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WARNING -PS3 Trophies Auto Syncing to Server When in Offline Mode and Without User Input


Deathon6

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Warning

 

Your trophies earned on PlayStation 3 may sync to the servers even if you are using offline mode and have not viewed your trophy list yet. Viewing your trophies on the PlayStation 4 will also sync your PS3 trophies to the server despite never actually being viewed or synced from the PS3.

 

I discovered a critical problem with the trophy system that needs to be addressed and I am putting out this alert so you guys are aware. I'm not sure if anyone else already knows about this but I couldn't find much on it. 

 

I've been working on an offline only game and have noticed that when ever I earn a trophy it will appear in my news feed on a Facebook Page I manage for my psn account despite never syncing it with the server or viewing the trophy list. 

 

Today I logged into my PS4 and went to view my trophies. They auto synced to the server including my PS3 trophies that had never been synced or viewed from the PS3. 

 

I looked this up to see what I could gather. I found out that when in offline mode your ps3 won't sync your trophy list to the server every time you want to view your list but will if there are any changes. That I did not know and thought that your trophies would only sync to the server when you did a sync. The problem though is I haven't viewed my trophy list in quite a while even for that particular game. While I have earned trophies days, Weeks and Months after viewing the list they still auto synced to the server despite never viewing the list or syncing them.  

 

Here are my PS3 stats. 

 

-Latest PS3 Firmware version installed: Yes

-PlayStation Plus Subscriber: No

-Trophy Collection Mode: Offline

 

Not sure if anyone else will be able to reproduce this issue but this is a major issue and could easily screw your trophy list over if you are in an online game and someone auto pops your trophies on you. The guide written by Gray-Fox-44 would not save you. 

 

 

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10 minutes ago, BeautifulTorment said:

Its been like this for me for at least a year, maybe two. I don't understand how some people are still able to play ps3 without trophies syncing automatically. 

 

Easy, disconnect from the internet.

 

This isn't any news btw, if your console is able to connect to internet/PSN, it will synch your trophies from time to time even if you don't manually push to synch, even without PS Plus.

If you're working on a game that you're not sure you can get all trophies and don't want to risk an unobtainable, just play completely disconnected from the internet on your ps3. If the game has any online trophies, you can try to only connect to the internet while you're playing the game in online mode and right after finishing it, disconnect and hope the ps3 doesn't auto-synch your trophies.

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2 hours ago, Deathon6 said:

Warning

 

Your trophies earned on PlayStation 3 may sync to the servers even if you are using offline mode and have not viewed your trophy list yet. Viewing your trophies on the PlayStation 4 will also sync your PS3 trophies to the server despite never actually being viewed or synced from the PS3.

 

 

 

 

This is not possible. The PS3 trophy data is installed locally on the console when you start a game. If your PS3 is kept offline (in other words, play the game with the console not connected to a wifi network or with no ethernet cable plugged in), it is NOT possible for the console to sync your trophy data.

 

Similarly, if the data has not been synced with Sony's servers, the trophy information will be visible only in offline mode on the PS3 console itself, it is NOT possible for that information to be transferred to a PS4.

 

Again, if you can see the trophies on your PS4, that data is being pulled from Sony's servers, and you have synced the information from the PS3.

 

It may be possible that a recent firmware update has enabled auto-synchronization of trophy data on PS3, similar to what happens on PS4, but again this can be prevented entirely by having your PS3 disconnected from the internet.

 

Depending on your settings, you may have set the PS3 to autosync overnight (mine does this to upload save data and sync trophies), but if fully offline, there should be no issues. The information and scenario as you have presented it is quite frankly not technically possible.

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3 minutes ago, DaivRules said:

@diskdocx Yeah, OP said using Trophy Offline Mode, which is an option on the trophy menu, not being offline on the console itself. You can be online and have your trophies set in Offline mode, which should only sync when you access the trophy list. But apparently that isn't happening.

I appreciate that, but he has noted that viewing your trophies on the PS4 will sync your PS3 trophies

 

Viewing your trophies on the PlayStation 4 will also sync your PS3 trophies to the server despite never actually being viewed or synced from the PS3.

 

This is simply not accurate. If the trophies are viewable on the PS4, they have already been synced. The PS4 is pulling the information from Sony's servers, it cannot push data from an offline PS3, nor can the PS4 view trophy data saved only on an offline PS3 (or Vita).

 

I understand that it may be that the offline only trophy viewing on PS3 has been borked. It may not be possible to unlock PS3 trophies now and prevent them from auto-synchronizing, much in the same way that you can't prevent in on a PS4. That is possible. I will have to play around myself to see if settings have changed.

 

However, fundamentally a PS4 has nothing to do with what information is coming from a PS3, nor is it in anyway relevant to PS3 trophy information being synchronized.

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So I earned a trophy on PS3. My trophies were in offline mode and I did not view the trophy list after earning that trophy. Yes my PS3 was online and I was connected to the internet and signed into PlayStation Network. 

 

When I got on my PS4 and viewed my trophies it did an auto sync and the trophy I had earned on PS3 was there. 

 

I don't see how simply being signed into psn would make trophies auto sync to the server. I thought that was only possible if you synced the trophies yourself or viewed your trophy list. 

24 minutes ago, dzstrpc said:

 

The way trophies sync were changed 5th July 2017. On PS3 trophies sync even if you don't login to PSN. Only way around is unplug LAN cable, disable WiFi.

 

Never heard of this before. So what you are trying to say is that if you haven't completed the trophies for an online game yet you better do it with trusting people and not take any risks with randoms. 

 

That video made no mention of the PS3.

Edited by Deathon6
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1 hour ago, Gage said:

Were you signed in to PSN when you launched whatever game it was you were playing? 

 

The game I was playing when I first noticed this was Fallout New Vegas. When you start the game it does a loading screen that says, "Loading Trophy Data" - "Configuring Trophy Data". 

 

It's the very first thing that happens when you start the game. 

I'm currently going through my PS3 system settings and Automatic Update is off. 

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31 minutes ago, Deathon6 said:

I don't see how simply being signed into psn would make trophies auto sync to the server. I thought that was only possible if you synced the trophies yourself or viewed your trophy list. 

 

This is exactly what I was trying to say. You don't need to semi-manually sync your trophies by opening the trophies tab/app, it's done in the background since firmware 4.72

And since when do Sony mention PS3 or Vita anymore. It was probably implemented on PS3 in the first patch after it got on PS4.

I guess it work somewhat like the ''PUSH'' system on your phone, but between your Console and PSN Servers.

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1 minute ago, SuchRemorse said:

Ummm I'm not a genius or anything but wouldn't you WANT your trophies to sync!? 

 

Normally yes. But in the event that you are playing an online game and a modder auto pops all your trophies on you this feature would result in illegitimately earned trophies being synced to the server. 

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2 minutes ago, Deathon6 said:

Normally yes. But in the event that you are playing an online game and a modder auto pops all your trophies on you this feature would result in illegitimately earned trophies being synced to the server. 

I missed that part about auto popping when I read your original post. Sorry.

You are totally right about that though. But you should be able to salvage your account without syncing trophies even if that happens.

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41 minutes ago, Deathon6 said:

 

Normally yes. But in the event that you are playing an online game and a modder auto pops all your trophies on you this feature would result in illegitimately earned trophies being synced to the server. 

 

This doesnt happen immediately, it happens over the course of days or even weeks, so let's say you get your trophies hacked/auto-popped it doesn't mean you're screwed, just quit the game, backup your saves and delete your profile from the system, I'm pretty sure the system won't have it synched any of the auto-popped trophies.

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22 minutes ago, Bizurke2003 said:

How does a modder in an online game hack/auto pop all your trophies?  That seems like a serious problem if a user can affect another psn user.

 

It's been possible for a while now. It hasn't happened to me in years since I'm more careful but it is still possible. Especially on PS3. 

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There are a lot of games that will auto sync your trophies for you, especially online games.. Honestly that is probably how it happened. If you are already online and you load up the game, there is a good chance it just synced your trophies. An easy way around that is to be signed out and load up the game. Then when you enter the online part it will ask you to sign in like normal. When you make the game sign you in online, it doesn't sync your trophies. At least that's how I've noticed it. I've done that with a lot of mp games on the ps3 just to make sure I can get all the mp trophies before I worry about syncing.

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