Brings playtime and achievement tracking from Hydra Launcher into Playnite — including handing achievement unlocks to the Playnite Achievements extension.
Playnite 10 · Windows · Releases
- Playnite 10.x (tested against 10.62).
- Hydra Launcher. Any recent version works — Hydra Sync only reads Hydra's local data, so it keeps working across Hydra updates.
- Optional: Playnite Achievements 4.x, if you want achievements to show up somewhere. Without it playtime sync still works and nothing else breaks.
- Optional: HowLongToBeat, if you want the playtime a sync raises submitted to your HowLongToBeat account as well. It has to be installed and signed in; Hydra Sync never ships or requires it, and nothing else changes if it isn't there. See HowLongToBeat.
- Download the latest
HydraSync-<version>.pextfrom the Releases page. - Double-click it and confirm in Playnite — Playnite installs the extension itself.
- Or extract it (it is a plain zip) into
%APPDATA%\Playnite\Extensions\HydraSync\so thatextension.yamlsits directly inside that folder.
- Or extract it (it is a plain zip) into
- Restart Playnite if it was already running.
Settings live under Add-ons → Extensions settings → Generic → Hydra Sync.
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Playtime | Two modes. Hydra wins (replace when larger) — the default — sets a game's playtime to Hydra's cumulative total, but only when Hydra's is higher, so nothing is ever added on top. Add Hydra's new playtime since the previous sync keeps your Playnite total and adds whatever Hydra gained. Either way Undo playtime changes… removes exactly what Hydra Sync contributed and leaves everything else alone. |
| Last played | Moves the game's Last activity forward to Hydra's last session, never backward. |
| Achievements | Reads the achievement files already sitting on your disk — the same files Hydra reads — so unlocks also work for non-Steam Hydra games. |
| Achievement names and icons | Real names, descriptions and icons, resolved from the definition file in the game folder, an optional Steam Web API key, or the public store API. Games with no discoverable AppID are looked up by title on the store. Cached for 30 days. |
| Playnite Achievements hand-off | Unlocks are handed to Playnite Achievements and normally show up straight away — no restart. Steam games are labelled Steam (proper source label and icon) while other-store games are labelled Manual, so Playnite Achievements keeps its manual-tracking features available for them. Existing data for the game is merged into rather than replaced, and anything Playnite Achievements can't be reached for is applied at its next start instead. |
| Matching | By Steam AppID first, then by title (case-insensitive, symbols ignored). |
| Automatic syncing | Off by default. Turn it on in the settings to sync shortly after Playnite starts and then on an interval you choose (every 15 minutes by default). Changes apply as soon as you save. |
| Per-game control | Right-click any game (or a multi-selection) to sync just that game's playtime, achievements, or both immediately — or store a per-game mode that narrower passes apply on their own. See Per-game sync. |
| Scope | Existing games only. Hydra titles that aren't in your Playnite library are never added. |
| Updates | Checks GitHub Releases shortly after Playnite starts and offers a one-click Download & install update from the @Hydra Sync main menu — Playnite then runs its usual confirm and restart flow. See Updates. |
| HowLongToBeat | Optional (off by default): after a sync raises a game's playtime, Hydra Sync asks HowLongToBeat to submit the new total — exactly what HowLongToBeat does when a game exits. See HowLongToBeat. |
Add-ons → Extensions settings → Generic → Hydra Sync
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Playtime | Hydra wins (replace when larger) | Which playtime rule to apply. Hydra wins only raises a game to Hydra's total, and only when Hydra's is higher. Add Hydra's new playtime keeps your Playnite total and adds what Hydra gained since the previous sync (the first pass records the starting point and changes nothing). |
| Sync playtime | on | Master switch for playtime and last-activity updates. |
| Sync achievements | on | Master switch for achievement syncing. |
| Export achievements to Playnite Achievements | on | Hand unlocks over to Playnite Achievements. |
| Show new achievements without restarting Playnite | on | Ask Playnite Achievements to apply them straight away. If it can't be reached, they're applied at its next start instead. |
| Merge with existing Playnite Achievements data | on | Merge into whatever Playnite Achievements already has for a game (keeps other sources, never turns an unlock back into a locked one) instead of replacing it. |
| Fetch Steam schema | on | Allow online lookups for achievement names, descriptions and icons — by AppID, or by title when the game has no discoverable AppID (cached 30 days). Definition files in the game folder are always preferred. |
| Steam Web API key | (empty) | Optional key from steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey. Gets full achievement data for newer games, where the public store API no longer returns it. |
| Auto-sync | off | Sync automatically shortly after Playnite starts and then on the interval below. While off, syncing only happens when you ask for it. |
| Sync interval (minutes) | 15 | How often automatic syncing runs (1–1440). Only used when auto-sync is on. |
| Hydra data directory | (empty) | Leave empty unless Hydra Sync can't find Hydra's database. It detects %APPDATA%\Hydra\hydra-db and the older %APPDATA%\hydralauncher\hydra-db on its own, plus -staging variants and portable layouts. |
| Check for Hydra Sync updates at startup | on | Look for a newer release shortly after Playnite starts and notify you. |
| Push playtime to HowLongToBeat | off | After a sync raises a game's playtime, ask HowLongToBeat to submit the new total. Needs HowLongToBeat installed and signed in. Only games the sync actually raised are pushed (max 25 per sync). |
Where the actions live:
- Sync now — settings panel, and Playnite's main menu under
@Hydra Sync(syncs your whole library). - Undo playtime changes… — settings panel, with a confirmation. Removes the playtime Hydra Sync added and keeps anything Playnite recorded after a sync, so undoing twice is harmless and a later sync is just as undoable. Achievements are never touched.
- Diagnose achievement sync… — game context menu. Runs the achievement pipeline for one game and shows what it found: the Hydra match, the files it read, the unlocks it parsed, whether they were applied immediately or are waiting for Playnite Achievements to start, and whether that extension is reachable. This is the first place to look when unlocks don't appear.
- Diagnose HowLongToBeat playtime sync… — game context menu. Reports whether HowLongToBeat is reachable, signed in, has data for the game, and whether the game is excluded.
Right-click a game (or select several) → Hydra Sync:
Sync it now — runs immediately for the selected games:
| Menu item | What it does |
|---|---|
Sync playtime now |
Reads Hydra for these games and updates playtime right away |
Sync achievements now |
Reads their achievement files and hands unlocks to Playnite Achievements right away |
Sync playtime & achievements now |
Both of the above in a single pass |
These run whether or not the global switches are on and whatever mode is stored for the game — you asked for that game, so it happens. They only touch the selected games, and a notification reports what changed (or says when no Hydra match was found).
Always sync — remember a mode for these games:
| Menu item | Stored mode |
|---|---|
Always sync: playtime and achievements |
Both (the default; also clears an override) |
Always sync: playtime only |
Playtime only for this game |
Always sync: achievements only |
Achievements only for this game |
The active mode is marked (current). Modes are remembered per game across restarts and apply to automatic passes and to Sync now from the main menu. The global switches stay master switches here: a stored mode can narrow what happens, but never switch something back on.
Push playtime to HowLongToBeat is off by default, because it writes to a third-party account.
- Only raised games are pushed, so nothing is submitted needlessly. A notification reports how many were updated, skipped, or failed.
- Games are skipped, never guessed at. Signed-out accounts, games carrying HowLongToBeat's "ignore playtime sync" tag, and games HowLongToBeat has no data for are all left alone.
- Playtime only. The game is not marked as "Playing" and every other option is left at HowLongToBeat's own defaults, which makes this equivalent to a normal game-exit update.
- Capped at 25 games per sync, since each push is a couple of network round-trips. Sync again to continue with the rest.
- No HowLongToBeat files are needed. If the extension isn't installed or loaded yet you get one notification explaining why, and nothing else breaks.
- Two manual items sit on the game context menu: Push playtime to HowLongToBeat now (submits the selected games regardless of the setting) and Diagnose HowLongToBeat playtime sync….
Shortly after Playnite starts, Hydra Sync checks this repo's GitHub Releases (toggle: Check for Hydra Sync updates at startup). If a newer version exists you get a notification, and Main menu → @Hydra Sync → Download & install update (vX.Y.Z)… downloads it and hands it to Playnite, which asks you to confirm the update and then restarts.
Playnite's own Add-ons → Browse / Updates list only covers add-ons submitted to JosefNemec/PlayniteAddonDatabase, which currently has new plugin submissions on hold while the database is rebuilt. The updater above is how updates reach you in the meantime.
Start with the log: %APPDATA%\Playnite\logs\Playnite.log, search for HydraSync. Warnings and
errors explain where each game stopped. Hydra Sync's own files — playtime originals, per-game
modes and cached achievement metadata — live in
%APPDATA%\Playnite\ExtensionsData\A76358E9-BFA2-4189-B6F3-2307EA4E217B\. Two in-app reports
cover most cases:
Hydra Sync → Diagnose achievement sync…(per game) — match, files found, unlocks parsed, pending Playnite Achievements import, quarantine, per-game sync mode.Hydra Sync → Diagnose HowLongToBeat playtime sync…(per game) — whether the extension is reachable, signed in, has data for the game, and whether the game is excluded.
| Symptom | Cause / fix |
|---|---|
| "Hydra database not found at …" | Hydra Sync couldn't find Hydra's data. It detects the usual locations automatically; if yours is elsewhere (portable install, for example), set Hydra data directory. |
| Game's playtime unchanged | Depends on the Playtime setting: Hydra wins only raises a game to Hydra's total and only when Hydra's is higher; Add Hydra's new playtime adds only what Hydra gained since the previous sync. Both leave a game alone when that means no change. |
| Additive mode added nothing on the first sync | Expected: the first pass records where Hydra's playtime stood and changes nothing, so a sync can never double-count. |
| Playtime looks wrong after a sync | Undo playtime changes… (settings panel) removes exactly what Hydra Sync contributed — anything Playnite recorded after a sync is kept — and the next sync applies the chosen rule cleanly. |
| Wrong game matched | Matching is by AppID first, then title. Only games already in your library are synced — Hydra-only titles are never added. |
| Nothing happens on its own | Automatic syncing is off by default. Enable Auto-sync; it takes effect when you save. |
| Hydra is running, or the game lives on a network drive | Expected: Hydra locks its database, so a temporary snapshot is read instead. No action needed. |
Playnite itself has no achievement display — unlocks appear in Playnite Achievements. A sync normally hands them over and Playnite Achievements applies them immediately, so there is nothing to restart; if Playnite Achievements can't be reached, the next time it starts applies them instead.
Right-click the game → Hydra Sync → Diagnose achievement sync… and read the report:
| Report says | Meaning / fix |
|---|---|
Hydra match: NONE |
The game isn't matched to a Hydra entry. Playtime won't sync either. |
Achievement files found: 0 |
No achievement file was located on disk. Check that Hydra itself shows achievements for this game. |
Files found, but Unlocks parsed: 0 |
Files exist but contain no unlocked achievements (or an unsupported variant) — open the listed paths manually. |
Apply without restart: extension not reachable |
Playnite Achievements isn't installed or hasn't loaded yet. The file is written and applied on its next start. |
Cache file awaiting PA import: YES |
Written but not applied yet — start (or restart) Playnite Achievements once and it appears. |
PA QUARANTINE |
Playnite Achievements' parser rejected our file — please report it with that file attached. |
Playnite Achievements folder NOT FOUND |
Playnite Achievements isn't installed, or has never been started. Exports are skipped with an error notification. |
Fingerprint recorded: yes |
Unlocks are unchanged since the last write — nothing is re-sent until they change. |
Also check the settings: Sync achievements and Export achievements to Playnite Achievements
must be on. Every sync notification includes scan stats (scanned …, files found for …, with unlocks in …) plus how many achievement sets were applied immediately and how many were merged —
if the scan counts stay at 0, the problem is finding the files (the second row above).
Per-game modes narrow what syncs for individual games, and the global switches stay master
switches (see Per-game sync). Right-click a game → Hydra Sync → Always sync: playtime and achievements clears the override, and the sync notification reports how many
games were skipped. The Sync playtime now / Sync achievements now / Sync playtime & achievements now items act on the selected games only and ignore both the switches and the
stored mode.
| Symptom | Cause / fix |
|---|---|
| No HowLongToBeat notification after a sync | Push playtime to HowLongToBeat is off by default — enable it in settings. |
| "HowLongToBeat is not available …" | The extension isn't installed or not loaded yet. Install it, then use Push playtime to HowLongToBeat now or sync again. |
| "updated 0, skipped N" | Expected for signed-out accounts, games carrying HowLongToBeat's ignore tag, and games it has no data for. Diagnose HowLongToBeat playtime sync… says which. |
| No push after a sync | Only games whose playtime the sync actually raised are pushed — that's intentional. |
| A very large sync pushed only some games | Capped at 25 games per sync; the notification says so. Sync again to continue. |
- Bad path in settings — invalid folders produce an error notification, never a crash.
- Notifications stop appearing — Playnite collapses repeated notifications under one icon; click it to expand.
- Menu items look stale — restart Playnite after updating the extension.
- Playtime from Hydra games that can't be matched to an existing Playnite game is not imported (sync-existing-only by design). Non-Steam games match by normalized title.
- With the default Hydra wins mode a game is raised to Hydra's cumulative total, so sessions played only outside Hydra are then not counted. Switch Playtime to Add Hydra's new playtime if you'd rather Hydra only ever adds its own new time.
- Undo can only remove what Hydra Sync added. Playtime that came from somewhere else — including from Playnite sessions after a sync — is deliberately kept.
- For non-Steam games with no discoverable AppID, no title match on the store and no achievement file in the game folder, nothing is written — there's nothing to read. Achievement names fall back to prettified names when no metadata source works, and icons are then omitted. Supplying a Steam Web API key fixes metadata for any Steam app.
Needs the .NET SDK (8, 9 or 10). The extension targets .NET Framework 4.8 through reference assemblies, so it also builds on macOS and Linux:
dotnet build src/HydraSync/HydraSync.csproj
dotnet run --project tests/hydrasync-tests.csproj # test harness
./scripts/package.sh # → dist/HydraSync-<version>.pextIf dotnet isn't found on macOS with Homebrew, add
export DOTNET_ROOT="$(brew --prefix dotnet)/libexec" and that directory to your PATH.
The package is a plain zip, so its output can be installed by extracting it (see Install). Published releases are built by CI from a pushed tag, so building locally is only needed to test changes or to package a specific version yourself.
Layout:
src/HydraSync/
HydraSyncPlugin.cs # plugin entry: lifecycle, menus, timer, notifications
PluginSettings.cs # settings model
SettingsView.cs # code-only WPF settings view
extension.yaml # manifest
Hydra/ # database reader, game model, achievement file locator + parsers
Achievements/ # metadata lookups, payload merge, Playnite Achievements writer
Integrations/ # bridges to the HowLongToBeat and Playnite Achievements extensions
Sync/ # sync engine, playtime rules + persisted state
Update/ # release update checker
tests/ # test harness + database fixture
The harness covers the Hydra layer end to end: a sample database, every achievement file
format, game-folder discovery, sync decisions, playtime rules, the payload merge, the release-check
version logic and both extension bridges. It runs in CI before each release, so a failing check
blocks the published build. The sample database is committed and mirrors Hydra's real on-disk
encoding; regenerate it with cd tests/fixtures && npm i && node make-fixture.js.