Moho Forum

ruscular3d wrote:I have only one machine that is able to hold a working copy, the other 2 says I have used up my copy on another hard drive which is fried

Like I said, access License Manager from your working copy and deactivate the ones on the dead hard drives. It shows you a list of all the activations, and you can remove them from there.

A question about updates:

I plan to buy Anime Studio Pro 10 boxed but I notice an update version is available : does I install from disc first and install update ... or not consider the version on the disc and directly install the update (standalone ?) program ?

Thanks.

I don't know if this was mentioned but when you upgrade from one major version to a new version, you may be asked to enter both your current license SN and the new license SN, so make sure you have both. This doesn't apply to updates, just major version upgrades.

You can have multiple versions of ASP/Moho on the same computer, so no need to remove the old one.

In version 10, if you somehow exceed your three activations and can't deactivate one (like when a machine or hard drive goes bad), you'll need to get in touch with support. They can reset all your activations so you can reassign them. They'll need your serial number of course.

Starting with version 11.2, you can manage all your activations yourself. This is done through your own online account. The advantage is that you can reset activations yourself without waiting for tech support to do it.

Tidou wrote:does I install from disc first and install update ... or not consider the version on the disc and directly install the update (standalone ?) program ?

It shouldn't matter. It might save time to download the latest version from the website and start with that. I think you need to type in the SN on the website to get SM to send it to you, and I don't think the SN needs to be registered until after you install.

Try that first. If it doesn't work, then you'll have to install from the CD and register the SN before you can download the update. (I'm almost certain the first option will work though.)

many thanks for quick answer and all the precisions

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Greenlaw wrote: (I'm almost certain the first option will work though.)

Yes, works fine !

I had a similar problem after upgrading to Windows 10 on two computers. Smith Micro apparently registered each new operating system as a new computer, and when I started AS 11, it was blocked because of too many installations. Smith Micro customer service took care of it on the same day, and that was a Sunday!

I hope they will take care of it for me, too.

I just spent one and a half hour because I could suddenly not start my copy of AS11 anymore: something about "too many activations", indeed.
Well, that is weird, because I have installed it on two computers only, which is perfectly within limits as far as I know.
That was Surprise #1.

To fix this, I tried to log in to the license manager. Surprise #2! Your account does not exist.
How so? I surely had one before. I bought AS11 on that account. Hell, I even got a request email from SmithMicro customer support asking me to subscribe to email notifications (yes, that is indeed a paradox).

Searched this forum.
Found a thread about it.
Re-created my account.
Added my license info.

Good. *click* *clickety-click* -> "List Product Licenses" .... Surprise #3!
It lists FIVE different computer ID's. But I only have two. (????? ?????)

Click the Edit button. Click Advanced. Hey, a nice blue button saying "more info" ... *click* - ah! It turns out that those five computer ID's are actually two different computer names. How would Smith Micro determine my computer ID, I wonder? It can't be a truly unique identifier, that's for certain, because my trusty old iMac has been given three separate ID's. Sure, I upgraded her with a shiny new SSD drive some weeks ago. But surely that's no reason to punish me with taking away my right to use the software that I purchased ... or is it?

Is it?
I must admit that I don't spell out the legalese in the license agreements. I wonder if anyone does. But it does not feel right.

OK, but there are also Red Buttons saying "Remove" in that screen. Surely I can remove those three duplicates with the oldest dates on them, get it over with and start doing what I wanted to do in the first place, about one or two hours ago.
But then again, those Red Buttons do not adorn all records. For one thing, they are absent on the two oldest records, that I would actually remove first.
Behold Surprise #4.

That leaves only one record to remove. OK, I will try that. *click*
And cuckoo! There's Surprise #5:

Client removal can be used only once in 3 months

Meaning that I can not remove another duplicate for three months.
Meaning also: that there's no way that I can use AS on my laptop for three months. Because I used that one freed slot to activate it on my iMac. Oops.


Enough silliness. I'm really quite annoyed. Of course this is not the first time something like this happens: Adobe with their Creative Cloud "keep on paying" scheme; Dropbox and iCloud making it virtually impossible to get a clean link to your own images (so that you can't share them on forums like this any longer) - maybe it's because they can't raise the price due to stiff competition, so they try to limit how you can put whatever you purchased to use: think of some new hurdles here and there ... hey! Let's make then re-activate their license every two months! And make sure to register their computers with some random generated number, haha, that'll fox them

That's what it looks like right now, at least. But yeah, I really am annoyed. But I promise to apologise should this license re-activation feature turn out to be a wholly customer-friendly thing and not at all intended to waste my time and good mood.


PS Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that there's this option to "Request permanent activation". I clicked that, only to be scared with the message that continuing would render my license "read-only".
A read-only license. What would that be, I wonder? I bet I won't like it, it sounds rather ominous: "No, as it is clearly stated in paragraphs 24.c and 39.4.t: once the license has been designated as read-only, it can no longer be re-activated. If you want to use the software, you will have to buy a new license that is read-enabled."
And if there's an R in the month, your license will be set semi-transparent unless your name begins with the letter P and your average click-rate does not exceed 52.

I believe the 'permanent' option basically node-locks the license to a specific computer. I personally would avoid that option.

Sorry to hear you're having so much trouble with the License Manager. I would get in touch with CS and get that straightened out.

That's surprising to hear that changing a drive invalidated an activation for you, although I've had that happen a couple of times to me with different software in the past--I recall Magpie Pro did that at least once, and I had to contact the developer to deactivate the license for me so I could reactivate it.

Since that time, I always make sure to deactivate all software with online activation before making hardware changes, and then reactivate them afterwards.