Autodesk AutoCAD Services & Support

Product reactivation FAQs

Scenario

Frequently asked questions about reactivation of Autodesk products.

What is the difference between activation and reactivation?

When a stand-alone Autodesk product is installed for the first time on a computer, the license must be activated for it to work beyond its trial period. Activation is accomplished by sending your serial number, a request code, and registration data to Autodesk via a secure Internet connection or email. That information is used to validate the license and to generate an activation code for that installation of the product.

Reactivation is required when the previous activation of a product is somehow invalidated on the computer. The license will attempt to silently and automatically reactivate. If it cannot automatically reactivate, or if automatic reactivation has happened too many times over a certain period of months, you will be prompted to manually reactivate the product. At that point, reactivation requires the same steps and information as initial activation of the product.

See also: How to Activate & Register Autodesk software.


What can trigger a reactivation to occur?

The following activities can invalidate a license, resulting in a need for reactivation:

  • Significantly changing the primary boot disk
  • Changing too many hardware components at once (hard drive, graphics card, RAM, NIC, etc.)
  • Tampering with the activation services or the software license files
  • Modifying the system date or time properties on a computer that has a time-limited software license
  • Reinstalling your operating system
  • Using the License Transfer Utility to export a license from a computer and then trying to run that product on the same computer
  • Installing from a hard disk image, created using Ghost or another cloning software package, where the original Master Boot Record was included in the image.

What happens if I’ve reached my reactivation limit?

If you have exceeded the number of allowed automatic reactivations, you will need to contact Autodesk where you will be able to provide information to explain why additional activations are required.


How can I avoid reactivation issues when needing to change hardware on my computer?

To prevent a break in your product license when changing hardware, use the License Transfer Utility to export your license before making the change. After the hardware change, use the License Transfer Utility again to import the license file back to the machine.

For more information on Online License Transfer, refer to the solution, How to transfer (move) Stand-Alone Licenses.



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  • Document Information

    Published date: 2012-Apr-18
    ID: GS17996352

     

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