Register your Windows Phone device for development

Register or unregister a phone by using the Windows Phone Developer Registration tool (phonereg.exe). This is a stand-alone tool that’s installed when you install the Windows Phone development tools.

It’s important to test your Windows Phone apps on a real phone. Before you can deploy apps to your Windows Phone, you have to register the phone for development. After you register your phone, you can install, run, and debug apps that target Windows Phone 8.1, Windows Phone 8, or Windows Phone OS 7.1 on the phone.

Prerequisites

To register your phone, you have to have the following prerequisites.

• Windows Phone 8.1 Development Tools
  Get the tools.
  The Windows Phone Developer Registration tool is a stand-alone tool that’s installed as part of the Windows Phone development tools.
• A Windows Phone with Windows Phone OS 8.1, Windows Phone OS 8.0, or Windows Phone OS 7.1
• A Microsoft account
  How do I sign up for a Microsoft account?
• Optionally, a valid and current developer account on Windows Phone Dev Center
  Join
  If you have a developer account, you can register three devices to use for app development, and you can publish apps in the Windows Phone Store.
  If you don’t have a developer account, you can only register one device to use for app development. Before you can publish apps in the Windows Phone Store, you have to register.
• A unique name for each device that you want to register
  If you try to register a device and get the error message, The device name is already in use by this account, you have to rename the device with a unique name.
  • You can rename a Windows Phone 8.1 device or a Windows Phone 8 device in File Explorer.
  • You can rename a Windows Phone OS 7.1 device in the Zune software.
• To register a phone running Windows Phone OS 7.1, you also have to have the Zune software.
  Download the Zune software

Instructions

Registering your phone

To register a phone, use the Windows Phone Developer Registration tool. This is a stand-alone tool that’s installed as part of the Windows Phone development tools.

To register your phone by using the Windows Phone Developer Registration Tool

1. Turn on your phone and unlock the phone screen.
2. On your phone, ensure that the date and time are correct.
3. Connect your phone to your computer with a USB cable.
4. On your computer’s Start screen, find the Windows Phone Developer Registration tool.
5. Run the tool.
   The tool starts, as shown in the following screenshot.
   
6. Verify that the Status message displays Identified Windows Phone device. Click the Register button to unlock the phone.
   If your phone is already registered, the Status message indicates this and you see an Unregister button.
7. Click Register.
8. In the Sign In dialog box for your Microsoft account, enter the email address and password for your Microsoft account. Click Sign In.
   If you’re a registered developer, be sure to use the Microsoft account associated with your developer account.
9. After your phone is successfully registered, the Status message displays Congratulations! You have successfully unlocked your Windows Phone.

Your phone is now registered. You can now deploy apps to the phone.

Troubleshooting registration

If you have trouble registering your phone, check the following requirements.

1. Is the phone connected to the computer with the USB cable and recognized by the computer?
   • If you’ve connected a Windows Phone 8.1 phone or a Windows Phone 8.0 phone, make sure it’s listed as a drive in File Explorer.
   • If you’ve connected a Windows Phone OS 7.1 phone, make sure it’s recognized by the Zune software.
2. Is the phone turned on and the screen unlocked? If you have to retry registration, be sure to turn the phone on again and unlock the screen.
3. Are the date and time set correctly on the phone? In SETTINGS | date + time, turn off the Set automaticallysetting and then retry registration. After registration succeeds, turn this setting on again.
4. Are both the computer and the phone connected to the Internet? On your computer, make sure that your web browser does not have Work offline enabled. Also, you cannot connect through a proxy server that redirects to a login page; for example, in a hotel or an airport.
5. Is your Microsoft account information correct and valid? If you use more than one Microsoft account, make sure that you have signed out of the other accounts and then retry registration.
6. Is your Windows Phone Dev Center account active and valid? To check your account status, in your web browser, browse to the Account page.
7. Is the IpOverUsb service (Windows Phone IP over USB Transport) running on the computer? If you still have a problem, consider restarting the service.

Unregistering your phone

To unregister a phone, you can also use the Windows Phone Developer Registration tool. You can also unregister a phone on Windows Phone Dev Center, even if you no longer have the registered phone.

Warning  After you unregister a phone, apps that you deployed no longer run because the app licenses are no longer valid.

To unregister your phone by using the Windows Phone Developer Registration Tool

1. Connect your registered phone and run the Windows Phone Developer Registration tool as described in this topic.
2. Click Unregister in the tool.

To unregister your phone on Windows Phone Dev Center

1. In your web browser, browse to the Devices page for your Dev Center account.
2. Click the Remove link next to the phone that you want to unregister.

Troubleshooting app deployment to your phone

Here are some known issues that can occur when you deploy an app to a registered phone.

• If you deploy an app to a registered phone by using Visual Studio or the Application Deployment Tool, then you unregister the phone, you can no longer run the deployed app, even if you register the phone again. You have to uninstall the app and redeploy it to the phone.
• If you deploy an app to a registered phone by using Visual Studio, and the app is installed on the phone's SD card because of the user’s settings, the app is not encrypted on the SD card.
• If you deploy an app to a registered phone by using Visual Studio, and the phone has an SD card, the Storage Sense app indicates that the deployed app can be moved to the SD card. If you tap move to SD, however, the operation fails and the app may be corrupted.
• If you install an unsigned version of a published app that includes the app's Package Family Name (PFN) on a registered phone by using Visual Studio or the Application Deployment Tool, you can’t update the installed app by downloading a signed version of the app from the Windows Phone Store. To install an updated version of the app from the Store, you have to uninstall the unsigned version.
• If you deploy an app to a registered phone, then you install an operating system update on the phone, you cannot deploy the app to the phone again (for example, while you are iteratively developing and testing the app in Visual Studio). You have to uninstall the app from the phone and redeploy it.