BoardGameGeek sync

Why BoardGameGeek?

BoardGameGeek (BGG) is the world's largest board game database. Every game entry carries rich data — player counts, best-player recommendations, categories, mechanics, complexity ratings, and box art — that would take years to replicate independently. You keep your collection in BGG (where you probably already have it), and deshelved pulls in the data it needs.

BoardGameGeek is a separate website with its own accounts. Your BGG username is the name you use on boardgamegeek.com, not your deshelved account. You don't need one: you can add games in deshelved without it. When you enter a username, deshelved checks that BoardGameGeek has an account with that name.

Getting started

Make sure your games are marked as Owned in your BGG collection.
Go to Settings and enter your BGG username.
Saving your username starts the sync. A large collection can take a minute or so, and the games appear in your Collection as they arrive. Sync BGG fetches any later changes.

To stop using BoardGameGeek, tap Unlink under your BGG account in Settings. Your collection and play log stay in deshelved; they just stop syncing with BGG.

What gets synced

Collection — all games marked as owned, including titles, player counts, categories, mechanics, and images.
Play history — your logged plays, used to identify your frequent co-players (your Crew).

Logging plays

You can record game sessions directly in deshelved from the Play Log page. Tap + New game to open the form:

The date defaults to today but can be changed to log a past session.
You are added to the player list automatically. If you played the same game recently on the same date, the crew from that session is pre-filled — edit the list as needed.
Once saved, the play is sent to your BGG account automatically and the entry shows BGG ✓. If it could not be sent, a Sync → button appears instead; tap it to try again. This needs a BGG username linked in Settings.

Player names

The name you give someone in your crew is your own label for them — it only changes how they appear in your list. It is not sent to BoardGameGeek, and plays you have already synced keep the names BGG has. If a name is wrong in your public BGG play history, change it on BGG.

Renaming yourself is different: your own name is yours, so when you change it in Settings, deshelved updates it across the plays you have synced to BGG.

What isn't synced

Ratings you've given games on BGG are not imported.
Wishlists, pre-orders, and other collection statuses — owned only.
BGG forum posts, comments, and social data are never accessed.

Complexity (weight) data

BGG community complexity (weight) ratings are synced and shown on game cards. You can sort your collection by complexity (light → heavy or heavy → light).

Game card backs & cheat sheets

Every game in your collection has a card back. On desktop, click the green triangle in the bottom-right corner to flip it. On mobile, drag the card sideways. The back shows three things:

Rulebook — upload a PDF from your computer, or tap Find PDF to search the web for a publisher-hosted copy automatically. Only text-based PDFs are accepted; scanned image PDFs cannot be read and will be rejected.
Cheat sheet — once a rulebook PDF is attached, an AI-generated quick reference is produced covering setup, turn order, key rules, end game, and quick tips. You can edit it to correct anything and save your changes.
Rulebook chat — once a PDF is attached, a 💬 icon appears in the card back header. Tap it to ask rules questions in plain language. The AI answers strictly from the PDF — no general knowledge — so you get accurate answers tied to your specific rulebook edition. You can ask it to update the cheat sheet with a rule it found; it verifies the information before saving. Chat history clears when you flip the card back over.
BoardGameGeek — a direct link to the game's BGG page.

Find PDF runs a web search and downloads the first verified publisher PDF it can find. There is a monthly search limit on the free tier; if that's exhausted the button will tell you nothing was found — you can always upload a PDF manually instead.

When BoardGameGeek is unavailable

BoardGameGeek's service is occasionally unavailable, and when that happens Deshelved cannot send your plays there or refresh your collection. This is on their side, not yours, and there is nothing you need to fix.

Your plays are safe here. Everything you log is stored in Deshelved first and belongs to you whatever BGG is doing. Nothing is lost while their service is unreachable.

Any play that could not be sent is marked as waiting. Settings shows how many are waiting, and the next successful sync carries them over automatically — the Sync button in the navigation does the collection and the waiting plays. You do not need to re-enter anything or log the play again.

If you edit a play that had already reached BGG while their service is down, the edit waits too, so BGG is corrected rather than left showing the old version.

Other help articles: Why sign up? · Mobile apps · Your collection · Your crew · Hosting an event · Joining as a guest · Voting & results · Availability & dates · Play log · Sharing a shelf with your family · Passwords & security · FAQ