Link Utilities: Check links
Using the "Check links..." option in the game menu, you can check, if the links of all selected games are reachable and return the correct webpage. After checking a dialog will show you the results like this.
"Link name" and "URL" are the name and URL of the link in your library. "Status code" is the code returned by the website and "Response URL" ist the URL that is actually returned. "equal" is checked, if URL and Response URL are the same to easily find mismatches, for example when the website redirects the URL. Both URL fields have a button left of the link, that opens the respective URL in your standard browser.
You can select links you want to remove or replace.
A full list of HTTP status codes can be found on Wikipedia. The most common ones and their meaning for your links specifically are listed here.
The typical status code a webpage returns, when it is found. This usually means, everything is ok. Sometimes the website redirects to another URL though, for example if the link structure was changed like on MobyGames recently. Often the old URL still works, but is redirected to the new one. If you only want to see links, that aren't valid in your results, you can hide the ones that return 200 in the addon settings.
If a webpage has been moved to another URL, the website usually returns one of these codes and redirects to the new location. This should be reflected by a different response URL. Sometimes websites also return this code, if the URL isn't found at all. In this case the response URL often is the homepage instead. On the other hand some sites simply redirect you and still return OK. If the response URL points to the page you actually want to open, you should replace the URL.
This code is a little special. Usually it means, that you aren't permitted to open the page you are trying to reach, for example because you need to log in first. However some websites return this code, too, if you try to open the URL without JavaScript. Unfortunately the options to check links with Playnite don't support JavaScript and this code is returned. Two prominent example sites with this behavior are IGDB and Epic. If you get this code, I'd advice to click on the URL yourself. If your browser opens the page without any problem, the link should be ok.
This is the typical code returned if the URL points to a webpage that doesn't exist. Often the website returns this code and redirects to its homepage or a special 404 page. These links usually can be savely removed.
These codes usually mean that the website itself isn't reachable or encounter an error while loading the page. Usually the link will be back to OK, when checked later. You should keep those links for some time and only remove them, if you always get this code, even after several days.
This happens for some newer status codes that are missing in the dotnet version playnite uses. The most common case should be code 308 (Permanent Redirect) which ist sometimes returned on PCGamingWiki for example. This will be fixed with Playnite 11, when the game launcher transitioned to a newer version of dotnet.