Installation & Licensing

[#1]

In our studio, we have been using XP Professional 64-bit for a long time. We are switching to Windows 7 64-bit, so I have been tasked with backing up machines and transferring licenses.

Yesterday, I go to export the Max 2012 license from my machine, and everything seemed to go smoothly. I logged in, and it reported that it had been successfully stored on the autodesk server. Then I tried to export my 2011 and earlier licenses (we still have some plugins that require older versions of max), however the utility will no longer run. Not for any version of Max, even the one that ran just a few moments prior.

So, I'm pretty annoyed, but I have the most important license safely on the server, and I have a clone of the drive before I made any changes, so I'm not afraid of data loss or anything like that, so I proceed.

I'm now in a fresh installation of Windows 7.. Completely clean install. Install Max...DONE Run License Transfer Utility...NOTHING.

That stupid program still won't run.. I've never used something as flaky in my entire computing life. If you are going to use this method for managing something as important as software licenses, then you need to make sure it works at the very least. I found a few threads taking about how buggy it is. Some suggested deleting certain files to fix it. I tried everything I could but many of those files don't even exist on this hard drive yet because it's a completely new install. What exactly am I supposed to do now?

Our entire studio is due for this upgrade, I know there are a few unclaimed licenses on our subscription that can be used for anyone with immediate needs, but we are going to run out of licenses before everyone is set up. How exactly am I supposed to fix this? Who do I contact to get all of our licenses put back into the subscription pool, so that I can just register our Max installations without that crappy License Transfer Utility?

[#2]

Forget the LTU.  It never works.  It ran out of unemployment long ago. 

Since you are retiring your systems, simply activate them on the new systems.  If you are out of activations, have Autodesk provide you an activation code manually.  Call the activation department at 1-800-551-1490 > Option 1 (English) > Option 1 (stand-alone) and they will get you all set up. 

Good Luck!

[#3]

Thanks for your quick and painful response

I hate having to deal with stuff over the phone when it should work fine using their utility, but if that's the way it has to be, then I guess I'll have to deal.

Is it common knowledge that this LTU software just plain doesn't work? Because I honestly had no idea. I don't know if I should be ok accepting the fact that they haven't put one tiny amount of effort into fixing it. Putting some visible error codes in there would have been nice at the very least.

[#4]

You can do a search for it and see how painful it is for everyone else.  The PLU, LTU, OLT, POS, whatever it has called itself over the years has worked less than 0% of the time.  Some people get lucky, but for the most part, trying to fix the LTU issue takes a lot more work than just getting an activation code and back up and running.  Production is more important sometimes than troubleshooting the problem. 

[#5]

Hi Daz, sorry to hear you are having difficulty, this problem has been identified and I have outlined the way to handle it in this blog post:

The License Transfer Utility doesn’t start

[#6]

And what does one do when an often-used LTU suddenly fails to open and Autocad, too, fails to open?

[#7]

Answer:  

1. Delete the LTU files to return ACAD to an unactivated state.  

2.  Attempt to open Autocad, with success.

3. Try to reactivate, using the current serial number, without success.

4. Try to reactivate, using the prior serial number, without success.

5. Call Activations and be informed that the current activation code fails because the new one has been distributed.  

6. Inform Actvations that the user had already attempted reactivation with the new data. Activations notes that the attempt did not registere on their end.

7. Walk through successful manual reactivation with Activations.