# Microsoft Disabling Dev Mode Access



## tech3475 (Jan 4, 2022)

Just a heads up, it seems that MS will disable 'inactive' Dev Mode accounts. I received this email:



> We have disabled the Windows and Xbox enrollment in your Microsoft Partner Center account because it did not have an active presence in the Store. For reference, see the Developer Code of Conduct (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/publish/store-developer-code-of-conduct) which says that an active presence in the Store must be maintained.



When I try to go into dev mode on my One X, I am unable to activate dev mode with the webpage showing "Access Restricted".

Fortunately I wasn't a heavy user, but I can see this causing problems for others.

edit:

Also, this email appeared in my junk folder on the Outlook app, but as far as I can tell it is legitimate given the above.

Update:

Hopefully MS will be fixing this soon:





Source: 
via: @Purple_Shyguy


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## Aerocool (Jan 4, 2022)

Oh nooo ffs Microsoft…. I really praised them when they did Dev Mode because I thought it was a great way to give the hardcore fans a way run emulators without us having to find a hack to run emulators and homebrew. Well, it didn’t run properly anyway (resources are heavily limited afaik) but it could have been soooo cool. Well, it’s Microsoft, they don’t really care about that stuff unfortunately.

Look at the 360 scene, it’s more than dead. Last time I tried even PSX emulation ran like poop and N64 was buggy as heck and it won’t be better for us One users :/


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## Deleted member 323844 (Jan 4, 2022)

Isn't RA working in Retail Mode as well? Searching for obscure whitelists or something like that.


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## Aerocool (Jan 4, 2022)

stranno said:


> Isn't RA working in Retail Mode as well? Searching for obscure whitelists or something like that.



Yes you basically have to find someone who privately uploads a build to the store and let them whitelist you to download it. Those get frequently taken down tho and are not officially supported by the retro arch team unfortunately


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## DoobyDude (Jan 4, 2022)

Just got this email myself and thought it was the usual scam/phishing mail, but it seems it's actually from Microsoft and isn't a scam at all.

I actually use my dev account to test games I develop myself but I haven't published anything to the MS store.
Now I need to have a game already on the store to be able to continue to test games I'm making on my consoles?

It makes no sense.


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## BigOnYa (Jan 4, 2022)

Seems wrong to me, If you had to pay to be able get the Dev access anyways, then they can just take it away.


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## DinohScene (Jan 4, 2022)

I must admit I haven't entered devmode in years...
I ought to test this when I'm home, I haven't received any e-mail what so ever.


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## DoobyDude (Jan 4, 2022)

DinohScene said:


> I must admit I haven't entered devmode in years...
> I ought to test this when I'm home, I haven't received any e-mail what so ever.


You can check by going here https://partner.microsoft.com/xboxconfig/devices
Obviously making sure to be signed in with the account that has the dev licence.

You'll get an Access Restricted message if you've been deactivated.



BigOnYa said:


> Seems wrong to me, If you had to pay to be able get the Dev access anyways, then they can just take it away.


Do you mean they "*can't*" just take it away?
It was paid for - a dev licence is a one time payment of about $20-$25 - but obviously they _can_ take it away.


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## DinohScene (Jan 4, 2022)

DoobyDude said:


> You can check by going here https://partner.microsoft.com/xboxconfig/devices
> Obviously making sure to be signed in with the account that has the dev licence.
> 
> You'll get an Access Restricted message if you've been deactivated.
> ...



Seems they deactivated mine as well.
Welp, so be it I suppose :')


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## DoobyDude (Jan 4, 2022)

DinohScene said:


> Seems they deactivated mine as well.
> Welp, so be it I suppose :')


It's obviously to stop people using the emulators and dev mode apps, but there will be a lot of people getting deactivated who just enjoy noodling/learning with Unity etc and who never intend to release anything (or just haven't _yet!_) but who paid for a dev licence so they could see/play/test their games on a real console.


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## Rafciu (Jan 4, 2022)

Im not using dev mode anymore, retroarch, ppsspp, duckstation and flycast are available in retail.


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## ut2k4master (Jan 4, 2022)

yup, they told me you have to release an app within 90 days when i tried to reactivate my account last month


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## Jayinem (Jan 4, 2022)

Just another of a thousand reasons to ditch Xbox and get a gaming PC which is way better anyway with the exact same games plus a ton more.


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## tech3475 (Jan 4, 2022)

ut2k4master said:


> yup, they told me you have to release an app within 90 days when i tried to reactivate my account last month



I wonder how much shovelware will be put on the store now?


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## DoobyDude (Jan 4, 2022)

ut2k4master said:


> yup, they told me you have to release an app within 90 days when i tried to reactivate my account last month


How did you try and reactivate it?
None of the links to "contact support for assistance" on the "Access Denied" page work for me.


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## TangentingTangerines (Jan 4, 2022)

Well, guess we have to flood the Xbox Store with shovelware indie games and hello world programs.


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## Milenko (Jan 4, 2022)

I'm always on the fence about getting a series and taking away dev mode is not helping..


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## ut2k4master (Jan 4, 2022)

DoobyDude said:


> How did you try and reactivate it?
> None of the links to "contact support for assistance" on the "Access Denied" page work for me.


i used the ai chat and requested human support in there. that person couldnt help me directly but told me an email address i should write to.
reportapp [at] microsoft [dot] com

the answer i got: 


> Hello,
> 
> At your request, we reviewed your account. The account has been reinstated, and it should be available in Partner Center within 24 hours.
> 
> ...


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## DoobyDude (Jan 4, 2022)

ut2k4master said:


> i used the ai chat and requested human support in there. that person couldnt help me directly but told me an email address i should write to.
> reportapp [at] microsoft [dot] com
> 
> the answer i got:


Sent them an email, thanks!

Will start prepping "Pong 2022 - 1bit Edition" for release later tonight!


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## CompSciOrBust (Jan 4, 2022)

Ah, finally a reason for someone to release a retail mode exploit now that MS is killing dev mode homebrew.


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## Chary (Jan 4, 2022)

Says deactivated for me as well. Annoying, since I just bought the Dev Mode thing only a couple months ago. Did not get an email.


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## sudeki300 (Jan 4, 2022)

BigOnYa said:


> Seems wrong to me, If you had to pay to be able get the Dev access anyways, then they can just take it away.


they can if you don't follow the code of conduct.


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## carizard (Jan 4, 2022)

I would probably recommend uploading Durango FTP to retail as a private app to create a store presence of some kinds, you can also create an account for like $2 if you set the region to Argentina.


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## ceriaz (Jan 4, 2022)

Just had the same email and restriction on my account. I used the dev mode feature for around a month or two on my xbox and never published anything as I wasn't aware of that clause. I could try and get it back, but currently i'm not that fussed.


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## Viri (Jan 4, 2022)

Good thing I never bought a dev account. The only thing I do with my Xbox, is abuse those 1 dollar new member plans for Xbox Gamepass Ultimate. I've been a "new" member for half a year now, and 6 privacy cards.


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## CMDreamer (Jan 4, 2022)

They were expecting to make $ with your work, as they didn't, they'll disable your dev access. Great move MicroSucks!


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## the_randomizer (Jan 4, 2022)

Rafciu said:


> Im not using dev mode anymore, retroarch, ppsspp, duckstation and flycast are available in retail.



Yes but it's not easy to get it whitelisted so...




Jayinem said:


> Just another of a thousand reasons to ditch Xbox and get a gaming PC which is way better anyway with the exact same games plus a ton more.



Good luck finding a gaming rig at less than 1000 dollars


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## gnmmarechal (Jan 5, 2022)

Ah there we go, mine got yeeted too


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## EvilJagaGenius (Jan 5, 2022)

This... is not good.  Is this just for the XBox One, or is it for Series S/X as well?

Okay they're probably trying to move against everyone running emulators on their XBoxes because piracy or some crap, but surely there's some non-zero population of hobby devs using Dev Mode as intended?  To play around with the hardware and console dev, regardless of whether or not they want to sell anything.  I can imagine university game development classes would get great use out of a bunch of Series S as $300 devkits for projects that are never intended to be sold.  Heck, that's why I want to get a Series S.

If I'm understanding this right, this new policy says people who buy Dev Mode access have 90 days, 3 months to build something and push it onto the store?  That seems like an awfully short period of time to come up with a game idea, code it, polish it, go through all the steps developing a game, especially for one person who isn't doing game dev full time.  Like you'd have to have most of your work done ahead of time and spend all of the time in Dev Mode doing XBox-specific tweaking.  I can't imagine the deadline is good for creativity.  Neither is the idea that your work _has_ to go onto the store. Sometimes people just want to experiment and play around in private.

Dev Mode was good stuff, and I sure hope they go back on this, because otherwise I think it'll be useless to everyone _except_ full-time devs. Which certainly seems to defeat the point of Dev Mode, opening up console dev to the masses.


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## jakeem (Jan 5, 2022)

Dang I literally just brought dev mode to


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## Marc_LFD (Jan 5, 2022)

I mean, I see their point, but people already paid in order to use the Dev Mode so they shouldn't be disabling anything since they're paid customers. For fuck sake, Microsoft. Smh.

They were doing an amazing job with Backwards Compatibility and the Dev Mode. This tampers it.


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## nemwolf (Jan 5, 2022)

what the fuck microsoft


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## throwaway1234 (Jan 5, 2022)

EvilJagaGenius said:


> This... is not good.  Is this just for the XBox One, or is it for Series S/X as well?
> 
> Okay they're probably trying to move against everyone running emulators on their XBoxes because piracy or some crap, but surely there's some non-zero population of hobby devs using Dev Mode as intended?  To play around with the hardware and console dev, regardless of whether or not they want to sell anything.  I can imagine university game development classes would get great use out of a bunch of Series S as $300 devkits for projects that are never intended to be sold.  Heck, that's why I want to get a Series S.
> 
> ...



I agree with everything in this post, and I'm one of those hobbyist devs who was using Dev Mode just to fiddle around with Unity. Their documentation makes it sound like Dev Mode is appropriate for hobbyist developers, and if these bans really are intended, then clearly that is not true. I filed a GitHub ticket for the "UWP on Xbox" documentation page pointing that out. (Unfortunately I can't post the link itself, since I just made this account.)


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## Viri (Jan 5, 2022)

the_randomizer said:


> Yes but it's not easy to get it whitelisted so...


https://gamr13.github.io/


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## the_randomizer (Jan 5, 2022)

Viri said:


> https://gamr13.github.io/



Huh...how does this work, or rather, when did this become no longer required?

Do emulators have access to  more CPU cores in retail mode?


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## Viri (Jan 5, 2022)

the_randomizer said:


> Huh...how does this work, or rather, when did this become no longer required?
> 
> Do emulators have access to  more CPU cores in retail mode?


You open up Edge browser on your Xbox, go to that link, and hit "get". As for the other questions, no idea.
I found them here.


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## the_randomizer (Jan 5, 2022)

Viri said:


> You open up Edge browser on your Xbox, go to that link, and hit "get". As for the other questions, no idea.
> I found them here.




Hopefully MS doesn't ban accounts for this, emulators being touchy for devs and all that.


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## cracker (Jan 5, 2022)

Exactly what I was thinking. Hope this lights a fire.


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## tech3475 (Jan 5, 2022)

EvilJagaGenius said:


> This... is not good.  Is this just for the XBox One, or is it for Series S/X as well?
> 
> Okay they're probably trying to move against everyone running emulators on their XBoxes because piracy or some crap, but surely there's some non-zero population of hobby devs using Dev Mode as intended?  To play around with the hardware and console dev, regardless of whether or not they want to sell anything.  I can imagine university game development classes would get great use out of a bunch of Series S as $300 devkits for projects that are never intended to be sold.  Heck, that's why I want to get a Series S.
> 
> ...



IIRC the dev account was intended for UWP apps on the MS Store.

You need a whole separate process/program to publish games on the Xbox, although obviously nothing was stopping people from doing this in dev mode and just reworking their efforts.

Funnily enough though, at least at the time, I got my dev account for free because I was a student.


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## Rafciu (Jan 5, 2022)

the_randomizer said:


> Do emulators have access to more CPU cores in retail mode?



No, performance is the same. I wish for at least Citra core to be available...


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## ut2k4master (Jan 5, 2022)

tech3475 said:


> Funnily enough though, at least at the time, I got my dev account for free because I was a student.


i got one for free too as a student back then for development of windows phone 7 apps  totally forgot about it until i had to re-activate it for dev mode last year when i got a series s


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## smf (Jan 5, 2022)

BigOnYa said:


> Seems wrong to me, If you had to pay to be able get the Dev access anyways, then they can just take it away.


Why can't they take it away? A one time payment doesn't guarantee you lifetime access.
There will come a time when the servers are taken down too.



EvilJagaGenius said:


> Okay they're probably trying to move against everyone running emulators on their XBoxes because piracy or some crap, but surely there's some non-zero population of hobby devs using Dev Mode as intended?  To play around with the hardware and console dev, regardless of whether or not they want to sell anything.


I don't think messing around with xbox and never publishing anything was what was intended.

Certainly using it as a paid homebrew exploit wasn't intended.

I am glad this happened, we might see xbox hacks again.


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## ut2k4master (Jan 5, 2022)




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## isoboy (Jan 5, 2022)

Have at it, hackers.


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## Torus (Jan 5, 2022)

Mine got deactivated too


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## scoobydude51 (Jan 5, 2022)

I’m guessing many people were abusing the dev mode feature to use emulators and not make games.

Microsoft just got their Other OS moment.


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## vanzan (Jan 5, 2022)

lol and there was I thinking that paying the $20 or whatever was the proper way to do it rather than whitelisting. Only reason I bought a Series S and the dev access. Assholes.


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## blerg16 (Jan 5, 2022)

Looks like I haven't been banned yet. I never published anything to the store. But I did compile and run a few things via VisualStudio (things like Sonic CD when that was first published as a PC port). Either they haven't gotten around to banning me yet, or they're actually looking at other dev-adjacent activities besides publishing?


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## Sundree (Jan 5, 2022)

Welp, there goes 60% of my motivation to grab an Xbox. lol


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## Mario119 (Jan 5, 2022)

I was genuinely thinking of picking up Series S to mess around with, but I guess they just saved me $300


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## Deleted member 323844 (Jan 5, 2022)

Mario119 said:


> I was genuinely thinking of picking up Series S to mess around with, but I guess they just saved me $300


You can still use the Retail Mode, which is exactly the same for the end user.


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## SomeKindOfUsername (Jan 5, 2022)

xxx_I_pWn_u_xxx: "You can't revoke access to a 'dev mode' feature and claim it's meant only for developers and not just playing emulators! How else am I supposed to play Super Metroid?!11 I'm not buying an Xbox now and while I'm definitely not a pirate I hope you get hacked!"

Microsoft: "I don't even know you but ok"


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## the_randomizer (Jan 5, 2022)

Rafciu said:


> No, performance is the same. I wish for at least Citra core to be available...



So what advantage does retail have besides not having to use a sandbox?


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## SG6000 (Jan 5, 2022)

It's a gross move that helps no-one and hurts everyone.

Hopefully this will light a fire under the asses of devs who instead of publishing shovelware to keep accounts active will now work to break the system wide open.


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## Cosmyc (Jan 5, 2022)

carizard said:


> I would probably recommend uploading Durango FTP to retail as a private app to create a store presence of some kinds, you can also create an account for like $2 if you set the region to Argentina.


I wanna upload privately Durango FTP for myself, but when trying I get the error message "You cannot submit pre-compiled .NET Native packages. Please upload the Microsoft Store appxupload file and try again."

What can I do?


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## the_randomizer (Jan 5, 2022)

MS just pulled a Sony


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## Deleted member 323844 (Jan 5, 2022)

the_randomizer said:


> So what advantage does retail have besides not having to use a sandbox?


User/Retail mode uses exactly the same hardware. The limitation of cores/ram comes to the App/Game mode, submitted by the developer (or the guy that mirrors RA in Xbox Live).

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/xbox-apps/system-resource-allocation


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## the_randomizer (Jan 5, 2022)

stranno said:


> User/Retail mode uses exactly the same hardware. The limitation of cores/ram comes to the App/Game mode, submitted by the developer (or the guy that mirrors RA in Xbox Live).
> 
> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/xbox-apps/system-resource-allocation



Yeah, I still think it's too risky to use RA in retail mode, MS could ban my account.


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## Deleted member 323844 (Jan 5, 2022)

the_randomizer said:


> Yeah, I still think it's too risky to use RA in retail mode, MS could ban my account.


I assume there's some kind of validation step when someone uploads a RA build to the store. It's not like you are downloading the app from a third party market or something like that.


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## ut2k4master (Jan 5, 2022)

stranno said:


> I assume there's some kind of validation step when someone uploads a RA build to the store. It's not like you are downloading the app from a third party market or something like that.


yup, it has to pass an automatic and a manual certification before being published on the microsoft store


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## the_randomizer (Jan 5, 2022)

ut2k4master said:


> yup, it has to pass an automatic and a manual certification before being published on the microsoft store



I mean, I still have access to my dev account AFAIK, so... ugh. I don't know.


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## SomeKindOfUsername (Jan 5, 2022)

But for real this was more for apps than game development and it's easy to install RA on retail, no need for whitelisting.


And OtherOS was removed after geohotz famous exploit was already released, he didn't hack it in retaliation as many believe. That was failoverflow who let's be honest we're going to get around to it at some point and was a couple months after there was a jailbreak available.


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## TomRiddle (Jan 5, 2022)

tech3475 said:


> Just a heads up, it seems that MS will disable 'inactive' Dev Mode accounts. I received this email:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Bruh does microsoft want hackers and modders on their hand? Because that is exactly what will happen if they kill off dev mode.

Dev mode was a good place to have emulators and homebrew but by removing it they give hackers and modders the incentive  to find exploits and flaws in the consoles like bro what??


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## Kioku_Dreams (Jan 5, 2022)

It's a pretty shitty move, but it also makes sense.


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## smf (Jan 5, 2022)

Memoir said:


> It's a pretty shitty move, but it also makes sense.


Yeah, it's like being invited to a party, taking a shit on their carpet and then being told you have to leave.

But you were invited!


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## grabman (Jan 5, 2022)

boooooooo i thought i was alone!


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## Purple_Shyguy (Jan 5, 2022)

Rafciu said:


> Im not using dev mode anymore, retroarch, ppsspp, duckstation and flycast are available in retail.



For how long though until they're disabled.


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## GBember (Jan 5, 2022)

If my developer mode access is revoked, will my xbox live account be safe?


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## ut2k4master (Jan 5, 2022)

GBember said:


> If my developer mode access is revoked, will my xbox live account be safe?


yes. you can also just write them and theyll re-enable your dev mode access in like half an hour or so


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## GBember (Jan 5, 2022)

ut2k4master said:


> yes. you can also just write them and theyll re-enable your dev mode access in like half an hour or so


Thank you! Got worried for a sec.


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## Radius4 (Jan 5, 2022)

Aerocool said:


> Yes you basically have to find someone who privately uploads a build to the store and let them whitelist you to download it. Those get frequently taken down tho and are not officially supported by the retro arch team unfortunately



are other builds supported?
XD


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## DinohScene (Jan 5, 2022)

I've gotten the email earlier today.



			
				email said:
			
		

> Hello Developer,
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## MisterAlex (Jan 5, 2022)

Well, I didn't get my dev account 90+ days ago, so I guess I'm okay to keep playing SNES Aladdin for now... 

But yeah, I guess I'll just sell my Series S. This was the only reason I got an Xbox outside of a few exclusives, and I'm not going to go through the trouble of jumping through hoops or publishing a fidget spinner app or whatever just to keep it going. Oh, well.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


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## DoobyDude (Jan 5, 2022)

blerg16 said:


> Looks like I haven't been banned yet. I never published anything to the store. But I did compile and run a few things via VisualStudio (things like Sonic CD when that was first published as a PC port). Either they haven't gotten around to banning me yet, or they're actually looking at other dev-adjacent activities besides publishing?


Yeah I think this is true.

I emailed them and they said they looked at my account and have reinstated it.
There was no mention of me having to upload to the store within 90 days to stop it getting deactivated again, but I do actually use it to upload/test games on my consoles that I'm developing myself.

I think if they see that nothing has ever been done dev-wise and it's only been used to play emulators etc then they might give that stipulation as someone earlier in the thread said they did get given the 90 day warning after emailing and having their account re-activated.

Seems like they have just blanket deactivated all accounts without a store presence and will deal with anyone that queries it on a case-by-case basis, which I guess will be quicker than going through accounts individually from the start - plus a lot of people won't bother querying it at all which will take the workload down for MS even more.


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## blerg16 (Jan 5, 2022)

DoobyDude said:


> Yeah I think this is true.
> 
> I emailed them and they said they looked at my account and have reinstated it.
> There was no mention of me having to upload to the store within 90 days to stop it getting deactivated again, but I do actually use it to upload/test games on my consoles that I'm developing myself.
> ...


Yes, this makes sense. They've stated the general intention without giving any explicit direction on how to get around it (i.e., if you've never even registered with VS, you're out unless you explain). The 90 days rule, while it may also protect you, doesn't seem to gel with realistic development times IMO.

That said, I'm surprised MVG wouldn't have compiled anything, having been in dev mode since XB1. There's probably a timeframe for that as well.


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## cashboxz01 (Jan 5, 2022)

scoobydude51 said:


> I’m guessing many people were abusing the dev mode feature to use emulators and not make games.
> 
> Microsoft just got their Other OS moment.


It's not really "abusing" as retroarch is still considered in beta. As someone who plays emulators using retroarch, you're essentially a beta tester. Don't let MS fool you into thinking you're doing something wrong.


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## koffieleut (Jan 5, 2022)

jakeem said:


> Dang I literally just brought dev mode to


You have 90 days, good luck


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## deadmaker (Jan 5, 2022)

Oh well, so it was just a mistake? I'm relieved...


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## babyboodle (Jan 5, 2022)

To be frank, this is why I hadn't ever pursued using my Xbox for the sake of emulation and minimal homebrew experimentation at home, as the possibility of this happening crossed my mind immediately. I tried to find out information about whether they'd ever close it or not when I first heard about this sometime in 2020, but couldn't find anything upfront. That, in addition to not having direct access over my ability to use the hardware in this manner, is what kept me from dipping my toes in. I'm sad and grumpy that a lot of other people have to deal with their accounts being revoked though. :/


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## digipimp75 (Jan 5, 2022)

Yep, got the email today too.  I never really used dev mode and got an account for free, so can't complain.   Still, this sucks for those who used it.


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## stanleyopar2000 (Jan 5, 2022)

Has anyone (homebrew enjoyers not developers)  who had their account revoked reached out to Microsoft and got their account back?


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## Purple_Shyguy (Jan 5, 2022)

Has everyone seen this?


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## grabman (Jan 5, 2022)

Purple_Shyguy said:


> Has everyone seen this?View attachment 292520View attachment 292521


yay!


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## smf (Jan 5, 2022)

cashboxz01 said:


> It's not really "abusing" as retroarch is still considered in beta. As someone who plays emulators using retroarch, you're essentially a beta tester. Don't let MS fool you into thinking you're doing something wrong.


When is retroarch going to be published ? If never, then what are you beta testing?



Purple_Shyguy said:


> Has everyone seen this?


He is careful how he words that. He doesn't say that all of the accounts that were deactivated were done accidentally, he doesn't say they will reinstate all of the accounts. Just the ones deactivated accidentally.

I'd like to see how this plays out.


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## SomeKindOfUsername (Jan 5, 2022)

Smart move MS now that the outrage is over I will continue to keep considering buying an Xbox at some point but not actually buy one


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## godreborn (Jan 5, 2022)

Well, I should get my series x tomorrow from best buy.  I must say dev mode was one of the main selling points for me.


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## Purple_Shyguy (Jan 5, 2022)

SomeKindOfUsername said:


> Smart move MS now that the outrage is over I will continue to keep considering buying an Xbox at some point but not actually buy one


Id wait until we see if they actually reinstate ALL accounts before giving them props.


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## the_randomizer (Jan 5, 2022)

I'm confused why I haven't gotten the email yet.


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## ut2k4master (Jan 5, 2022)

Purple_Shyguy said:


> Has everyone seen this? [...]


yeah, i saw it and asked for clarification if the 90 day active presence thing is still accurate but no answer so far


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## the_randomizer (Jan 5, 2022)

Turns out this Microsoft done goofed


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## DoobyDude (Jan 5, 2022)

Just came to say that MVG updated his YT video with the following:



> UPDATE: Microsoft says it has no plans to remove or disable dev mode on Xbox consoles. A number of Partner Center accounts were disabled by mistake. “We are actively working on identifying and reenabling these accounts as soon as possible.”



..but you guys are already on it via the Twitter stuff posted above.

I wonder if they'd have reinstated the accounts automatically if the individuals didn't complain about losing access, or whether that's just damage limitation of sorts. 

Could still do with the 90 day thing clearing up as the ToS still says "an active presence in the store must be maintained.",  so what happens to those that can't/don't do this in a few months?

Good news so far though!


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## DinohScene (Jan 5, 2022)

Shit, now I actually have to do effort to restore it!

Good guy MS haha.


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## chrisrlink (Jan 6, 2022)

MS just shot themselvess in the foot with this let's hack that shit whoooooo


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## the_randomizer (Jan 6, 2022)

MS does maintenance, dev accounts get deleted

Yeah, I'd say that fits the bill, they just pulled a Windows Update


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## godreborn (Jan 6, 2022)

What does "maintain a presence on the store" even mean?


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## Deleted member 323844 (Jan 6, 2022)

the_randomizer said:


> Turns out this Microsoft done goofed



Updated because, you know, I can't wait eight hours to do a video


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## chrisrlink (Jan 6, 2022)

godreborn said:


> What does "maintain a presence on the store" even mean?


i feel it means you must release something every 90 days on the store but honestly as MVG says on YT this will start the wheels to hack the xbox (MS) did so well from keeping their systems from being hacked but they just screwed that up


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## DoobyDude (Jan 6, 2022)

chrisrlink said:


> i feel it means you must release something every 90 days on the store but honestly as MVG says on YT this will start the wheels to hack the xbox (MS) did so well from keeping their systems from being hacked but they just screwed that up


Once you have 1 single app/game on the store that would be "having a presence".
You wouldn't need to upload something _every_ 90 days, just _within_ 90 days of having the account reactivated.

Although I never got told this when I got reactivated, but I do actually use the account for development and not just for running  emulators which is what they seem to want to get rid of.


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## the_randomizer (Jan 6, 2022)

stranno said:


> Updated because, you know, I can't wait eight hours to do a video



Never mind then.


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## cashboxz01 (Jan 6, 2022)

smf said:


> When is retroarch going to be published ? If never, then what are you beta testing?


Whenever they feel ready. I'm voluntarily beta testing how well the cores work on said hardware, and noting bugs which arise.


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## cashboxz01 (Jan 6, 2022)

chrisrlink said:


> MS just shot themselvess in the foot with this let's hack that shit whoooooo


They just said they had no intention on revocation of xbox dev accounts. They fully support the community. So we're in the good.


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## smf (Jan 6, 2022)

cashboxz01 said:


> Whenever they feel ready. I'm voluntarily beta testing how well the cores work on said hardware, and noting bugs which arise.


Well done with your made up reason.

You realise it was on the store, but microsoft removed it.. So beta testing something that microsoft doesn't want is kinda weak argument

It's like "Dear Nintendo, I wasn't pirating your software, I was beta testing it and noting problems I didn't like. kthx"

I don't care what you do, but gaslighting is not on.


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## The Real Jdbye (Jan 7, 2022)

Mine got disabled too. I don't even own an Xbox One or Series but I got a free developer license a while back when they were giving them away just in case.


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## GABO1423 (Jan 7, 2022)

Just wanted to let you guys know that I contacted Microsoft regarding my account being taken down, I got a response the next day and my account is now restored! Here's a screenshot of the email response I got:


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## tech3475 (Jan 7, 2022)

GABO1423 said:


> Just wanted to let you guys know that I contacted Microsoft regarding my account being taken down, I got a response the next day and my account is now restored! Here's a screenshot of the email response I got:
> View attachment 292666



Good to hear, the only question now is the 90 day policy.


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## MisterAlex (Jan 7, 2022)

Yeah, nothing about the responses I've seen from them suggests anything definitive about the inactivity purges _not_ being a thing going forward. And saying that "some" accounts were unintentionally disabled is conveniently ambiguous.

Then again, I'd love to see the store flooded with thousands of forks of open source apps if they do keep disabling "inactive" accounts.


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## Bens411 (Jan 11, 2022)

I got my account disabled, and also contacted Microsoft, but I got a different answer.
The difference is that I didn't activated dev mode on my Xbox, I got this dev account for free because I was a student back then. However, I didn't get any message from Microsoft since I created it, many years ago.


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## Localhorst86 (Jan 11, 2022)

Got the same response, got my partner center account reactivated but was told I need to maintain a presence in the Microsoft store within 90 days...

Guess I need to find a "hello world" project to publish...


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## godreborn (Jan 11, 2022)

Localhorst86 said:


> Got the same response, got my partner center account reactivated but was told I need to maintain a presence in the Microsoft store within 90 days...
> 
> Guess I need to find a "hello world" project to publish...


lmao, microsoft getting thousands of submissions for hello world apps..  haha.  I'm loving everything about the series x, since I got it about four or five days ago.  got dev mode and retroarch set up.  that's just one of many things that are awesome about the system, I just hope they don't expect me to write an app or something.  I don't mind buying games at all, but I might have to hack the system if they take away dev mode from me just to get those quirks back.


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## tech3475 (Jan 11, 2022)

Ok so it seems there are two emails being sent out, one mentioning the 90 day clause and one which doesn't.

Which makes me wonder the following:
1) Is everyone affected by the 90 day rule but one email doesn't mention it?
2) Is the 90 day rule being mentioned in error or is there a criteria which exempts people from the 90 day rule?


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## MisterAlex (Jan 11, 2022)

tech3475 said:


> Ok so it seems there are two emails being sent out, one mentioning the 90 day clause and one which doesn't.
> 
> Which makes me wonder the following:
> 1) Is everyone affected by the 90 day rule but one email doesn't mention it?
> 2) Is the 90 day rule being mentioned in error or is there a criteria which exempts people from the 90 day rule?



1.) Yes. It's still in the terms of service. Whether or not they'll continue to enforce it is the unknown since they hadn't for so long and suddenly did.
2.) I haven't seen any official criteria that would exempt a user from that section of the developer program policy.


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## chrisrlink (Jan 11, 2022)

Localhorst86 said:


> Got the same response, got my partner center account reactivated but was told I need to maintain a presence in the Microsoft store within 90 days...
> 
> Guess I need to find a "hello world" project to publish...


btw whats the email address from MS so i can search my inbox that i need to clean up


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## chrisrlink (Jan 11, 2022)

i think i dodged the bullet cause i'm not seeing anything in my inbox after searching Microsoft


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## Localhorst86 (Jan 11, 2022)

chrisrlink said:


> btw whats the email address from MS so i can search my inbox that i need to clean up


[email protected] is the email you need to contact if your account got disabled.

See this post on how to check if your access was disabled:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/microsoft-disabling-dev-mode-access.605538/#post-9708185


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## tech3475 (Jan 11, 2022)

MisterAlex said:


> 1.) Yes. It's still in the terms of service. Whether or not they'll continue to enforce it is the unknown since they hadn't for so long and suddenly did.
> 2.) I haven't seen any official criteria that would exempt a user from that section of the developer program policy.



Looking around, the link for the agreement I was specifically given dates back to Sep 2021 which would approximately match the time frame for the deactivations. However looking at some older agreements (e.g. Jul 2021, although the 'history' mentions 2018) there was still an 'active presence' clause which could cause an account to lose access to Partner Center.

Looking at it again, so far I haven't even found '90 days' outside of emails, just the mention of the vague 'active presence'.

The reason for my post is because the inconsistent emails/enforcement is making me wonder if either there's mis/incomplete communication going on (i.e. the 90 days is or isn't a rule for everyone) or MS is using some hidden criteria for determining who stays in 'good standing' or not without an 'active presence'.

If we're lucky, it's just MS being inconsistent and all dev mode users will remain 'in good standing', even if officially they could be terminated.


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## chrisrlink (Jan 11, 2022)

seems like i'm out as well


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## tech3475 (Jan 11, 2022)

chrisrlink said:


> seems like i'm out as well



Check your junk mail, that's where I found mine....even though I use Outlook. 

Yes MS put an MS email in the junk folder, it's why I was hesitant to believe it at first.


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## ceriaz (Jan 12, 2022)

I emailed today, given its been roughly a week. they quickly replied with the 90 day store update clause. So I guess we see if I lose access in 90 days again or not.


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## stanleyopar2000 (Jan 13, 2022)

Access to partner center was granted and I didn't email....yay?


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## Cosmyc (Jan 14, 2022)

stanleyopar2000 said:


> Access to partner center was granted and I didn't email....yay?


Yay, they said that they'll roll back the accidental changes (cleaning) that were made on the server side.


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