Unlock Limit reached - Ableton Support please look at this

Rerun · Post by **Rerun** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 2:08 pm

I am in a bit of a jam. I know it is the weekend, but I am hoping someone from Ableton will look at this. I just bought a new laptop on friday night, but I did not realize I had reached my unlock limit. I am travelling on a long flight to Asia on Sunday and I was hoping to be able to use live on the flight. Is there anyway to remove one of my unlocks? I have uninstalled Live from my old laptop. I have sent a message to ableton support, but I am pretty sure I won't hear from them until monday. I am hoping someone from ableton sees this over the weekend can help.
Please contact me at ahs28@yahoo.com if you can help.
Thanks,

Adam

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:05 pm

They're pretty good about this...just keep checking your email frequently until you have to leave.

Worst case scenario, Save is disabled, but all else is functional.

corygilbert · Post by **corygilbert** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:19 pm

yeah, if they make you wait it's only cause they might be off during the weekend.
They are very good about this. Keep checking, somebody will see it.

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 4:29 pm

did you send an email to support@ableton.com ?
Thats probably the fastest way to get a response.

Rerun · Post by **Rerun** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 5:08 pm

I did send an email to ableton support, but I thought I would post here as well in case someone from ableton saw it and could help. Is there no way to deauthorize my old laptop?
Thanks,
Adam

Rerun · Post by **Rerun** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 5:09 pm

Well, someone must have seen this and helped me out, because I was jsut able to unlock even though I did not get an email response.
Thank you very much for your quick response. Now I won't be too bored on my flight.

-Adam

Amaury · Post by **Amaury** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 5:12 pm

Rerun wrote:Well, someone must have seen this and helped me out, because I was jsut able to unlock even though I did not get an email response.
Thank you very much for your quick response. Now I won't be too bored on my flight.

-Adam

I did send you a mail, some 3 hours ago. Just saying: you should check that you don't have that mail in a junk box or something, for future communication.

best,
Amaury

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 7:00 pm

Amaury wrote:
Rerun wrote:Well, someone must have seen this and helped me out, because I was jsut able to unlock even though I did not get an email response.
Thank you very much for your quick response. Now I won't be too bored on my flight.

-Adam
I did send you a mail, some 3 hours ago. Just saying: you should check that you don't have that mail in a junk box or something, for future communication.

best,
Amaury

You might be taking the mantle from Henke as my favorite Abe. (Unfortunately, this will be really hard, as there are few geeks as lovable as Henke in the world.) Keep it up!

Action Jackson · Post by **Action Jackson** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 7:33 pm

Good service from Ableton, it seems.

Btw. what would you guys think if Ableton used the same kind of activation procedure that Native Instrument uses with NI Service Center? Does anyone have experience with it? I believe that in case of changing to a new PC, NI Service Center allows the user to deactivate the old installation and activate the product on the new PC. This way the user doesn't have to contact support when the activation has reached it's limit, i.e. the product can be installed on as many PC's as one wants, but only on one at a time? I don't know if it works well or not (I don't own any NI products yet), but to me the idea sounds like a reasonably user friendly way of dealing with licensing. Or is this one of those things that sounds good in theory but the real world is a nightmare for the user?

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 9:32 pm

I"D BE PISSED!!!!
I'd most likely continue to buy upgrades, but actually install a cracked version so as not to deal with any additional bullshit licensing software. Live's current licensing method works great, and any effort to introduce a dongle, or additional software to control licensing, or anything else that encumbers the user experience, would be a move in the wrong direction for Ableton.

I know many people who started on a Live crack, only to find the crack mysteriously stopped working after a few weeks/months, by which point they had become so addicted to Live that they went out and bought it.

Tarron_D · Post by **Tarron_D** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 9:42 pm

Well, I recently reached my limit as well. I emailed and got another one, but it worries me that I'll have to do that again if I reformat again or get a new computer. Why can't a new unlock be automatically given every few months or something? A static preset number of unlocks can't possibly be the current policy can it? I didn't pay 500 bucks to have to prove myself every time I reformat.

kenporter · Post by **kenporter** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 9:56 pm

I own NI's Komplete 4 and personally think that NI's authorization method is the best one of all of them. I don't like dongles, especially when using my laptop, and I too am a little afraid of the static authorization. I never had a problem with Ableton, but I did with Stylus RMX, and IK multimedia where I had to email them begging for more authorizations (which they gave me of course, but it wasn't instantly). The fact that I can handle my authorizations automatically online with NI beats everything imho.

Ken

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 9:56 pm

On the PC side, reformatting isn't a big deal. Just save your unlock.cfg key, and there's no need to bug Ableton. The only time you need a new unlock from the Live server is if you change your cpu or mobo or if you have a different serial number for your OS.

The unlock key is found in C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Application Data\Ableton\Live [VERSION]\Unlock\unlock.cfg

Michael Hatsis · Post by **Michael Hatsis** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 10:40 pm

nebulae wrote:On the PC side, reformatting isn't a big deal. Just save your unlock.cfg key, and there's no need to bug Ableton. The only time you need a new unlock from the Live server is if you change your cpu or mobo or if you have a different serial number for your OS.

The unlock key is found in C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Application Data\Ableton\Live [VERSION]\Unlock\unlock.cfg

Cool tip neb. haveto try this one. Now i wont have to bother the abes every couple of months for a new unlock.

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 10:46 pm

Cool. All you have to do next time you reinstall the OS is
1. Install Live
2. Run Live the first time. It'll ask for the authorization code.
3. Cancel out and quit Live. Running it will create the directory structure I mentioned.
4. Go there and put the saved unlock.cfg file from the previous install.
5. Run Live unlocked.

Also, you can save the preferences as well as your template file.