"You must enter a valid product key..."AnsweredLocked

Hi,Strange error from a user who has just purchased, after running through a trial period.The full error message is:

"You must enter a valid product key before activating online. Check you product key, and type it again."

The user has sent a screen grab of the turbo activate window, and it does appear to me that he has entered the correct product key into the Product Key: field. The error message seems to imply that the key has failed a basic validation test (i.e. the key hasn't even been sent to the server for validation). I have tried activating the user's key myself, and no problems there.

Any ideas? User is in Russia. Also note that the user has tried on a different machine with no issues, and he has tried on multiple occasions for the machine which is failing.

thanks,Matt

Answer

Hey Matt,

The first thing you should do is make sure your app is using the latest version of TurboActivate. Currently that's 3.4.6, but we release new versions all the time. Download & see the latest version on your API page.

Next make sure the customer is actually copying & pasting the product key. If they're just typing it then they might be confusing certain letters.

Also, make sure they're using a real product key (not a trial extension) and they're putting it in the product key entry box.

Lastly, if all of things have been done, make sure the customer hasn't tampered with your product.

Hi Sam,First up, we are currently deploying v3.4.0 of TA. Is there anything you can think of that would be different here? It would be a big pain to make a maintenance release for just this issue now so we will avoid it if we can. I've not seen this error before, with about 1000 active users. As a follow-up here - is it possible to send the user the new version of TA and have him run that independently? That might be worth a try, if so.

As far as I can tell from the screen shot the customer has sent, he has entered the key absolutely correctly. I assume via cut & paste. Could the Russian locale affect things here?

He is definitely using a real key, that he has recently purchased.

How would tampering affect things here? I did have some issues with users circumventing the trial (especially in Russia, actually), and took measures to prevent that behaviour by limiting the features in trial mode. This *could* be a user that has decided to "go legit" (I don't want to cast aspersions - I don't know if this is the case in this situation) . Could prior tampering affect this transition? If so, how to resolve? Of course, I want to welcome all such prior-miscreants into the fold 🙂

thanks,Matt

First up, we are currently deploying v3.4.0 of TA. Is there anything you can think of that would be different here?

A large number of bug fixes. A couple to CheckAndSavePKey(). So, maybe. You should update to the latest version, regardless.

As a follow-up here - is it possible to send the user the new version of TA and have him run that independently?

No, that's not a good idea. You should include the latest "integration files" for using the TurboActivate.dll, rebuild your app, and include the latest version in your app.

As far as I can tell from the screen shot the customer has sent, he has entered the key absolutely correctly. I assume via cut & paste. Could the Russian locale affect things here?

No.

Could prior tampering affect this transition? If so, how to resolve?

Yes. Get them to uninstall your app then re-install your app.

Hi Sam,Thanks.

Uninstalling did not help - what needs to be reset here? I can't imagine uninstalling the app would do much that would affect LM.

There must be something else I can try (offline activation?) as I can't make a rapid maintenance release with the new LM (which may or may not fix the problem), and I am about to have to refund a $200 sale here.

thanks,Matt

One further small piece of info: we tried the offline activation route, but the same error occurs when entering the key during this process.What validation occurs at this stage? I am surprised it is more than a simple check on length/format, or has there been a round trip before this message?

Running out of things to try here..

thanks,Matt

Hi Sam,Further info: latest version of LM does not solve the problem (created a release for him). He has two machines, one that works OK, one not. Both W7 64 bit. The failing machine is the one on which our product was previously installed as a trial.thanks,Matt

Uninstalling did not help - what needs to be reset here? I can't imagine uninstalling the app would do much that would affect LM.

Uninstalling would delete any modified files (TurboActivate.dll / TurboActivate.exe, TurboActivate.dat). That's assuming your installer blindly removes files even if they're different (look at your installer and see if it does that).

One further small piece of info: we tried the offline activation route, but the same error occurs when entering the key during this process.What validation occurs at this stage? I am surprised it is more than a simple check on length/format, or has there been a round trip before this message?

The key needs to be valid and it needs to successfully save to the disk.

My guess (if everything is legit with the customer -- that is, they're not modifying files or trying anything unusual): the product key / activation files are failing to be created.

Are you using the TurboActivate Wizard? If so, have them run that "elevated" (so the UAC prompt pops up) by right clicking the file and clicking "Run as admin". Then have them run through the activation process. If you're not using the TurboActivate Wizard, then have them "Run as admin" whatever process accepts the product keys and runs the activations process.

If that doesn't work then the customer might have to delete the product key and activation files/folders and try the "Run as admin" process again.

Thanks Sam. I have communicated this to the user and I will let you know if we have any further issues.

Matt

Hi Sam,Unfortunately the "run as admin" has also failed. I'm out of ideas on this one - do you have any more suggestions please?

thanks,Matt

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Thanks Sam - this has worked!Thanks for your patience. I don't know what the customer did, but perhaps I have my suspicions.. the good news I guess is that some of these users are now buying licenses 🙂

Matt

Great, I'm glad it worked!