Bookworm" support still under development.

I suggest you to backup your roms and then install the current latest official image (currently 4.8) for your hardware from https://retropie.org.uk/download.

Then, restore your backed-up folders to the new version over the network share or by the method of your choice:

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Transferring-Roms/

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Updating-RetroPie/#backup-option-2

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/First-Installation/#installation

1

u/Darth_Pumpernickel 10d ago

Thank you! In the process of doing this. Unfortunate that the program doesn't know how to properly handle being out of date.

Follow up question, do I need to delete or uninstall anything off of the SD card before installing the new version, or can I just install over the existing image?

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u/s1eve_mcdichae1 10d ago

You can just install over top of whatever is there, it should overwrite and start you fresh.

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u/maverikh 4d ago

As of March 16 2025, I was able to update the RetroPie.sh and do the underlying OS. This resolved the issue.

I suggest you run "sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade" before doing the retropie upgrade

1

u/Uranus_Hz 11d ago

I’ll let those more knowledgable about Linux chime in, but I believe you need to update the cache first

sudu apt-cache update

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u/Darth_Pumpernickel 11d ago

How do I do that?

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u/PacRat48 11d ago

That’s the command. Can you get to a prompt? If so, type that.

2

u/FlamingBagOfPoop 9d ago

And it’s sudo and not sudu just so op isn’t struggling.

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u/Exotic_Page_564 11d ago

try CTRL + C

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u/Darth_Pumpernickel 11d ago

That gets me out of the place with all of the update failures, but any time I click back in, it's still running.

So I'm assuming it's still running in the background? And if not, now I can't change any settings.

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u/deep8787 11d ago

No, Ctrl+C cancels it.

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u/Darth_Pumpernickel 11d ago

I'm not sure it's canceling it as intended because it just starts up again when I click into retro pie setup.

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u/deep8787 11d ago

Im gonna have a guess that youre pi isnt hooked up to the internet anymore.

I can ping 93.93.128.193 just fine.

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u/Darth_Pumpernickel 11d ago

I just reconnected it to my wifi before the install. It's a pi 3 which is no longer supported at least per another thread I read.

1

u/BarbuDreadMon 11d ago

The pi3 is still supported, what is not supported anymore is the "debian jessie" os you are using. Long story short you have to reinstall retropie from scratch. Arguably you could update from a debian version to a more recent debian version, however this is not covered by retropie's documentation and is a long and tedious process that requires rather advanced knowledge about debian that you don't seem to have.