Automated Promotion not associated for users already in target segment

[jongdae.won]

Hello brainCloud team,

We are investigating the behavior of Automated Promotions for users who already satisfy the target segment conditions.

During testing, we found the following behavior:

1. A user is already in the target segment before an Automated Promotion is created or attached to that segment.
2. In User Monitoring > Pricing, the user appears under User's Current Segments.
3. However, the segment does not show the promotion under Associated Automated Promotions.
4. Calling RefreshMySegments from Cloud Code, calling RefreshPromotions, and logging in again do not cause the promotion to become associated or returned by GetEligiblePromotions.
5. If we use Reset Segments for that user, or run Re-evaluate All Segments, the promotion is then associated and returned.

Questions:

1. Is this expected behavior for Automated Promotions?
2. Should RefreshMySegments or RefreshPromotions attach newly created Automated Promotions to users who are already in the target segment?
3. Is there a client-callable or Cloud Code API equivalent to Reset Segments or Re-evaluate All Segments for the current user?
4. Is there any API to manually trigger or re-trigger an Automated Promotion for the current user?

Our concern is that if Automated Promotions only trigger on a new segment entry, then attaching a new promotion to an existing shared segment will not work reliably for existing users unless we manually reset or re-evaluate segments.

Thank you for your guidance.

[JasonL]

Yes, the behavior you’re describing is expected with the current implementation. RefreshMySegments, RefreshPromotions, and login will not attach the promotion to users who are already in the segment, because the system is designed to only grant automated promotions when the user enters the segment (i.e., when it shows up in enteredIds). The fact that Reset Segments or Re‑evaluate All Segments fixes it is also expected, because those actions force the user back through the segment‑entry logic.

We’re working on a fix to make this smoother. The practical effect going forward will be that, when a new automated promotion is created or attached to an existing segment, the next segment refresh will automatically apply it to all currently‑eligible users in the background, without you needing to reset or re‑evaluate segments manually. This should make the behavior more predictable, especially when you have a large number of existing users already in that segment.