Having trouble activating/opening PT 12 on my new PC

[cmhawke]

Hi, I originally purchased Pro Tools 11 and later upgraded to Pro Tools 12. For the software itself (not support/upgrades), these were perpetual purchases, not subscriptions.

After not having used Pro Tools for a while, I re-downloaded Pro Tools 12 on my new PC and am trying to activate it. I have my iLok 2 plugged in.

I'm not having luck either opening Pro Tools or iLok License Manager in getting Pro Tools 12 to work on my PC.

When I try to open Pro Tools 12, it says Select License to Activate and then a message (see left of attached screenshot).

Meanwhile, in iLok License Manager, the "Activate" button is disabled and nothing is shown in "Select a location" (see attached screenshot).

Can someone make sense of what's going on here and advise how to resolve the issue?

[Ben Jenssen]

Please provide system info.
Is the new pc running win 11?
Then that might be the cause of the problem. Incompatibility with ilok manager and pt12.

[cmhawke]

Originally Posted by Ben Jenssen

Please provide system info.
Is the new pc running win 11?
Then that might be the cause of the problem. Incompatibility with ilok manager and pt12.

Testing reply... keep getting an access denied error from duc when I try to post anything of substance.

edit: Windows 11. Also fails on macOS 12.3, where Pro Tools 11 and 12 even fail to open. So you're saying I'd have to downgrade OS (not doing).

[Darryl Ramm]

Don't know about Windows 11, but Pro Tools 12 ancientware sure won't run on recent macOS release like 12.3, or anything close, just wasting your time even trying. Lots of past posts on DUC about macOS compatibility.

Ideally you should be relying on what is officially supported: https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...tibility-Chart

[cmhawke]

So software that was released a mere 5 years ago is already obsolete to the point of being unopenable. That's unusual. And makes me wary of investing $600 in another perpetual license seeing as it's hardly perpetual if the software is only good for several years if you keep your OS up-to-date (without renewing continuously for upgrades; i.e. not perpetual).

I also have a perpetual license for Adobe CS6, released in 2003, almost 20 years ago, that still works great on Windows 11 and macOS 12.3. If PT software/OS incompatibility is indeed the reason for the issue here, is what Avid doing legal? I paid many hundreds for a perpetual license and subsequent renewal that in effect worked for a few years. Feeling sorta scammed tbh.

[Darryl Ramm]

Your perpetual versions worked on what they were released on, Avid has been very very clearly made clear that they no longer provide free updates to perpetual license. If you don't agree with that then use another DAW, there are no end of fantastic DAW products out there, almost all with better pricing and less onerous issues than Avid inflicts on it's users. But there should be no reason any of this is a surprise to you.

CS6 on macOS 12 is on it's last legs, not officially supported, Adobe is impressively going beyond and above to keep it's legacy users happy but I expect the day is coming when this will stop working. But you can't really compare Adobe, a wonderfully successful company (ex Adobe person here) with perpetually struggling Avid.

[cmhawke]

I always knew, including at time of purchase, that updates weren't free after a year. That's not the complaint. The complaint is the software I paid perpetually for essentially only worked for a few years from its release, which is ridiculous. I already own other DAWs which I'll definitely continue using now after this discovery. Thanks for the help.

[cmhawke]

Ok, I resolved the issue on Windows 11. It wasn't an OS compatibility issue, at least with Windows 11. Something funky was going on with the licenses in relation to the iLok. The licenses were still on the iLok but clearly not being recognized this time around, as I said.

Thinking it might be an OS compatibility issue like mentioned, I got out my older laptop that was still running Windows 10 and tried installing it on there. Same errors.

So I figured it had something to do with the iLok licenses since the error when opening Pro Tools indicated this.

I fiddled around in the iLok License Manager. This is what I remember doing:
- Tried dragging the PT 10/11/12 license from iLok to the PC on the left column.
- It asked me to log in, so I did.
- It said it can't move the license to the PC. Had also said this on Windows 11. But this time, on Win10, the license afterwards disappeared from the iLok view.
- I found the license in my iLok account and selected to activate.
- The prompt with the top and bottom white boxes appeared again, this time showing content in the bottom box (previously was empty).
- After going through the prompts, the license reappeared on my iLok, this time apparently working again.

After I successfully opened PT 12 on Windows 10, I went back to my Windows 11 PC with the updated iLok and was able to successfully open PT 12 there too.

However, it still doesn't work on macOS 12.3; Pro Tools 12.6.1 just hangs / never opens. Which seems to match with the compatibility notes at https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...m-Requirements.

But at least it works on Win11.

[EGS]

Originally Posted by connorhawke

...After I successfully opened PT 12 on Windows 10, I went back to my Windows 11 PC with the updated iLok and was able to successfully open PT 12 there too...

It seems all Pro Tools versions from 12.5-thru-latest work on Windows 10 and also on Windows 11. No Windows OS drama, & W11 just works.