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License expired - AGAIN

Thilo Gruhl

Dear SDL,

this is the second time my license has arbitrarily been set to "expired". Why do you do that? I bought a full freelance license, it says "no expiration date", and still you manage to reset it, again?

At least, when you insist on doing so, tell your programmers about it. They obviously didn't know about that particular use case when they wrote the license manager. I can easily activate a license when there is one available, and I can deactivate it from inside the software - as long as it is still activated. What I'm unable to do is deactivate it when you decided to let it expire (despite the fact that it has no expiration date). Then it is impossible to reach the license manager since it is integrated into the software, which doesn't even start without a valid license. So basically you feel like resetting licenses at will, leaving your paying customers with no direct and simple path to reenable it. Thank you very much.

The last time that happened, I had to open a support ticket since even the offline deactivation didn't work - the most online "offline deactivation" I ever came across, by the way. Support simply told me by email that they had reset the activation status so that I had one activation available again. I used it to reactivate my old installation and thought that was it.

This time I tried the offline deactivation, again, but now the website shows another screen with a filled in "Deactivation Authorization" field, the date of my last failed attempt to deactivate "offline", and an empty field named "Deactivation Certificate". Apparently this would have been given to me by the software, had I carried out the offline deactivation. Which I didn't. Now, I can't confirm an offline deactivation that never happened, so clicking the "Confirm" button gives me an error message and sends me an email with exactly the same "Deactivation Ticket" in it that is shown on the confirmation page as "Deactivation Authorization". This thing has to be used within the license manager of the software, according to your instructional video, which I can't start without a valid license. Seriously? So, looks like it's a support ticket, again. That's (up to) two days I can't use the software I paid for.

Some suggestions: First of all, don't disable the lifetime licenses of your paying customers. I don't see why that would be necessary at all. If you must do so, however, reset the activation count whenever you let a license expire. And if that's impossible, for whatever reason, at least let the license manager start with or without a valid license.

Dear SDL, please tidy up this ridiculous mess.
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  • in reply to AnonymousUser
    Well, this isn't always the problem. Every now and again an AV provider updates their software and Studio is picked up as a threat. Doesn't affect all AV providers, just that one. Normally another update from the AV provider corrects the problem, sometimes not. There are loads of AV providers and we don't have a relationship with them all that would mean Studio gets tested before they do every release. Fortunately we do our best to ensure it doesn't happen, and as you can see we don't have a forum full of problems like this so I do think it's unusual.

    If you want some help to investigate this let me know and I'll arrange it. Otherwise I hope the reset just worked for you, but be aware that after 8 resets you're going to have this problem again unless we can get to the bottom of why its happening. Can you tell us what security software you are running? Maybe we have a known issue somewhere.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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    Design your own training!
    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
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  • in reply to Paul
    It has happened with Bitdefender, ESET Nod and Microsoft Defender.
    This licensing model doesn't work. The UX is terrible. The sooner you acknowledge it and the sooner you fix it, the better for everyone.
  • in reply to AnonymousUser

    There are two articles relating to problems with ESET and MS Defenderbut I don't think they are exactly related to your problem, and ESET has been known to block the correct licensing of the product in the past.

    However, I'm not looking for excuses, I just want to get to the bottom of the issue you are having.  We have changed the licensing three times since the Trados days and today it's never been easier.  You are having problems but this doesn't mean we have anything to fix... it also doesn't mean we don't wish to improve it.  But if I was you I'd keep an open ear on the possibility that the problem might be elsewhere and it might be something you can address.  I know you think we should have bullet proof licensing and that the AV providers are never wrong, but it's not always that straightforward.

    Perhaps a couple of things to check/try:

    • deactivate your AV, activate Studio, then reactivate your AV
    • install and run Studio as Admin.  This means right-click and run as administrator (this is not the same as just running under a user with admin rights)
    • make sure that Studio is whitelisted in your security software 
      • SDLTradosStudio.exe
    • add these folders to your exception lists, but especially the one in bold and highlighted as this contains the licence file:
      • C:\Users\All Users\SDL
      • C:\Users\[USER_NAME]\Documents\SDL Trados Studio
      • C:\Users\[USER_NAME]\Documents\SDL
      • C:\Users\[USER_NAME]\Documents\SDL Trados
      • C:\Users\[USER_NAME]\Documents\Studio 2017
      • C:\Users\[USER_NAME]\AppData\Local\SDL
      • C:\Users\[USER_NAME]\AppData\Roaming\SDL
      • C:\Program Files\SDL
      • C:\Program Files\Common Files\SDL
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\SDL
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\SDL
      • C:\ProgramData\SDL\SDLTradosStudio
      • C:\ProgramData\SDL International
      • C:\ProgramData\Package Cache\

    Perhaps try some of these things if you have time.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

    ________________________
    Design your own training!
    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
    Tell us what you need in our Community Solutions Hub