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Humble Bundle Keys Mysteriously Reappearing

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glumpot

I gave away some of the Humble Bundle keys I had that I figured I'd never use. After clicking "create gift link" or "redeem key" I no longer had the option to redeem them on Steam or gift them, which is supposed to happen. However, shortly afterwards my keys are reappearing in my inventory, unreedemed! At first I thought maybe I had an extra copy of some of the games (can you have an extra key on Humble Bundle for the same game from different bundles?), but when I checked which Bundles they came from, they were the same as the ones I gave away.

I don't know if they are duplicate keys or new ones, but either way I'm not touching them. But, it's a bit annoying because it's making it hard to track which games I've already given away/redeemed. Anyone else had this problem or have any ideas what might be causing this?

8 years ago

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24 Comments
adrion

Hi I had this problem few days ago. I refreshed my page and all keys reappeared. I don't think that's new keys.
You can give a try. If it's a new one enjoy :P

8 years ago
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glumpot

I don't want to risk trying it, just in case any of the winners haven't gotten around to adding the keys to their Steam accounts yet. Otherwise I would try, at least to try and figure if they gave me duplicates by mistake.

8 years ago
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JbatesPoint0

I'm pretty sure they're the same codes, i tried one i knew was used and it was a duplicate for me, i get this every so often when i log in, the last few games I've used are usually the ones that do it
and after a day or two, they don't come back for me

8 years ago
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Vee79

Yes, same issue here and refreshing the page bring the code back. Not sure why it does that, but adrion is right you just have to refresh the page.

8 years ago
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Azralynn

I had this same issue as well. So I started just keeping track separately in my Google Drive sheets.

8 years ago
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Navaro

Heard somewhere HB revoced Keys. But that was only 1 game I think..

8 years ago
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antiHiko

it was for sunless sea for anyone wondering.

8 years ago
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faragona

There was a mistake on HB side, they are going to revoke the FIRST key they gave you and replace them with the current key. Also they would have already send an email to notify that but you didn't receive or something.

8 years ago
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Khalaq
(Senior Moderator)

^^^ This may be what is going on. I recommend you check with the people to whom you gave the keys and see what they have to say.

8 years ago
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glumpot

Some of the keys were pretty old though, from like October or before.

8 years ago
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Deleted

This comment was deleted 1 year ago.

8 years ago
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glumpot

It first happened with a game from Bundle 16, but it's subsequently happened to all games I've gifted or gotten the key for recently. I wonder if just hitting "reveal key" after sending the gift link will fix the problem?

8 years ago
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andreadandrea

i had a similar problem 1y ago or so. an unredeemed key for a batman game appeared in my account, I gifted it and the recipient could not activate it. i had to ask support for ga deletion.

8 years ago
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Sooth

A slight correction to the previous comments- this is an issue with a single recent game from the Humble Monthly.

While I can't for sure say that hasn't happened before, the usual reason keys 'reappear' is just due to the current Humble library system, which sometimes doesn't register the "activation" from you clicking on the gift link, and it'll revert back to unused afterward because of it.

In other words, the keys aren't becoming deactivated/reset, they just glitched when you first revealed a link to them, and it took a bit for it to show that and you to notice it.

Of course, there's usually no real delay to that sort of glitch, so if you're only noticing after a while, and you check your inactive keys regularly, then it's potentially due to something else (like the first mishap mentioned, which was due to the wrong version of the game having been given out for some users).

If you're noticing a lot of older keys suddenly reactivating, that's likely some sort of new glitch in their library system that's removing the revealed status. :/

8 years ago
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combatbeard

I've notice that if you follow the link that is shown after a purchase and reveal the keys (rather than using the key tab in your library) it will often glitch and those keys will still be shown as unused in your library later.

8 years ago
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Sooth

Only times I've ever had it glitch was through the library, never had it glitch from the purchase pages- so that doesn't seem likely to be a relevant factor. :X

8 years ago
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glumpot

I've always done it through my library, except maybe once.

8 years ago
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glumpot

Well, they are older keys, but ones I'd never used before and only just recently created gift links too. I hope this will resolve itself.

8 years ago
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Spellbindinggnome

I can confirm this happened to me a few days ago with another user. There was only one game though affected. The key I gave to another user was re-hidden and able to be gift linked again. It was the exact Key hidden that was revealed previously. Didn't create too many problems but it had me boggled when the user said I gave him a link to a game I know I revealed already.

8 years ago
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glumpot

Well, the keys now show as having been used or give the gift link message, so I guess it was just a delay in their system. Problem solved?

8 years ago
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Sooth

Sounds about right.
Basically, when making Humble gift links, just check back on them in a bit, make sure it took in the system. If not, just hit the gift link button again, it ought take the second time.
It's not like it'll do anything new to the system, it's just the "Show as Revealed = True" that's not getting set properly, so clicking on it will fix that, if it messed up.

If you've terrible memory and ability to follow through on things (as I do), you can consider Barter.vg- the site is designed with trading in mind, but you can easily ignore that part of the site and use the Tradables section there to keep tabs of what game keys you have, and have not activated.
If you set the quantity of each tradable to 0, you can't receive offers for it, so you can make your own little personal niche in the site just for record-keeping. :P

(The site is the single best place to trade, though, if you ever are considering doing such.)

8 years ago
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Meetrock

I mysteriously got a Rayman Legends Uplay key in my inventory!!

8 years ago
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glumpot

Well, that's pretty awesome!

8 years ago
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Meetrock

It would be tripple awesome if it was a Steam key :/

8 years ago
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