# ILok Manager Software Issue, and How to Fix It



## PaulieDC (May 6, 2022)

There's a not-great "feature" in the iLok software where if you change some things in your PC, iLok doesn't think it's the same machine, then you discover that your PC is listed in the software as an unreachable PC, and you end up with a second instance of your PC with zero activations. That's bad. in my case, I have 9 drives, main one for Windows and apps, others for simply data... sample libraries, photos, etc. I pulled a 1TB NVMe data drive and stuck in a 2TB in its place, then I yanked two older 2TB and 3TB spinning drives and replaced them with a single 8TB, all for photo and video files. Oh, and unplugged two 500GB drives I wasn't using. That's it.* ilok's programmers deem this as a new PC.* As a programmer, I can tell you that your system footprint is CPU, Mobo and installed OS. NOT the GUIDs from data drives. So that's not good and I doubt it will change even if we gripe.

Anyway--You can't deactivate or transfer out of your old instance because it's no longer in existence, so now you don't have your licenses. Here's what mine looked like, then I'll list the fix. Top arrow is what iLok thinks my PC is now, bottom arrow is what it was before swapping drives:






So I wrote tech support and to their credit they replied in just hours. BUT, they told me I was on my own the mark the "old" PC as unrecoverable which sends reset requests to the software vendors, in my case, EastWest, UVI, Eventide and Synchro Arts. Then it's up to them to evaluate and reset my activations. Fortunately, when you right-click the so-called un-recoverable PC, you get a text box where you can explain why you need the reset, and that gets included in the emails to the companies. Talk about shooting a flare and hoping someone sees it, yikes. However all 4 companies did respond over the next 4 hours, and so I'm back in business. Glad they all complied, although in my text note I let loose both barrels on iLok.

Also fortunately, my VSL pianos got activated in my email address version of iLok so those were fine. Only the 19 pictured were stuck, no huge loss. Lexicon on my hardware key was fine also, as was my laptop. But if you are in the middle of a project, don't even swap a data drive in your tower, just plug in external drives until you are through. iLok needs to fix this, their criteria for system footprint is skewed.


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## Zedcars (May 6, 2022)

Glad you got up and running again.

Another example where legit users have to deal with show-stopping catastrophes caused by the need of companies to ‘protect’ their products from non-legit users who get to use these products for free while having a glitch-free experience. It’s an age old problem, but that doesn’t make it any less infuriating.


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## Nimrod7 (May 6, 2022)

Glad you solved it,

I am terrified using machine activation in iLok. It's unreliable as you have experienced. Not every company is nice, and if you have many licenses you need to waste months to replace them. 

Do yourself a favor and get a dongle. I am using one for over 10 years, and changed multiple machines and configurations in-between. Never had to deal with this kind of thing.


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## RogiervG (May 6, 2022)

PaulieDC said:


> There's a not-great "feature" in the iLok software where if you change some things in your PC, iLok doesn't think it's the same machine, then you discover that your PC is listed in the software as an unreachable PC, and you end up with a second instance of your PC with zero activations. That's bad. in my case, I have 9 drives, main one for Windows and apps, others for simply data... sample libraries, photos, etc. I pulled a 1TB NVMe data drive and stuck in a 2TB in its place, then I yanked two older 2TB and 3TB spinning drives and replaced them with a single 8TB, all for photo and video files. Oh, and unplugged two 500GB drives I wasn't using. That's it.* ilok's programmers deem this as a new PC.* As a programmer, I can tell you that your system footprint is CPU, Mobo and installed OS. NOT the GUIDs from data drives. So that's not good and I doubt it will change even if we gripe.
> 
> Anyway--You can't deactivate or transfer out of your old instance because it's no longer in existence, so now you don't have your licenses. Here's what mine looked like, then I'll list the fix. Top arrow is what iLok thinks my PC is now, bottom arrow is what it was before swapping drives:
> 
> ...



Important lesson to be learned here:
NEVER USE MACHINE BASED AUTH if you want no hassles up reinstalling computers, changing hardware etc.
always use: Cloud based if available or Dongle based.
That's the only way, to be completely separate from hardware you use it on.


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## PaulieDC (May 6, 2022)

RogiervG said:


> Important lesson to be learned here:
> NEVER USE MACHINE BASED AUTH if you want no hassles up reinstalling computers, changing hardware etc.
> always use: Cloud based if available or Dongle based.
> That's the only way, to be completely separate from hardware you use it on.


Amen. Learned that lesson almost the hard way.


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## PaulieDC (May 6, 2022)

Nimrod7 said:


> Glad you solved it,
> 
> I am terrified using machine activation in iLok. It's unreliable as you have experienced. Not every company is nice, and if you have many licenses you need to waste months to replace them.
> 
> Do yourself a favor and get a dongle. I am using one for over 10 years, and changed multiple machines and configurations in-between. Never had to deal with this kind of thing.


I do have one, trying to get off of it actually… Lexicon is my last holdout. My goal is to get everything I can to sit in the cloud-based authentication, the way my VSL stuff is licensed. The one problem with the physical dongle is that it can fail. Cloud-based for me is no problem, given my day job, I need internet as much as electricity, I’ll never be without it.


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## Anders Bru (Jun 14, 2022)

I'm having this exact problem right now. A bunch of plugins suddenly asked to be activated (all the Soundtoys plugins, Blackhole, EastWest Spaces 2, PSP plugins). I have not changed any hardware, and I don't have a dongle. Just out of nowhere it thinks I'm on a new machine. On most plugins I have one or two more activations, so I guess I'm gonna activate those on the "new" machine and send a reset on everything that is currenlty licensed to the "old".

I'm also gonna see if I can move other licenses to the cloud, and hopefully not have to deal with this again. Doesn't seem like all developers support cloud licensing, though?

Really frustrating when this stuff gets in the way. Thankfully I don't do music professionally, but still...


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## Paj (Jun 14, 2022)

You should also go into the Control Panel and make sure that some update/installation/scan hasn't turned off the PACE service. It's easy enough to restart/reset:
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iLokReset (Win10)---This is a major time and sanity saver (thanks to SeaGTgruff)

This will save you about 20-30 minutes of needless aggravation; you won't have to uninstall the iLok software, reboot, download the latest iLok software, (re)install the latest iLok software, reboot, run the iLok software, and login to your iLok account to update your licenses. Just do the following:

->Control Panel->System and Security->Administrative Tools->Services

Either:
(a) Double-click on PACE License Services and then click on the [Start] button in the popup window

. . . or . . .

(b) Select/Highlight PACE License Services and click on the underlined "Start" link that appears in the upper-left corner of the services list

That's it. This procedure even has a longer-lasting effect than the uninstall/re-install that the iLok error message suggests. Only heaven knows why PACE doesn't post this info on its website. The reset might become necessary after Windows updates or some software installations.

P.S.: You can make a desktop shortcut to get to the Services page even quicker, and get up-and-running in about 10 seconds when the need arises:
->Control Panel->System and Security->Administrative Tools->right-click on "Services" and select "Send to Desktop" from the dropdown menu. The icon will look like two, pale-blue, meshed gears.
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RE: Cloud-based authorizations: Addictive Keys/Drums might be an example of the nasty HD GUID authorization (system drive).

I regularly swap in/out three internal SATA data drives (on two separate controllers) on a monthly basis and have not experienced the OP's issue and I hope that this isn't a future issue with iLok. My observations are that it has been getting noticeably more stable over the past few years. I also hope this isn't some sort of TPM ranging arrow.

Paj
8^)


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## Gerrtrudd (Sep 5, 2022)

The biggest problem of most software developers is that they don't do their job properly because of their lack of experience. They're too young and don't know what to do.


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## Nimrod7 (Sep 5, 2022)

Gerrtrudd said:


> The biggest problem of most software developers is that they don't do their job properly because of their lack of experience. They're too young and don't know what to do.


I am not sure how to take this.
There is a process in software engineering that nothing goes in production until it's reviewed by peers.
There are also project managers involved in shaping the requirements.
And usually every team has a technical leader overseeing the architecture.
And many significant product decisions involve the leadership team of the company.

So it's rarely a single developer, and even if someone doesn't know what to do, there are processes around to protect the product.

Their "job" is dealing with hundreds of frameworks, many languages, infrastructure, design patterns and a ton of other things, that's why it's a job that someone never ends learning, no matter how many years are on the business.

On the topic, is not a developer that did a mistake, it's a product / company, that made a wrong design choice that is impacting many customers, and highly likely to continue doing so, because PCs are modular.


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## Superabbit (Sep 7, 2022)

I had this happen recently with my laptop. There are two ways to go about resetting your licenses. One way is via iLok Manager, but this is still new and I found that it didn't work for some vendors.

I had all of my licenses back within 24 hours, less in most cases. For me, the main tower DAW is where the iLok dongle goes. The laptop is machine-registered for iLok. This way, even if something burps on the laptop, I can at least move the dongle while I'm waiting for the resets, if I should have a pressing need to mix on the laptop. On both systems, I keep all of my Waves licenses on old low-capacity SD cards. It's a great use for those old 64MB SD cards and thumb drives!

Waves also burped at the same time, and I had to spend my once-a-year reset all on getting those back.

I never did figure out what they thought had changed on my laptop. I do understand why they might fingerprint drive configuration; could have something to do with moving the drive to another system. Who knows, but I agree that the fingerprint should be mobo, CPU, and OS.

Also, we should be able to deactivate "offline" systems. What harm would that do?


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## angelbrok (Sep 12, 2022)

Gerrtrudd said:


> The biggest problem of most software developers is that they don't do their job properly because of their lack of experience. They're too young and don't know what to do.


They're afraid to ask for help, so they lose their time doing things in the wrong way. But there's a simple solution for it – practice! The only thing you need to do is find the best online platform where you can solve multiple tasks and get paid for each one of them. When searching for skilled experts in this field, I found them when I needed computer vision development services.


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## Crowe (Sep 12, 2022)

Nimrod7 said:


> I am not sure how to take this.
> There is a process in software engineering that nothing goes in production until it's reviewed by peers.
> There are also project managers involved in shaping the requirements.
> And usually every team has a technical leader overseeing the architecture.
> ...


That's a wonderful sentiment, but that isn't at all indicative of reality.
Yes, there's a process that involves peer reviewing... which is often skipped or rushed when you're not paying attention.
Yes, there's PM's involved in shaping requirements... and managers cutting corners to go into production.
There's a technical leader... if you're lucky.

Software development used to be a matter of a collection of people hacking together serviceable software and then making sure it doesn't just keel over. Now, it's that but worse because it's getting more and more difficult to find people who actually know what they're doing, while also staying within the budget management has pushed forward.

Still, you're final point is definitely true. It's probably not one single developer who messed up but a collection of developers and processes trying, against all odds, to deliver something usable.

EDIT: *Anyway. *I came here to spew my vitriol over iLok's awful updates that now also fucked over my licenses. I can't believe how much they suck. Ffs.


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