DevCenter Promo Codes Not Working?

Posted on July 29, 2015 • 1 minutes • 191 words

One of the great things about the new DevCenter is the ability to generate Promotional codes for your in-app-purchase products, so I generated 100 codes last night for the launch of Windows 10.

I gave out many codes today but I started getting “the promo code didn’t work” emails. After a quick investigation I found that the LicenseInformation for the user wasn’t refreshed automatically or even after the user restarted their phone. I suspect that this is just temporary, but I found a workaround…

The trick is to have the user go through the process to purchase the IAP product. The user’s phone will do a license verify check with the Store server and show this screen:

Normally, if they did not own the product there would be a payment method and a “buy” button. However, since they redeemed your code, the button will be labeled “install” as seen in this screenshot:

Just tell your user to click “Install” and go on experiencing your awesome app!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or ping me on twitter

Lance