iLok Failure Plan

[Mick F. Cantarella]

The other day I started up a Pro Tools session and all my plug ins asked for their authorizations. After reinserted the iLok into my USB hub, everything started up just fine. This was my wake up call. I need to make a step by step plan for when/if my iLok fails. What does one do (step by step) when their iLok fails? I already have an unregistered back up iLok by the way.

Thanks a bunch, -Mick
Mac 933 / 750 RAM / OS 9.2.2 / HD3 / two 192’s / PT v.5.3.1r2

[auxsend1]

Most of the issues I hear of are remedied by simply reseating the iLok or trying a different USB port. If you actually have an iLok go bad, you're going to need to get in touch with all the plugin makers that you bought from. Waves recommends for this very reason that you dedicate a separate iLok to Waves products. That way you could send them it (I figure) and they could just reissue licenses for what you already bought.

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Read this thread

Rail

[rtcstudio]

My iLok failed this morning.

Worked fine yesterday. Today it was completely dead. I fired up the rig and started ProTools. All the plugins were asking for authorizatioins. I run to the machine room and reseat the iLok. That's when I realize that the green LED is not glowing. I try it in another Mac. No go, it's dead. I have ultra conditioned power, uninterruptible power etc. Besides, the Pro Tools rig was shut down last night.

So the 30 day temporary license thing refered to in the other thread seems like a good idea IF you can get in touch with all the vendors of your plugins. Digidesign was great on the phone and promised to upload authorizations within a couple of hours. They did, but for some reason they forgot the Aphex plugins and Reverb One, so another call to tech support in the morning will be necessary.

McDsp, as always, came through with a simple email.

Wave Mechanics, er..Sound Toys came through almost instantly. Ultra Tools is there for my temporary iLok.

Sony Oxford has not uploaded my Oxford stuff, and the only means I have of contacting them is email, so I'm at the mercy of their email load. So far no response.

Same with TC Master X3. No phone, only email. So far no response.

Waves is no problem, 'cause they still use the challenge and response thing for the hard drive.

So I've been dead in the water since 10:00 AM today. It's now over 12 hours later and I can STILL NOT OPEN MY SESSIONS. One day gone.

Hopefully when I get up in the morning, I'll have assets to download from Sony and TC.

The temporary license idea is NOT acceptable because not all the vendors are easily contacted instantly. These vendors all use PACE and know that there is a failure rate of iloks (somebody said 1% failure rate, so I guess I'm safe for the rest of my life?). The temporary licenses should be readily available at ilok.com WHENEVER an ilok fails. I am a legitimate and registered user. I should be able to get those temporary licenses within 30 seconds. They could be 3 day licenses to force me to get my ilok RMA done quickly.

Depending on the response time of the rest of the vendors, I could be down one more complete day.

To their credit, PACE has already sent me the RMA info, and I've Fed Exed the faulty iLok to them today. They will Fed Ex a new/repaired one back to me tomorrow, so I guess worst case is I'll be back up and running on Thursday.

But that's still 2 days down. Not very good when you consider that I spent thousands of dollars on plugins that I can't use for two days. The PIRATES have made me suffer.

There has to be a way to protect intellectual property without making the good guys suffer.

PACE, you guys need to get with all the vendors and figure this thing out. Your solution is CLOSE, but not quite good enough. I'm just lucky that I'm working in town, with a client that lives in town and is flexible. If I was on one of my UK, Israel or other overseas gigs (that are usually time limited), or if my client was from out of town, two days down would be a deal breaker.

[Rail Jon Rogut]

What I've decided to do is keep each vendor on a separate iLok, just in case.

Rail

[Lee Blaske]

For reliability, it's also best to use a really high quality USB hub, like the Pertech https://secure.nexusds.com/pertech/index.htm (i.e., no Belkin junk). Before I got the Pertech, I was doing the dongle dance, occasionally needing to move and reseat things. I'm sure that wasn't doing my iLoks any favors. Since the Pertech, everything fires up first time, every time.

Lee Blaske

[Avid]

rtcstudio wrote:

So the 30 day temporary license thing refered to in the other thread seems like a good idea IF you can get in touch with all the vendors of your plugins. Digidesign was great on the phone and promised to upload authorizations within a couple of hours. They did, but for some reason they forgot the Aphex plugins and Reverb One, so another call to tech support in the morning will be necessary.

That won't be necessary. I checked your iLok account again and determined that I had missed depositing 30 day authorizations for Aphex Aural Exciter & Big Bottom Pro and Reverb One. Both of those were indeed registered on your previous iLok. I think I might have missed the Aphex plug-ins earlier because those aren't listed on your regular product registration records for some reason. Reverb One is registered, though, so I just missed that one by accident when Tech Support originally asked me to upload your temporary assets.

Anyway, my apologies, and I just finished depositing both of those assets (Aphex and Reverb One) so you can get them anytime.

Bruce

[rtcstudio]

Rail,

So you have an incredibly large USB hub? With plugins and virtual synth/samplers you could easily have more than 10 iLoks. You hang all those off one hub??

Lee,

while as always I appreciate your excellence in knowing the greatest hardware and agree with you, this does nothing to address the issue that our professional life is dangling by a dongle.

No matter how well we all prepare or how good our equipment is there are going to be failures. We go to great lengths to back up our work (drives) so that we can be up and running in case of a drive failure. Some of us have more than one computer system in case of a computer failure. But the iLok cannot at this time be backed up. Having an iLok account helps, but it should facilitate an almost instant solution in case the little thing decides to fail. AS I'm finding out it is far from any quick solution.

I think the ilok is a good device, but PACE and the vendors need to get this thing a little more together. So far I have three vendors who have failed to provide me with temporary licenses (or any response at all). In all likelyhood I will get my newly fixed iLok back from PACE before I get all the temporary licenses I need. That's a two day turnaround any way you look at it.

Two days is too long for a legitimate owner to go without the software that he or she owns. Hardware fails. And even though the ilok supposedly only has a 1% failure rate, that's no excuse for PACE and the vendors that use this technology NOT to have a virtually instant solution for their customers when they fall into that small percentage.

[rtcstudio]

Anyway, my apologies, and I just finished depositing both of those assets (Aphex and Reverb One) so you can get them anytime.

Bruce

Thanks, Bruce, and let me say for the record that Digidesign was one of the fastest in helping me out. If every one had responded as quickly as you did, I'd have been mixing again around lunchtime. I wish that there was a way for Digidesign to be the one call I had to make in this instance, a sort of clearing house for Plugins used in ProTools, but I know that's probably not feasible.

[Mick F. Cantarella]

Hi, I am just trying to get this thread back on track to get my question answered. Digi feel free to chime in. I am well aware the iLok is problematic, and another thread would be more appropriate for suggesting better ways for Digi and PACE to handle the technology. Right now I need to know how to be prepared for an iLok failure today, and what I should do if that should happen. It could look something like this...

Right now...
1. Register your iLok with ilok.com
2. Buy a back up iLok and register that with ilok.com

If your iLok should fail...
1. ???

Thanks a bunch for any suggestions, -Mick