Re: [2.1.15] Steam Achievements not unlocking despite earning in-game achievement
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2026 6:11 pm
I also tried the same thing, perhaps foolishly, under advice from another community member last night. I deleted the `achievements.dat` file and got the same local achievements sync failed message when loading the game. I'm also nervous about the fact that it could have made things worse. I do still have the original file and was able to restore the state of the local achievements. Fingers crossed that the next patch will sort this out for us both and everyone else affected. Congratulations (kinda) on getting all the achievements! I hope to be able to do the same in the very near future.DonZari wrote: Tue Aug 25, 2026 5:16 pm Another data point, plus a question about recovery.
Factorio 2.1.16 (build 87294, linux64, steam, space-age) on Fedora with KDE, Steam client up to date. Single player, freeplay, default settings, no console commands. Mod list holds only base, space-age, quality, elevated-rails and recycler, everything else disabled. The save is definitely not flagged, since /editor still gives me the "using the Map Editor will disable achievements" warning. The log shows "Initializing Steam API", so the Steam connection itself looks fine.
Affected are the last four I was missing: Trip to the shattered planet 1, 2 and 3, and Research with promethium. All unlocked in game with the normal notification. Steam has been stuck at 84/88 for over 24 hours. I put around 100 hours into finishing exactly these four, so that was a rough evening.
Before finding this thread I tried to fix it myself, and that is where my question comes in. With Steam Cloud disabled I moved achievements.dat out of the userdata folder to force a reset. Factorio showed "Failed to load local achievement data" and then re-awarded several achievements in game, including the distance ones. Steam received none of them, which makes sense given the SDK issue.
So: will the retroactive unlock in the next release still work for someone who wiped their local achievements.dat? Or did I make things worse? I still have the original file backed up. Happy to provide the save or the full log.
Unrelated to the bug: thank you for making the best game in the world. 3269 hours and still counting. These four were the last ones I needed, and the whole plan was to finally be done with achievements so I could go back to playing heavily modded. Seeing a developer diagnose and fix this within a day of the report is exactly why this game has the reputation it has.
