We have been investigating an issue where some retail Steam codes are coming up as invalid, and we are finding that a lot of keys that are coming up as invalid are actually valid keys, which work just fine when activated from a second computer. This implies that the issue may be with the cached data on users’ Steam applications.
There are a few things that you can try, which should resolve the issue:
- First, restart your PC.
- Try opening Steam, logging into your profile, and entering the key again. We have gotten several reports that a simple second try after a restart.
- If you continue to have issues, Exit Steam.
- Navigate to the following directory: C:\Program Files(x86)\Steam and try to find ClientRegistry.blob
- Please Note: Make sure you manually exit Steam before altering this file. Altering it while Steam is running can cause stability issues
- With Steam closed, change the name of ClientRegistry.blob to ClientRegistryOld.blob
- Relaunch Steam and log in
- Activate the code directly from Steam.
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This seems to work for most codes which are coming up as invalid. If you continue to have issues, please submit a ticket to 2K Support.