Be careful when updating to 2024

[laukejas]

Not sure if this was mentioned anywhere or not, but there is a licensing bug with standalone licenses in 2024 SP0.1 when doing an upgrade from 2023 or earlier versions. For those who don't know, SW calculates the so called "hardware ID" from network card MAC address, CPU ID, hard drive ID and some other components probably, and when you activate your license, it informs global SW license server that license X is tied to hardware ID Y. Normally hardware ID does not change unless you change some components on your computer.

But for whatever reason, it seems that SW 2024 SP0.1 calculates hardware ID differently than the previous versions (like I said this is probably a bug), so when you finish the upgrade, SW thinks that this is an entirely new computer, and starts throwing all kinds of errors, sometimes not even allowing you to use it. And you can't even deactivate the license on that old hardware ID (even reinstalling SW 2023 doesn't seem to help). At that point you have to contact your VAR and ask them to deactivate that license remotely, which can be a PITA.

Workaround:
1) Before upgrading, deactivate your license - that will untie it from the "old" hardware ID.
2) Install 2024 (upgrade or clean install, doesn't matter).
3) Activate license again - it will be tied to the "new" hardware ID.

I am not sure if this bug happens 100% of the time, or only on some computers, but I've seen it happen more than a few times, so I thought I'd share this just in case.

[mp3-250]

Thank you for this post.

I think this is probably why many VAR suggest to completely deactivate the license before upgrading the SNL.
I heard that sometimes it goes wrong and it could be like what you saw with 2024.

[laukejas]

Thank you for this post.

I think this is probably why many VAR suggest to completely deactivate the license before upgrading the SNL.
I heard that sometimes it goes wrong and it could be like what you saw with 2024.

Yeah, I guess they probably noticed this bug as well. It makes sense that it would also affect network licenses, I hadn't thought about it, good point.

[AlexLachance]

Not sure if this was mentioned anywhere or not, but there is a licensing bug with standalone licenses in 2024 SP0.1 when doing an upgrade from 2023 or earlier versions. For those who don't know, SW calculates the so called "hardware ID" from network card MAC address, CPU ID, hard drive ID and some other components probably, and when you activate your license, it informs global SW license server that license X is tied to hardware ID Y. Normally hardware ID does not change unless you change some components on your computer.

But for whatever reason, it seems that SW 2024 SP0.1 calculates hardware ID differently than the previous versions (like I said this is probably a bug), so when you finish the upgrade, SW thinks that this is an entirely new computer, and starts throwing all kinds of errors, sometimes not even allowing you to use it. And you can't even deactivate the license on that old hardware ID (even reinstalling SW 2023 doesn't seem to help). At that point you have to contact your VAR and ask them to deactivate that license remotely, which can be a PITA.

Workaround:
1) Before upgrading, deactivate your license - that will untie it from the "old" hardware ID.
2) Install 2024 (upgrade or clean install, doesn't matter).
3) Activate license again - it will be tied to the "new" hardware ID.

I am not sure if this bug happens 100% of the time, or only on some computers, but I've seen it happen more than a few times, so I thought I'd share this just in case.

Thanks for bringing it up. It's a bug that comes back every now and then, I've taken the habit of deactivating before upgrading to avoid this.

[laukejas]

Thanks for bringing it up. It's a bug that comes back every now and then, I've taken the habit of deactivating before upgrading to avoid this.

I guess I was lucky to only encounter this now, despite using SW since 2015

[mp3-250]

I guess I was lucky to only encounter this now, despite using SW since 2015 :D

ＳＣＡＲＹＷＯＲＫＳ

[doobes]

Geeze

Thanks for the update.

I don't typically deactivate my license before updating/upgrading, but now I guess I will.

[Frederick_Law]

Becareful when deactivating license.
Do it enough time and it'll get locked and you'll need to contact VAR.

[rothers]

How many is "enough times" ?

[AlexLachance]

How many is "enough times" ?

I believe it is 999 or 9999.

[HercalloY]

damn it. I'm guessing this is what happened to me on initial install of 2024 in mid OCT. FFS DS.