Installing Autocad 2013 on 2nd pc, serial number invalid

[as-it]

We just purchased a laptop for one of our engineers so they can work on autocad at home.  I was under the impression that the autocad 2013 single user license can be installed on a 2nd machine as long as long as you follow the rules in terms of service.  I installed autocad successfuly on the laptop, however wehen I go to activate it tells me the serial number I entered is not valid.  

Anyone I can contact about this?  I'm new to the autodesk community but I'm a little surprised that software that costs $4k+ a seat doesn't have phone support.   

[DarrenP]

who did you buy the software from?

and also what support plan did you buy:http://www.autodesk.com/subscription/technical-support

possible causes: http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Error-S...

[as-it]

Purchased from Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/AutoCAD-1-Year-Autodesk-Subscription-Version/dp/B007MF71ZI/ref=sr_1_4?s=softwa... (btw it's the PC version, not MAC).  

Looks like it came with 1 year subscription but was purchased more than a year ago.  

[jessica.t]

Hi @as-it,

When you buy a license with one year of Subscription, that service includes a free upgrade to the next release. However, if you do not renew your Subscription you keep the upgraded version of your license but have to forfeit your previous version. If you were to continue on with the Subscription service you would have previous versions rights and get to use the 2013 and 2014 versions of your product.

The exception to this rule would be that if you never activated the upgrade (the 2014) you can still manually activate the previous version (2013) which requires contacting the Activation and Licensing team.

I saw that you already contacted the Activation and Registration team for assistance which is the best option. They will be able to provide you the upgraded serial number and help you with the activation. For all other customers, please use these steps to contact them:

1.    Visit http://knowledge.autodesk.com/contactus
2.    Select “Activation & Registration” or “License Management”
3.    Select appropriate subtopics from the pull-down menus
4.    Select “I Still Need Help”  if you need personal assistance

Thanks!

[as-it]

Jessica,  

Sorry, I haven't had much involvment with Autocad other than order the software for our engineers.  Are you saying because we purchased with the 1 year subscription, we could have upgraded to 2014 when it came out?  I wasn't aware of that, either were my engineers, so we're still using 2013.  In that case, you're saying that I can manually activate the second pc by contacting support (if so, that's what i've done)?  

If I had updated to 2014 and didn't renew our subscription, could I have still installed 2014 on two pc's?  Would just like to know how this all works for future reference. Thank you.  

[jessica.t]

No problem at all! As the 2013 license was purchased with Subscription, that means it has already been upgraded to the 2014. That's why you're receiving the invalid serial number error. If you were to activate the 2014 you would then not be able to use the 2013.

You will only need a manual activation to continue to use the 2013 as that license has been marked upgraded and is no longer on Subscription which means no more use of previous versions unless the 2014 hasn't been activated.

If you choose to activate the 2014, you will need to remove the 2013 from the other machines to be compliant. I hope this makes sense! I know it's a lot of information. Let me know if you need anything else or respond to your case. Thanks!

[as-it]

OK, still a little confused.  You're saying our 2013 license has already been upgraded to a 2014 license, even though we haven't installed 2014 on the engineers pc (he's still running 2013)?  I'm confused where you say "unless the 2014 hasn't been activated,"  I don't believe we've activated it, unless it's automatically converted to a 2014 license when version 2014 is realeased?

I just want to install autodesk on both machines.  Should I upgrade them both to 2014?  Is there a way I can get a version working on both machines now without waiting for support?  

Thank you.  

[jessica.t]

A license can be marked upgraded without the new license have been activated. That's why we allow you to activate a previous version before activating the upgrade.

The choice is yours, if you want to stick with the 2013 you can continue to do so or you can activate the 2014 and forfeit the 2013. Just be aware that once you activate the 2014, the 2013 becomes permanently unavailable for use as you have forfeited the previous in place of the newer version.

If you want to continue with the 2013 the Activation and Registration department will continue with the manual activation. If you want to start using the 2014 they will provide you that serial number information.

Apologies for all of the back and forth but I hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any further questions or please reply to your case.

Thanks!

[as-it]

OK,

I've talked to the engineer and they would like to upgrade to 2014.  So, how do we go about doing this?  Would we just download autocad 2014 and install over 2013 with the same serial number?  Do we need to contact anyone for a new serial number?

Is there an upgrade option from within autocad? 

[jessica.t]

Hi again! I've just contacted the Activation and Registration department asking them to process your request as soon as possible. If you would like to download AutoCAD 2014 you may do so directly through our Virtual Agent. You can run it as a trial for up to 30 days and then once you have your serial number you can activate the product into a perpetual license.

Each release has a different serial number and installation. The Activation and Registration department will get back to you with this information.

Thanks!

[as-it]

Support sent me all the activation info for 2013.  As i'd imagine it will take forever to get this sorted out with 2014, we'll just stick with 2013.  Thanks for your help.  

[jessica.t]

Sorry to hear that it took so long to receive the activation information but I'm glad that you finally got everything that you needed. And you always have the option to use the 2014 in the future if you decide to do so. If you have any other questions or concerns please don't hesitate to let us know.

Thank you!