Waves auth on USB stick?

[Table Syrup Records]

The USB authorization is awesome.

As far as safety, there's license recovery offered by Waves. You can use this once a year at no charge - further, if your lost or stolen license is found after you have done the recovery, you simply connect it again, and it will 'refresh' your license recovery (resetting a year). It's a cool system... quick and easy from Central.

You can work with Offline Installers from Central as well.
So, you can keep your licenses, a copy of Central, and an installer for your plugs, all on the USB drive.... then, no matter where you are, you have everything you need to deal with your plugs, without any need for internet connection.

Slick and handy.

For the most part, my licenses live on machines and the cloud. But, when I need things mobile, and need to jump systems, this is very very handy.

[WernerF]

It's the once a year thing that worries me the most. What happens if you lose the thumb drive more than once? If you travel to different studios in different towns and countries then that is not a stretch in possibilities.

[YYR123]

Use the cloud, download the USB licenses, after sessions upload them back into the cloud

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by WernerF

It's the once a year thing that worries me the most. What happens if you lose the thumb drive more than once? If you travel to different studios in different towns and countries then that is not a stretch in possibilities.

I'm sure this will sound snarky, but it's not meant to be... Someone who loses their licenses more than once a year should probably work on their organizational skills. Or create a new account and get demo licenses when they travel, leaving the purchased licenses at home.

[Marsdy]

Originally Posted by mesaone

I'm sure this will sound snarky, but it's not meant to be... Someone who loses their licenses more than once a year should probably work on their organizational skills. Or create a new account and get demo licenses when they travel, leaving the purchased licenses at home.

I think WernerF has a point. I get what you're saying but you can't predict the unpredictable.

[WernerF]

Originally Posted by Marsdy

I think WernerF has a point. I get what you're saying but you can't predict the unpredictable.

Exactly. Whether you lose a drive or not is not the point. It's just that it's possible and not planning for possibilities is not great business practice.

And by the way, in answer to YYR, using the cloud IS what I do. This is a discussion about the possible shortcomings of the USB drive authorization method.

[YYR123]

Of course, that's why I mentioned the hybrid approach

B/c if it's a flaw in the USB method, then the hybrid approach may be the best or at least better than the USB method alone

[Marsdy]

Originally Posted by YYR123

Of course, that's why I mentioned the hybrid approach

B/c if it's a flaw in the USB method, then the hybrid approach may be the best or at least better than the USB method alone

I've lost count of the number of times my iCloud documents, Pages, Numbers etc. have lost "sync". #littlefaith

[DJbrimLo]

Installing my Waves Authorizations onto my USB drive has been the most flexible options for me. It allows me to bounce back and forth between my laptop and desktop with ease.

[simon.a.billington]

Admittedly using a USB drive for authorisation isn't ideal, as is using something like an iLok. There is no ideal system unfortunately. If it weren't for the shameless crackers and pirates, it wouldn't even be necessary.

You can only do the best you can with the tools they give you. At least Waves does allow licenses to be installed on a machine as well. They also give you the flexibility to transfer them back to the cloud on a whim. There's quite a bit of freedom just in that. Of course if you haven't transferred your licenses ahead of time, you're also going to have a bad time.

Waves will help you recover licenses once a year, more than that requires updating WUP. In all fairness many devs charge for license transfers anyway, plus you get more for your WUP. This isn't perfect either, but nothing ever is.

The only perfect licensing system is NO licensing system. Unfortunately, we'll never see a day when that happens while there are so many dishonest people out there. You just have to take what you have and do the best you can with it.