Buy 12 Upgrade Plan now, activate next year?

[Carl Kolchak]

Originally Posted by Sardi

I believe it starts when activated not purchased. I recall Jeffro posting this a while back.

Originally Posted by Stig Eliassen

Pro Tools Licensing FAQ

Originally Posted by hatepop

Thanks! Yes, it starts from when you activate, not from when you buy.

Ok, so is there a time limit within which you must activate your purchase, or else it expires / is invalidated?

I've no real reason to upgrade from PT11 at the moment, but if you don't purchase, and activate the upgrade by 31st of December, the price doubles.

It makes sense to upgrade this year - although I'm not exactly sure what happens if you purchase the upgrade, but don't activate it prior to the 31st.

Would you have to pay the difference, in order for Avid to honour the upgrade?

Would they offer a refund?

What about next time around?

I suppose similar rules will apply - even if you purchase the upgrade at a bargain price, unless you activate it before a specific deadline, you will get hit with punitive charges for the time you were not covered.

I used to hate WUP, but eventually Waves modified their policy, and I think it's pretty decent now.

Avid having separate purchase, and activation criteria has a lot of room for screw-ups, but I guess it's handy if you need to meet fiscal deadlines, or the upgrade is purchased as a gift.

[BScout]

It appears with some sleuthing that you don't have to activate it by any deadline. Nowhere in any terms and conditions does it appear and Avid seems to confirm this. The only thing is "activation" means activation to your Avid account and not your iLok account. So since the process is: buy upgrade -> activate code in Avid account -> activate in iLok and transfer to key, you could unintentionally start the clock even though you aren't using it. I do not know if when you buy from the Avid online store if it auto-deposits to your Avid account in which case it would have started the activation process (and therefore the clock.)

Buying from a dealer you just get a code and Avid has no idea until you activate that code to your Avid account (thereby starting the clock.)

[Southsidemusic]

Sent this off to Avid for an answer as it is a fair question that we all would like to know the answer to.

[Ghost In The Attic]

Originally Posted by Southsidemusic

Sent this off to Avid for an answer as it is a fair question that we all would like to know the answer to.

Thanks!

[mlange]

"Avid has no idea of the buy date when you buy through a dealer for the boxed product (and there are support plans as boxed product) -- it is only aware of the activation date. This is why this question was asked." Bscout

Yep - That's my question, too. If you buy a a boxed product from a dealer, would we have to register by 12.31.15 - otherwise I'd wait to register until I need to use some element of the package, and start my one year Avid time clock.

[Southsidemusic]

Here is the answer I got back and it states quite clearly that it starts from Activation and there doesn't say anything about restrictions.

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/f...censing-FAQ#15

[bad jitter]

My dealer told me 14 February 2016 is the latest possible activation date for support plan code purchased before January. I hope they are wrong, but that's what they told.

[TAMBOR]

Originally Posted by Southsidemusic

Here is the answer I got back and it states quite clearly that it starts from Activation and there doesn't say anything about restrictions.

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/f...censing-FAQ#15

Based on that link, here are my questions:

1) So, one could purchase the forced HD upgrade for $599 before the end of this year, and wait say, two years to activate, as long as you were content to run PT 11 during that time?

2) And then also since the upgrade and support was not activated, the copy of PT 11HD would still be transferable, since it is not under a support plan?

3) When purchasing the annual plan how does it get activated? It's not automatically activated within your account?

[Ghost In The Attic]

Originally Posted by TAMBOR

3) When purchasing the annual plan how does it get activated? It's not automatically activated within your account?

Yes, it is automatically activated, IF your iLok is linked to your Avid account.

I don't know how it gets activated if your iLok account is not linked.

[BScout]

Originally Posted by Southsidemusic

Here is the answer I got back and it states quite clearly that it starts from Activation and there doesn't say anything about restrictions.

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/f...censing-FAQ#15

Thanks, Southsidemusic. That's the info I finally got from people working at Avid. I don't think they care that you haven't activated it sooner because they already have your money -- and that pays for their development teams (and increases the abysmal stock value.) There will be an 4th quarter boost in earnings (and I guess they'll know how many current users are planning to move forward too -- especially for the HD software -- on the subscription method just by tabulating the sales.)