Photo Mechanic has been deactivated two times

[robert s.]

Hy,

have a little problem here. I'm just on vacation and not at home. I have my Surface with me an I am using PM on it since 6 months without problems.

When I first started PM here it has been deactivated and needed a registration. Fortunately I have the Serial with me and Internet at the Hotel. Now two days later PM has been deactivated again.

What could be the Problem.

The next three days I'm without Internet and cannot do a reregistration if PM will be deactivated.

Greetings
Robert

[Kirk Baker]

Robert,

have a little problem here. I'm just on vacation and not at home. I have my Surface with me an I am using PM on it since 6 months without problems.

When I first started PM here it has been deactivated and needed a registration. Fortunately I have the Serial with me and Internet at the Hotel. Now two days later PM has been deactivated again.

What could be the Problem.

The next three days I'm without Internet and cannot do a reregistration if PM will be deactivated.

What is changing on your system?  PM shouldn't spontaneously become deactivated.

-Kirk

[robert s.]

Hy Kirk,

it's a MS Surface, so nothing has changed at the Hardware and I haven't installed any new Programms.

I have connected a smartphone for the first time, so the driver for it has been installed and here at the hotel is a very instabil Internet Connection.

[robert s.]

- Is there a Logfile where PM writes down, why it has been deactivated?

- On which changes will PM be deactivated?

[Kirk Baker]

Robert,

- Is there a Logfile where PM writes down, why it has been deactivated?

- On which changes will PM be deactivated?

Your computer reports an "ID" to Photo Mechanic when Photo Mechanic asks for it.  If this ID changes, then PM will think that the activation data written to your hard drive no longer applies and will act like it has not been activated.  Generally, installing drivers shouldn't change this ID.

-Kirk

[robert s.]

Hy Kirk

I think I had much luck. The last two days without Internet PM worked fine. This morning I closed PM and turned of my tablet. Now I started my tablet and PM wants to register. 

I don't know what could happened, that PM has been deactivated.

[Kirk Baker]

Robert,

I think I had much luck. The last two days without Internet PM worked fine. This morning I closed PM and turned of my tablet. Now I started my tablet and PM wants to register. 

I don't know what could happened, that PM has been deactivated.

PM doesn't "phone home" once it has been registered (though it will check for updates).  I suggest calling support and they'll try and figure out what is going on.  +1 503-547-2888

-Kirk

[robert s.]

Hy,

it seems, that calling the support has brought the Solution.

Maybe it is interesting for other users, if this problems occurs.

The cause of the problem was the activationfile, which is on windows located in C:\ProgramData\Camera Bits, Inc\Photo Mechanic. (The folder ProgramData is hidden by standard)
The Solution for me was to blow away this file, start Photo Mechanic with "Run as Administrator" and do the activation again. Since I have done this, the Problem has occured no more.

If another Programm changes this file, changing the modified date is enough, Photo Mechanic maybe will be deactivated too.

[Eric]

I too have had issues with running PM on a Surface Pro 3 in terms of ACTIVATION. Twice now I have run PM only to be greeted with a registration window. The first time in June I called Bob who reset my activation count back to 2. This week it has happened yet AGAIN. I think Bob was skeptical that this was happening but the machine ID shows that in fact this is the same machine that I have now had to activate for the THIRD time this year. It appears this is happening when the Surface updates the OS (Win 7) and needless to say calling CB to have my activations properly counted is becoming a pain. As it stands I'm still waiting to have the activation count fixed since talking to Bob yesterday. Bob asked for and received a  screen capture of my machine ID screen that should show 2 of those activation are for the same computer. FWIW I really wish the PM activation was more like the Adobe CC login where a user can just log into their account and deactivate all the computers associated with a license and then go back in and activate the machines. At least that would remove the need to call CB monthly.   

[Kirk Baker]

I too have had issues with running PM on a Surface Pro 3 in terms of ACTIVATION. Twice now I have run PM only to be greeted with a registration window. The first time in June I called Bob who reset my activation count back to 2. This week it has happened yet AGAIN. I think Bob was skeptical that this was happening but the machine ID shows that in fact this is the same machine that I have now had to activate for the THIRD time this year. It appears this is happening when the Surface updates the OS (Win 7) and needless to say calling CB to have my activations properly counted is becoming a pain. As it stands I'm still waiting to have the activation count fixed since talking to Bob yesterday. Bob asked for and received a  screen capture of my machine ID screen that should show 2 of those activation are for the same computer.

Reactivating on the same computer should not cause one of your available activations to get used up.  Something about your computer must be changing in order for PM to think that it is no longer activated and this difference in identification is causing our licensing server to assign a new activation to it.  It would be good to find out what about your computer is changing such that when we ask the OS to identify it, the OS gives us a new ID.

FWIW I really wish the PM activation was more like the Adobe CC login where a user can just log into their account and deactivate all the computers associated with a license and then go back in and activate the machines. At least that would remove the need to call CB monthly.

Completely changing our activation system at this time is just not going to happen, and a great number of customers we surveyed are not interested in a monthly subscription.  Given your THIRD reactivation, I'm assuming that you're really not having to call for help monthly, right?

Let's find out what is going on with your system's ID and track it.  An adjustment to the identification system may need to be made.  Please let me know if you're interested in getting to the bottom of this issue.

The same offer goes out to Robert as well.

-Kirk

[robert s.]

Hy Kirk,

I am definitely interested. Yesterday I had to reactivate PM again. So the next try I made, according to the hotline, is an exclusion of the folder, where the activationfile lies, in my antivirus Programm.
I used PM for six months on this Surface 3 Pro without any problem of the activation. In June I had to reinstall the Surface, and since then this problem occurs. A big difference to the former installation is the antivirus programm. Now I use Avira free, and on the former installation I used Avast free.

I think the updates of the Surface could be a cause for the problem, but not the only one. On vacation I had to reactivate PM many times in 10 Days. So there where not so much Updates at this time. After vacation I had not used PM so much. I will try to restart PM for the next days often to see very fast, if the exclusion in the antivirus programm could be the solution.

[jwvaughn]

Just a thought here... my wife's table changes the NIC address every time it is powered off then on. Is it possible the Surface is doing the same and causing the problem?

NIC's used to be hard coded but apparently not any more as I have learned there are other devices that exhibit the same behavior.

Jerry

[robert s.]

Just a thought here... my wife's table changes the NIC address every time it is powered off then on. Is it possible the Surface is doing the same and causing the problem?

NIC's used to be hard coded but apparently not any more as I have learned there are other devices that exhibit the same behavior.

Jerry

Hy,

do you mean the Mac-Adress? I also think the Mac-Adress should not change and I am sure for 99%, that it is not changing on the Surface, but I will have a look to verify this.

[Eric]

Kirk I'd be happy to provide whatever information or logs you may need to track this down. Windows 10 will be out at the end of the month and I fully expect this to happen again at that time.  Given that I have called in June, July and now expect that I will need to call again in August I'd say we're on track to make this a monthly 'chat'.  Feel free to tell me what you need or what you would like me to install so that we can track this.

Sorry if I sound harsh but  a few (2?) years ago CB ran me like a circus poodle when my activation count hit some internal limit. In the end I was forced to dig up and send in receipts for laptops and hard drives to so that I could prove that in fact I really did upgrade computers all those times. I'm just not willing to get to that point again, so now each time I know I'm activating a machine that shouldn't bump the count I'm going to hound the issue and make sure that the count is correct... Which as of this morning it still hasn't been corrected.

[Eric]

Jerry I doubt that it's the MAC address in my case as for a time I was on an AP that only allowed pre-authorized mac addresses to access the network. If the mac were changing I would have not been able to access that network. But it's something to keep an eye on. I have no idea how PM validates hardware so you could be right. Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this.