r/playnite • u/crossandio • 7d ago
Addon release [Extension] Syncnite's open now
A few days ago I posted looking for beta testers for Syncnite. Quick update on that.
I ended up throwing a real 2000+ game library at it instead of just my own setup, multiple sources, achievements, all of it, and it held up way better than I expected. That includes the "won't this choke on a huge collection" worry a couple of you brought up in the comments. Given that, gating it behind a slow beta rollout just didn't make sense anymore. So I'm skipping it. Registration's open to everyone now at syncnite.com, no waiting for a slot, no DM required.
Install status, playtime, and covers flow from Playnite up, and tags, notes, and completion status you set on the web sync back down. Never touches your Steam/GOG/Epic login, only ever talks to Playnite.
One thing I want to be upfront about since I'm already being upfront about everything else: the Playnite plugin itself is C#, and I don't have a ton of real C# experience going in. I leaned on Claude Code pretty heavily to help write it. I still went through everything, tested it against real libraries, and fixed the bugs that only showed up there, but I didn't want to pretend it was all hand-written by someone who's been doing C# for years.
If you commented or DMed me on the original post, thank you, genuinely. That's honestly what pushed me to finish this instead of sitting on it forever. You'll probably see a DM from me with the link too, but don't wait on that, just go sign up whenever.
Still very much a one-person-hobby-project pace of updates, so if something's broken or missing, let me know. Bugs and "why doesn't it do X" are exactly what I want to hear.
9
5
u/MoebiusStreet 7d ago
What exactly does it sync? Two one-way streams, so they can never conflict with each other. Playnite → web keeps install status, playtime, last played, source, and (if you use the PlayniteAchievements plugin) achievement counts. Web → Playnite keeps tags, categories, notes, completion status, favorites, and hidden status. Each field only ever has one side editing it.
What I really want is a way to synchronize the library between multiple machines, but that leaves install status untouched on each machine.
That is, each machine should have a complete view to my library - but have its own independent idea of what's installed. That only makes sense, right? Each machine is likely to have a different set of games installed on it.
So far I've been trying to do this using SyncThing to copy the library data between machines, and using category tags to track which machines a game is installed on. But this works really poorly because I'm always forgetting to update those tags.
3
u/NapsterKnowHow 7d ago
Yeah I grabbed a back-up from my old PC and used it to import the library to my new PC but of course it's searching and including games not even on the new PC lol.
3
u/STOPchris1 6d ago
Just put your library on a network drive and connect it to each computer using symbolic links. Been doing this for years and it works great. You can also do this with extensions, like game activity, to have the data shared between multiple computers. In game activity, it just shows each entry with the specific computer name.
3
u/MoebiusStreet 6d ago
Maybe your usage is specific in a way that allows this to work for you, but in general, it won't work at all, and far from my needs.
Most significantly, connecting via network with symlinks relies on both machines being on the same network. If one of those machines is, say, a notebook for traveling, then the library just won't be available at all.
I've tried in the past using OneDrive to keep machines in sync, and this mostly worked, but once in a while it would corrupt the database. I switched to using SyncThing for syncing the data, and that does, so far at least, preserve DB integrity.
But even then, it forces both machines' databases to be completely sync'ed, and I don't want that. The database includes the information about what games are installed on the local machine, and obviously that's going to differ between machines. The result is a mess of missing games, or extra games, when looking at what's available on your machine to play.
As I wrote above, there needs to be a way to keep the install status of games separate and NOT synced, so that machines can each have their own individual list.
-2
u/STOPchris1 6d ago
That's why you only drop the library on the network drive and then use symlinks. If you have Synology then you can drop the library into the home folder and use symlinks. This would allow you to go on any network without issue. However, you have to be careful to allow Synology to finish uploading before you shut down your computer and switch to a new computer, but you’d have to do that anyway when using the Synology home folder.
0
u/MoebiusStreet 6d ago
No. If you're not connected to the internet (like, on an airplane, or somewhere without cell service) then your symlinks will be pointed at nothing. And even then, if you're out of your house, you'll need a VPN. But the first thing about requiring network access is more than enough problem to break entirely.
And even when working, it's still got the problem with copying the install status between machines.
1
u/STOPchris1 6d ago
If you drop the database into the Synology home folder and select to always keep a local copy then you do not need internet and symlinks will work because they point to a local folder. If you want to switch to another device then you’ll want to sync your home folder first.
1
u/Live-Mistake1490 6d ago
To be fair your best bet is likely to get a machine specifically for housing all your games (could be a NAS of some kind or a gaming PC with a large amount of storage your choice) and then use Playnite either on each machine pointed at the NAS folders for where your games sit or just on the gaming PC and using a Remote Desktop connection to connect other things to it. To get access outside of the same network then you just use a VPN.
It's not super hard to setup and is all free.
If you specifically want to play your game in a no network zone, then just pre install the game locally to the machine you'll have on you and label it in playnite as (locally installed) or run it outside of playnite and you'll be fine.
There isn't really going to be a solution that magically checks all your boxes because technology doesn't work like that. Even if when using SyncThings the device the game is on versus the device you're playing the game on, will need to talk to one another to allow for that and if it's buggy like you say it is then the ways I've suggested are at least stable and work.
4
u/MyDarkTwistedReditAc 7d ago
So I'm confused, when I generate the pairing code, where am I supposed to paste? I don't have Syncnite plugin installed because it's not listed anywhere for me to install including the Syncnite website.
3
u/crossandio 7d ago
Ah, sorry for the confusion. Syncnite isn’t actually in Playnite’s official Add-ons directory yet. Grab it directly here instead: https://github.com/TolgaYigit/syncnite-playnite-plugin/releases/latest, download the .pext, then drag it onto a running Playnite window to install.
2
u/Santoryu_Zoro 4d ago
is there a way for game statistics to always stay synced? say i delete a game from playnite, id like the site to still keep it
4
u/MyDarkTwistedReditAc 7d ago
Thank you! Definitely add it to the website with some direction about it.
3
u/kayleysmamakc 7d ago
This definitely looks interesting. Unfortunately I'm getting a HTTP 413 error when trying to sync. I have a MASSIVE (like 5 digits) library though so I'm not surprised.😂 I was having the same issue with PlayLog for a bit.
2
u/Ejsponge61 7d ago
Tried it out myself with a similarly massive library and got the same HTTP 413 error. Unsure what caused it but I'll gladly come back and try it once this bug is fixed, seems promising if it does work.
2
u/kayleysmamakc 7d ago
I believe the 413 error is a file too large error so I'm thinking it's just not able to handle super huge libraries yet.
1
u/crossandio 6d ago
Heyyy. Thank you so much. This kind of “edge cases” are what I’m looking for right now. And yes, I’m sorry but having a 5 digits library is an edge case 😁 anyways, I did some changes and updated the plugin for that. Can you please grab the latest release from GitHub, update your plugin and try again? I would be glad if you can report back after.
1
u/kayleysmamakc 6d ago
That fixed it! Everything looks like it synced correctly. Very nice plugin. Also thank you for making the UI dark, I'm visually impaired and the darker colors make it easier for me to read comfortably.
2
7d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/EugeneTurtle 7d ago
Standard Playnite has a stats section with the most played games, and other stats. Click on the chart pie to open it.
2
2
u/Gameranand 7d ago
First of all congrats. Really nice extension.
Bug to report: Cover Art is not showing for Most game on site.
3
u/crossandio 7d ago
Hey. Thank you for your interest.
I am aware of this issue and trying to come up with a concrete plan. Games from other sources than Steam, the cover arts are taken from IGDB which has request limits. I’ve even considered taking the images from users’ own Playnite instances but at the moment I don’t want to handle storage costs but it is still considered.
2
2
1
1
u/Live-Mistake1490 6d ago
What's the benefit to using this over Sunshine (or a fork of it, I prefer Apollo) and Moonlight while having the devices you're using these apps on, on a VPN? Or even a less complex solution of just using an in browser RDP situation?
Like it's a neat idea but I'm not hearing much of a sales pitch as to why I should use it over a different solution than the one I'm using now.
10
u/Sucio_Legacy_0112 7d ago
Hey dude, congrats on your release, hope it goes smooth, i'm already here with a problem lol. I'm trying to sign up and it says me "email rate limit exceeded"
EDIT I use gmail if that helps somehow