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Achievement Watcher Next
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FAQ

Short answers to the questions that come up most. Each one links to the guide that covers it properly.

On this page

Getting set up

Do I need a Steam Web API key, or to sign in to Steam?

No. Achievement lists are fetched with a keyless chain of public endpoints, and nothing requires an account. Your own Steam unlocks are read from the stats Steam keeps on this PC, so a private profile works for every game played here. Connecting a Steam account is optional: it adds the games played only on your other PCs, and Steam Family - see Connected accounts.

Which platforms does it run on?

Windows 10 and Windows 11, and Linux (x64). Packaged releases include their own runtime; Node.js is needed only to build from source.

Does it run on Linux or the Steam Deck?

Yes on Linux, as a beta: download Achievement.Watcher.<version>.AppImage from the same release, make it executable and start it (it needs FUSE 2, libfuse2). It updates itself from the same releases as the Windows app. AW Next runs as a native Linux app, never through Wine, on GNOME and KDE Plasma, Wayland or X11. It finds the games you run with Steam and Proton, Wine, Lutris, Heroic or Bottles in their prefixes, reads their processes for playtime and shows unlocks in the in-game overlay or as desktop notifications. Settings and data live in ~/.config/Achievement Watcher Next.

On the Steam Deck, support is new and has not been checked on a real Deck yet. In Desktop Mode it is the same AppImage; with Launch at startup on it also runs in Game Mode, where unlocks are meant to appear over the game, from the top-left corner. See Linux and the Steam Deck.

Does it support RetroAchievements?

Yes. Turn on the RetroAchievements source, connect your account with its username and Web API key, and Import library brings in every game you played. New unlocks are announced while any RetroAchievements-enabled emulator runs. See RetroAchievements.

Do I have to connect any account?

No. Steam, Epic and Xbox PC can each be connected optionally, to read what the local files do not carry, and RetroAchievements asks for your username and Web API key only if you use it; every token and key is encrypted before it is stored on this PC. Everything else works without an account.

Does it work offline?

Yes, for local sources and anything already cached. Achievement names, descriptions and artwork are fetched online the first time and then reused from %APPDATA%\Achievement Watcher Next\steam_cache (~/.config/Achievement Watcher Next/steam_cache on Linux).

Simple or Advanced - do I lose anything by choosing Simple?

No. Simple hides controls, it never turns a feature off. No parser, watcher, scan or stored value changes with it, and switching back restores every control with the value it already had. See Getting started.

Can it show games I own but never installed, or unlocks from another PC?

Yes. With the Steam source set to Owned, two switches in the Steam account card - Add the games you own and Add the games shared with you through Steam Family - list your whole library, including titles never installed on this PC; both are off by default, since a large library makes the first scan much longer. With a Steam account connected, a game with nothing to read locally is also read from your Steam profile (its game details must be public), and the answer is cached for six hours. See Connected accounts.

The library

A game is missing

Check that its source is enabled in Settings → Sources, run Smart Find under Settings → Folders, and turn off Show installed games only to see whether it is known but no longer considered installed. Full checklist: Troubleshooting.

A game shows “No achievements”

That game has no achievement set at all. It stays launchable and keeps tracking playtime, and it is left out of completion statistics rather than dragging the average down as a 0%. Its tile has no progress bar, the artwork takes that space; Settings → Appearance → Library tiles → Bar of games without achievements shows the “No achievements” bar again.

A game shows 0% even though I have unlocked achievements

There is a schema but no runtime unlock file. Open the game’s Game Health panel - it names the missing piece and offers only the repairs that apply.

Why does the same game appear twice?

It was found through two sources. Merge Duplicates in Settings → General combines them; if one entry is a stale save folder for a game you now own elsewhere, blacklist it.

A game update added achievements and I do not see them

A cached list re-checks itself every 3 days. To pick them up now, use Settings → Advanced → Recheck achievement lists, which works even with Automatic achievement data updates turned off. Nothing already cached is removed by either check.

A game was matched to the wrong Steam release

Right-click it and choose Set AppID manually… - the AppID is written to steam_appid.txt and remembered for that install folder. See Set a game’s AppID by hand.

Notifications

Nothing appears when I unlock something

Start with the Notifications row of that game’s Game Health panel: it names the transport that last delivered and why. Then work through If a test or unlock does not appear.

The overlay popup does not show in one particular game

That game is very likely in exclusive fullscreen, where an always-on-top popup is not drawn at all. On Automatic this is handled for you: that unlock arrives as a Windows notification instead. See how Automatic decides.

Notifications are hidden while I play

That is Windows’ Do Not Disturb. Turn on Priority notifications and approve Windows’ one-time request - see Priority Windows notifications.

Can I change how the popup looks, or share a design?

Yes - nine presets ship with the app, the Preset Designer builds your own with ordinary controls, and any preset exports to a single .awpreset file. See Presets and the Preset Designer.

Can I put unlocks on my stream?

Yes, with a Browser source in OBS. Capturing the popup as a window cannot work - it exists for one unlock and is gone before OBS lists it - so AW Next serves the same popup as a page instead. Settings → Notification → OBS browser source carries the address; see Show unlocks on stream (OBS).

Is the in-game overlay the same thing as the popup?

No. The popup is a one-shot notification styled by a preset. The overlay is the full achievement list you open with Ctrl+Shift+K while a game runs - see the Overlay guide.

On Linux, Ctrl+Shift+K does nothing in my game

Under Wayland, AW Next cannot see keys pressed while a native Wayland window has the focus, such as a Linux game in Wayland mode or Proton with its Wayland driver. Bind a key in your desktop’s keyboard settings to /home/you/.local/bin/achievement-watcher --toggle-overlay instead, with your user name in place of you. AW Next keeps that command pointing at the current AppImage, so the shortcut survives updates - see Overlay shortcut.

Safety and data

Does AW Next modify my games, or send anything off my PC?

Only when you ask it to. Reading achievements is read-only. The emulator repair tools - in a game’s right-click Emulator & tools submenu and under Settings → Emulators - do write to a game folder, always after a confirmation and always with a backup. Use them only with games you own. Nothing else leaves this PC beyond read-only lookups and, if you connect one, whatever a connected account sends back - see What leaves this PC.

My antivirus flagged a file, or removed one

Almost certainly the Steam emulator or a Ubisoft loader, and it is a false positive. Those files stand in for a game’s Steam or Ubisoft library, which is exactly the behaviour detection engines look for, so they are flagged on what they do rather than on anything they contain. The alert fires the moment a file is written - a repair you ran, opening Settings → Emulators, or automatic repair during a scan - and Windows Defender takes every copy at once, including the ones installed with the app. Nothing is written unless you asked for one of those. Allow the file your antivirus named, or exclude %APPDATA%\Achievement Watcher Next\cache; never switch protection off. See Troubleshooting → Antivirus.

Windows SmartScreen warns about the installer

Releases are signed with the project’s own certificate rather than a commercial one, pinned by its exact thumbprint, so SmartScreen may still ask for confirmation. You never need to install that certificate yourself: the in-app updater checks the signer, the pinned thumbprint and that the file was not modified after signing before it installs anything. Download only from the official releases page and check the installer against the SHA-512 value in the matching latest.yml if you want a second opinion.

An installer can be checked against VirusTotal by its own SHA-256 without trusting anyone: run Get-FileHash <installer> -Algorithm SHA256 and open https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/<hash>. The current release is 3.12.1. See Troubleshooting → Checking a release yourself.

On Linux, why does a keyring prompt appear?

AW Next keeps its sign-in tokens encrypted with a key held by your desktop’s keyring (GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet). With automatic login the keyring stays locked after you sign in, so the desktop asks you to unlock it, or to create one, when AW Next starts. Cancelling is safe: the app keeps working, the prompt comes back on the next start. See Keyring prompt.

Where is my data, does updating lose it, and how big are updates?

Everything lives in %APPDATA%\Achievement Watcher Next (~/.config/Achievement Watcher Next on Linux), and installing a newer build over an older one preserves it. The first launch after upgrading imports an older Achievement Watcher folder without ever modifying or deleting it. Updates themselves now download only what changed since your installed version instead of the full installer, and fall back to a full download on their own if that ever fails - see Updates and existing data.

How do I move to a new PC, or keep a backup of my setup?

Settings → Advanced → Profile backup → Export profile… writes your settings, library choices, presets, themes, covers and playtime to one .awbackup file. Install AW Next on the new PC, choose Restore profile… and it is applied at the next start; the files it replaces are kept. Sign-ins are never saved, so connect Steam, Epic, Xbox and RetroAchievements again. See Profile backup.

Is there a portable version?

Yes. The portable ZIP keeps the app and its data together in one folder and checks the same release feed as the installed app, but it never downloads or runs the installer - it only offers the release page when a newer version is out, and extracting the new archive over the old folder keeps your data.

How do I quit completely?

Closing the window keeps AW Next in the system tray so tracking continues. Use the tray menu to exit fully.

The project

How does this differ from Achievement Watcher 2.x?

AW Next is a continuation with a modern runtime and a large compatibility, reliability and feature pass. Side-by-side table: Comparison.

Can it get me games, keys or accounts?

No, and the issue tracker cannot help with that either. AW Next contains no game files and does not bypass online ownership checks.

I found a bug / I have an idea

Open an issue with the app version, your Windows version (or Linux distribution and desktop), the source involved and the relevant logs. For a suspected vulnerability, use the private process in the security policy instead.

Still stuck? Troubleshooting goes through each symptom in order.

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