Chiara Guerrini We will be pleased to help you with this problem so have logged a support case on your behalf. We do prioritise customers who have a support contract so please keep in mind it could take up to 48 hours, especially over a weekend, but rest assured we will contact you as soon as we can. You will be contacted at the email address used for this Community. Support Case Id : 00800612 .

I understand that you guys are busy but this is the second time that happens in a week and perhaps the 5th time since the beginning of the year. I'm losing work and credibility with my clients. You should come up with something better than this activation code because it's not possible that I can't access the software! 

Chiara Guerrini  

I'd be very interested to learn why this happens at all!  In over a decade of working with Studio I have never lost an activation code like this.  Can you provide any information around your working environment and locations that might contribute to losing an already activated licence?  That might help us with two things:

1. offer some advice you can follow to avoid this happening
2. see whether something can be addressed with the licensing software vendors

An activation code is used to license the software in a specific environment.  The code is typically tied to a specific set of machine details, and when entered into the software, it enables the licensed functionality.  But, there could be several reasons why an activated license might stop working:

1. Changes to the environment: If the environment changes significantly, for example through hardware changes, OS upgrades, or even sometimes significant software installations, the license might be invalidated.

2. Corrupted license files or data: The license relies on certain files or data in your system.  If these become corrupted for some reason, such as a system crash, disk issues, or malware, then the license might stop working.

3. Network issues: For network licenses, issues with the network or the license server might cause the license to fail.

4. License misuse or violation: A thorny topic but worth mentioning... if the licensing system detects what it considers misuse or violation of the license terms, it might deactivate the license.  I'm not suggesting you are doing this deliberately, I'm just pointing out that if the system thinks this for any reason it could be the cause of the problem.  For example, by sharing the software with others without the required number of licenses by sharing activation codes or other license keys.

We definitely are not completely innocent here, we do have our share of server problems that can cause these issues.  But when we do they would typically affect more than one user and we see a flurry of complaints.  So I think it's worth looking at how you are working as it might be helpful to find a more permanent resolution for your problem.

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your input. I'm aware that I have an old computer that is no longer doing the necessary Microsoft monthly updates and I thought this was the problem, because the deactivation issue always occurred while I was working with Trados and my computer was attempting to run an update, but eventually it failed and crashed, and once I turned it on again and opened Trados, I experienced this deactivation issue. But two days ago, when the last accident occurred, everything was fine. I exported the file I was working on, I closed Trados and turned off my computer. After lunch break I turned on my computer again, but the licence was once again deactivated. And all my work was gone because it turned out that the file I had exported at the end of my previous working session (a PDF) could not be opened. So to me this is a clear case of file corruption, but with no apparent reason this time. However, every time I reached out to support and the IT guys fixed the problem through remote session, I noticed that it only took them a few minutes to restore the licence, so I was wondering if they could just share the necessary steps that we as users need to implement, so that all of us can fix the problem by ourselves without waiting these 48 hours which are really causing trouble to my business. 

Elisa, nobody has been in touch with me yet. It's been 3 days of lost work so far and I still can't access Trados. 

Chiara Guerrini  

Why did you mark the support case a a verified answer?  If it hasn't solved your problem you shouldn't mark it.  Only do that when you get a reply that actually solves the problem, and this may even be your own post when you, or technical support, come back and tell us what solved it.

I'll unmark it and make sure your post is picked up.  I guess the huge number of public holidays in May got in the way here!

I didn't do anything actually. I don't even know how to mark the support case.

Chiara Guerrini  

Chiara Guerrini said:

the file I had exported at the end of my previous working session (a PDF) could not be opened.

If you exported a PDF it cannot have been from Trados.  Trados never exports a PDF.  Perhaps you mean the source was a PDF, converted to DOCX and it was the DOCX you could not open?

What version of Trados Studio are you using and what operating system (you say it's an old computer).  When you ask for something to be fixed it's only ever going to be considered if you are working with the latest software and an updated computer.  So you need to do what you can to help yourself first.

I'm using Trados Freelancer 2022. Operating system is Windows 10 Home, 64 bit.

Look, it happened 5 times since the beginning of the year, and all the 5 times it took only 2 minutes to fix the problem via remote session. That's all I need. A remote session. 

Chiara Guerrini  

Fair enough... so for the benefit of anyone wondering what these options are for:

Only the person who posts the question being replied to will see these.  If you click on "Verify Answer" then the answer will turn green and most of us in RWS will never see the thread again because we filter on unanswered threads.  So it should only be used when you get the answer you need.