Subscription Licensing

[bsneddon]

Why on earth don't you have an installation support person I can call directly? I've been trying to install my subscription service for Revit and AutoCAD since Wednesday. For the first 7 hours Wednesday night, one or more item would fail to install. (I'm installing on a brand new Windows machine bought specifically to run this software) Today I found a forum post that said I should try to download and install directly from my machine rather than using the web install. That seemed to work until I tried to open the software. I says I need to contact my administrator to request permission to use the product. Yet my serial number appears in the same screen. Now I read that this means the license is out of sync and has to be reset by the Front Desk Team.

During the past 24 hours I've also called multiple times to multiple numbers for help. Only to end up speaking with someone who's English is nearly incoherent and cannot help me in the least. All they can do is open a ticket while I sit and wait for another 24 hours for someone to contact me.

This should not be so difficult. I'm new to the Autodesk software world but I'm not new to IT. I'm a software engineer with a BS in Computer Science and have developed enterprise software for years, including installation systems, so I speak from personal experience.

I would be less frustrated with the poor installation process if I could at least call someone directly who could help me resolve this installation/license issue. I'm sure they could help me in a matter of minutes. It appears the actual tech support team is purposely removed from direct contact with the customer by a layer of non technical phone support, who's main duty is to write issue tickets and apologize to aggravated customers. Direct phone numbers/emails appear to be either obfuscated or non-existent.

If I am missing something, please point me in the right direction. Perhaps to a direct phone number to someone in tech support with subscription/license savvy.

Thank you

(Sorry for the rant but I've spent the last 30 hours trying to open a cad program and start using it.)

[Otto · Accepted solution]

Hello bsneddon and welcome to the Autodesk community!

It looks like you need to find out more about downloading or re-downloading software, or are having issues that may be resolved by re-downloading.

For Windows users, before downloading products on Windows 10, please check that the product is compatible.

For general information about downloading or re-downloading (including eligibility), Community members with similar questions found the following article(s) useful:

Download Finder

Previous Versions of Autodesk Software

Download Methods

Find Your Eligibility for Previous Versions of Autodesk Software

Oftentimes installation and/or download issues can be addressed by using a different download method, or by downloading directly from the Autodesk Virtual Agent. Community members with similar issues found the following article(s) useful:

Software & Downloads

Downloading Previous Versions of Autodesk Software Using the Virtual Agent (Please be sure to disable your firewall and anti-virus before downloading)

Performing a Clean Uninstall

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[Mark.Lancaster]

@bsneddon

Welcome to the community...

Sorry to hear about this..  For the future here's a complied table with all the required links in how to find supporting documentation and the ways in which to contact Autodesk.

How did you purchase your product?  Through the on-line store or via a reseller?  Working with a reseller is the best option for you.  They can guide and help you through tough times like these.  Reseller's are required to support installation issue and to get you up and running with the common/core Autodesk products.    Buying directly from the on-line store is okay but if you don't know what type of license you're getting, the termonology and how it works,it will most definitely lead into situations like this.  I'll come back to the license thing in a minute..

When it comes to Autodesk installation issues, your best best is to come directly to this (installation and licensing) forum.   Users like @Darin.Green, @TravisNave or myself can assist you.  The easiest thing to do is to provide your installation log file and we can review the issue and point you in the right direction.  Yes it sounds like you tech savy and know a lot about computers and programs.  But if you're new to Autodesk and its applications and its licensing, stop struggling.  The best support (outside of your reseller) you can get is through these related forums and working with the user's of the products.   We may not be able to resolve the issue but like I said we will try our best to point you in the right direction.

Now back to the licensing issue..  I had asked you earlier how did you purchase your product..   Purchase in this case is not really the correct tern these days when it comes to Autodesk licensing.  You now rent the application from Autodesk or simply you get a term based (rental) license.  Under these types of license the activation of the product is done through an Autodesk Account unless you go with the network license type.  The reason you came across the message about not having permission is because the product is not assigned to the (Autodesk) named account that you are trying to launch the application under.   By default when the product is "purchased", it is automatically assigned to the person who has been designated as the contract manager for your subscription.  This individual is usually assigned this roles as the person who actually made the purchase or sent the info to Autodesk.  Did you use your contact info to "purchase" the software or did someone else in your organization do this for you?  If this was not you, do you know who this person is?  In the end the contract manager for you subscription has to log into their Autodesk Account and un-assign the "use of product" benefit from their account and then assign it to the correct user.  In addition to that, the contract manager may also need to create the user's accounts that are associated to this subscription in order to assign the benefits to them.

If in the end you are the contract manager and are signing in using the correct credentials (and still having this problem).. Then you will need to use this link to contact Autodesk and resolve an issue with your subscription.

Hopefully the information I have provided has been beneficially to you and assisted in getting you up and running.  Any questions let us know.

[bsneddon]

Mark,

Thanks for your reply. I used the link you provided to contact Autodesk through chat. The person I contacted did some research and found that my account was somehow duplicated. He said this was causing the problem. He removed the duplicate account and told me it would take 4-24 hours to propagate out. He also sent me a list of hidden files to delete if the problem persists after 24 hours.

Hopefully this solves the problem. I'm hoping to work this weekend to make up for lost time.

Thank you for your information. The person I communicated with through Autodesk chat was by far the most helpful and knowledgeable about the issue which has prevented me from running Revit.

I will post a follow up when this is resolved with the solution.

[bsneddon]

Well, I've waited more than 24 hours for my subscription to resync. According to the chat person who looked at my issue, the problem was solved. Still no change. I can't access the software I bought 4 days ago! I've wasted a dozen hours on this nonsense and lost several days of productivity. Now I'm stuck with no helpdesk support because it is the weekend. The weekend I planned to work through to make up for the lost time on this license issue. I honestly can't believe people put up this this level of non-support and lack of access to a competent human on a telephone. I spent a lot of time researching which software to choose for the projects I'm working on. Had I know it would be such a monumental task and loss of time to install a simple program, I would have never chosen to go with Revit/AutoCAD.