Verified trials not working any more (always TA_E_EXPIRED)Solved

More information is needed. (Also, in the future don't post the same message to forum and all of our emails -- one will suffice).

TA_E_EXPIRED has an error description. Did you follow the instructions? See TurboActivate.h

/* MessageId: TA_E_EXPIRED Message code (in Hex): 0xD Message code (in Decimal): 13

MessageText:

The activation has expired or the system time has been tampered with. Ensure your time, timezone, and date settings are correct.

If you know for sure the offline activation (or offline verified trial) has not expired, then the problem is fraudulent date/time/timezone. To fix the problem do the following in order, don't skip a step:

1. Fix the timezone on the device. 2. Fix the date on the device. 3. Fix the time on the device. 4. Restart the device.

Step 1 is critical. As is step 4.*/

Follow every step, and tell me if it works. If not, more information is needed:

https://wyday.com/limelm/help/faq/#useful-reports

Os, OS version, TA version, steps to reproduce, etc., etc.

Hello Wyatt,

Using TA 4.0.96 (up-to-date, latest version).We tested on 4 different machines, all MacBookPro on macOS 10.12.6 or macOS 10.13.6 : the problem was the same (the extension returns TA_E_EXPIRED). I tried on another network, same problem.

We restarted all machines : the extension worked on one machine but not on others machines (TA_E_EXPIRED, despite it can be used several times).Try with a second an fresh extension : same problem, even on the machine where the first extension worked finally. Try with a third one, same problem.

The unverified trials work correctly.

I sent an email first, but last time it took 10 days to get a reply, so I post on the forum as well (to check if some other people also had the same issue).Also, in the email, you got the exact code to invoke that isn't working on my machine. So easy to try to reproduce on your own dev machine : did you try to do so ?

Thank you. Philippe

We cannot reproduce this. We're still looking into it.

Hello.

I tried from the example you provide on your website. Nothing fancy.I still get the error.

So I sent you a code example via your email support. It's ready to be used (with right guid, numbers, ...).

Thank you for your prompt reply : it's urgent, sorry about that. But we used the verified trials/extensions system during one year without problem. And suddently, without any change on our side, it's broken.

Best. Philippe

Were digging more into this tomorrow.

Hello Wyatt,

I don't know what exactly happening on your side, but here is what I noted :- after my previous message, none of my extensions worked any more (the ones I created for test purposes)- 2 hours later, the very same extensions were working perfectly (both in the example I sent you, and in our product); I also get a normal TA_E_TRIAL_EUSED result if I tried to use again the extensions- right now, I created some 10 new extensions : 2 of them worked, the other failed (TA_E_EXPIRED); I tried to create new ones but now, they all failed

It's a bit crazy to understand. Are you seeing something on your server-side ?Did you try my example and had the same problem ?

Tomorrow, we're releasing the V3 of our leading-product (after one year of beta where verified trials/extensions worked nicely), and we really want to provide an extension to our customers (that are all demanding professional people).

Thank you. Philippe

We're looking into it right now. We won't have answers for you until we know what's going wrong.

We were able to reproduce this on one macOS machine. We've temporarily worked around the problem (server side) by making the time checking slightly less strict server-side until we can determine the cause of the problem.

It's looking like the problem was caused by an updated (and buggy) time library used server-side. We're still digging into the cause, though.

Tell me if you're still getting this problem from this moment forward.

Thank you for the explanations.The problem persists : I tried with 4 several extensions, and it always returns TA_E_EXPIRED.

Is the problem only on macOS machine ? Do you know when it started (days, months ago ?)Is there a limit about how many extensions you can use per day (on the same machine) ?Is your workaround fixing the problem on your macOS machine ?

Thank you.

Thanks for reporting this, Philippe.

Here's where we stand right now (this moment):

1. We were able to narrow down the incorrect "TA_E_EXPIRED" error being returned due to a bug on the server.

2. This bug was caused by an update to a library used in other software in a normal maintenance release. In other words, this wasn't some major upgrade (we tend to avoid those near holidays).

3. We've removed the server-side checking of date validity for the time being while we investigate the actual cause / bugfix to the upstream software. This means verified trials / trial extensions will work again for macOS.

4. We're investigating the best course of action to make an actual fix.

I might update this topic again when we rollout the actual fix (it depends on when we solve it). But please let me know if you see this pop up again.

Hello. Thank you, the workaround is working.I checked with several machines, from several networks, in several conditions : the extensions are all working fine (I tested a dozen of them).

I'll monitor this on a regular basis, just to check the problem doesn't come back.

We've found the buggy library, rolled it back, re-enabled our time-checking server-side, and written a systems check to ensure that 3rd party time-lib bugs won't effect us going forward.

We've also reported the bugs to the appropriate up-stream buggy software.

Sorry for the trouble.

All right, thank you for the fix.I tested with several extensions, and no problem.