Pro tools iLok cloud
 

The Pro tools manual doesn't say much about - they just say go to ilok.com and ilok.com don't even mention it .... :confused::confused::confused:

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

I'm with you on this. I've been trying to figure this out, no luck and when I try to download the manual, not available.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

Ok well, I've made some headway but still can't get it to work. Here's what I found:
1. Need to have at least iLok license manager 4.0
2. open ilok license manager and in the file menu select open cloud session
It will say that it opened all enabled cloud licenses, except there are no activations in the cloud section.
Pro tools won't open, that's as far as I could get. Could not find any other info that might be helpful.
Anyone actually get this to work?
Cheers

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

I did a video on it.
I am on the edge of being sick. Tried to sound "healthy" though I was probably a bit boring and trying to hard!! And yes, my Ilok screen is seriously scrambled on purpose. You don't need to see all my goods!! ;)

https://youtu.be/WRbx60ezaYM

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

You also need to have your licenses removed from your Ilok.
Fully signed into your Ilok account.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

Thanks for making this video.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

thanks so much for the video. Understand it now.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

What happens if I start a Cloud Session and the Internet goes out? Or the computer is disconnected from the internet?

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

I tried shutting down my WiFi after starting a cloud session and PT seemed to continue unbothered (though I only tried it for a few minutes - prolonged sessions may be different).

Main problem I had was, last night, after restarting my machine (as a further test) and turning my WiFi back on, the license manager was unable to sign in, saying there was no internet connection (there was). As a result, I couldn't start a cloud session OR re-authorise my iLok - no way to open Pro Tools!

Came back this morning though and it's working fine again. Any idea if PACE/iLok had a server outage last night or something?

If that starts to happen regularly, it's definitely a big discouraging factor against using Cloud authorisation. I did also switch off WiFi & restart before manually shutting off the cloud session, but thinking/hoping that's not the root cause: it's meant to just close it out & start another when that happens, not bug out so badly.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

I think this explains pretty well: http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/FAQ/iLok-Cloud-FAQ

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

Yeah, I’d read that. It’s a helpful article. Thanks.

Doesn’t explicitly cover the above scenario, but like I say, I reckon it was an outage on their side.

Inferring from the article, when I restarted the same machine and tried to open a fresh session, it should’ve closed the first one (which it did prompt me to do, actually), then started up a fresh one (which is where it started bugging out until this morning).

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

I just tested it and works fine
i just watched a video Russ made and it so simple :D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvwecpoZi1w

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

I was able to open ProTools HD on my MBPro without an iLok, but NONE of my Avid plugins in the cloud would authorize. The only way to get it to work was plug in an iLok and the license would download for that plugin to the iLok, even when the plugin showed as being CLOUD available.

Still, it's only day two, right?

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

Did you update your plug-ins to 18.1, or were they older versions?

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

The manager said there weren't any updates to be done, and all the licenses do show up in the cloud. I'll try it again.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

Just ran App Manager again this morning and it's updating... didn't do that yesterday. Thanks!

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

Pro Tools Expert ran a bizarre almost aggressively defensive piece about using PT with iLok cloud here - https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/hom...pro-tools-2018 . Lots of spurious logic there about how only people recording on location in the jungle etc would have any issues with online authorisation every time.

As it stands I can see a lot of problems with the iLok cloud, which is a shame because I'd really love to use it. Here are some off the top of my head.

1. I have a cracking 300mbps internet connection in the studio, connected to our domestic connection. But it tends to go down for a while every few months, sometimes for a few hours, at its worst for a few days. If one of those days is a day I have to work and I can't, that's one too many.

2. Avid's track record with its own cloud service is not very strong. Colleagues tried it in anger with the collab thing and they ran away screaming after some server downtime. Again, it only has to happen once on a mission critical job, and it's game over.

3. For mobile use, internet reception is far, far more flaky than the figures quoted in the PTE article. More than once I've had to quickly open up an emergency project on a train, on which connection is a world of pain. Or maybe on vacation in the hills - the owner said the wifi would work, but it's been a bit troublesome lately, you know the kind of thing. Now, I know a comeback here is that if its urgent you'd need a net connection to send the result anyway, but sometimes you just need to open a project for information. And besides:

4. It's unclear if you need a continuous connection, or what would happen if there was an erratic one.

5. At the time of writing, no 3rd party plugs will work with the cloud, so you'd still need a dongle for anything requiring them. This will hopefully change over time.

I'm not sure all of these issues will get truly resolved, so I think there's always going to be a problem with the iLok cloud. What I don't quite understand is why machine licensing is apparently less secure than Cloud licensing. What I'd love is to be able to keep a license on a laptop, and then move via the cloud if required. That would be a far better solution for me, but I doubt this will ever happen.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

I've got it running on my portable but I own two copies of PT so I will be keeping my main studio computer on a physical iLok.

It works though and given there is no USB C iLok dongle it means less pissing about with USB A to USB C dongles..

I don't imagine plugin companies will be fast implement and, like machine authorisation, there is always going to be one or two companies that make a business decision to not embrace the technology.
I don't see physical iLok's going anywhere.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

A couple of updates based on my morning with it...

I put one of our 18.1HD licenses and my personal non-HD license in iLok Cloud to see what would happen. If you just open ProTools without iLok cloud being connected, it goes through the process of authorizing by asking if you'd like a CLOUD authorization. If I do this with my non-HD license, the non-HD version loads up. Same thing happens with the HD version where it loads up properly.

However, if I open an iLok cloud session FIRST and then launch my non-HD version, it will load HD since that license seems to take priority over the non-HD in the cloud.

This means I can run HD sessions on my home system when absolutely needed, as long as no one is in my personal control-room at the studios using my HD system, allowing me to work on multi-stem high-speed bounces, etc., which non-HD can't do yet. I can do the same thing on my MacBook Pro... works great!

Also updated all plugins to 18.1 and am leaving licensing for them in the cloud. Works well!!

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

I’ve re-read this post several times but I don’t quite get it. I think this is the sentence I trip up on. How can you have iLok cloud connected before you launch PT? I realise you’re saying it isn’t connected, but I don’t understand how it can be any other way.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

Just start Pro Tools, then authorise with iLok Cloud when prompted to put your iLok account details in.

This will authorise the license to the cloud and you can set this as the default action as well.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

Yes, I get that's how it works, but I still don't understand Eric's post as it suggests there's some other way to do it.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

Launch your ILM, sign in, create a cloud session, launch PT. I go over it on the video on the first page of this thread.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

Got it now - thanks v much.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

Well that was an interesting experiment. I have a second non-HD license, and I thought I'd try it in the Cloud to see what happens when the internet is lost. Deactiviated it from the iLok, then started a Cloud session in iLok Manager, and then launched PT. All went very smoothly.

Then I switched off the wifi. For the first few minutes, all carried on perfectly well, then iLok manager flashed up a warning that there was a problem with the iCloud session. PT however carried on ok for a few more minutes, and then said I needed to plug in an iLok with a license in the next 5 minutes or PT would quit. It offered me the option to save where I was which I tried to do, but then PT crashed.

So what I'm taking from this so far is that I absolutely don't want to rely on it for my main rig. If and when the internet goes, the session ultimately goes, and it may well not be graceful. Likewise I wouldn't trust it on the road. However, it might be quite handy for secondary non-critical machine chores in a stable environment.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

They need to allow you to keep the license on both the physical iLok and cloud. I understand why they wouldn't, but I'm sure they're smart enough to figure out a way to do it while preventing people from using 1 license on 2 machines simultaneously.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

Not working here. Maybe they didn’t roll it out to Canada yet.

When I deactivate the licenses, the only location I can réactivâtes them is my ilok. The ilok Cloud option doesn’t appear. Just my ilok.

Both from ILM or directly from protools.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

Same here and I'm in the US.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

Right!! If you DON'T launch ILM before hand, ProTools will launch it and the license required for your installed version (non-HD in my case) will authorize.

If I launch ILM first, HD will load on my non-HD install as it seems to take priority over non-HD in the cloud.

Does that help?!

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

I got it to work.

I had to close the cloud session and then reopen it in ILM and then my Avid licenses magically ended up on the ilok cloud.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

Philosoraptor would like to know:

If I need internet to use ilok cloud,

is my system no longer "optimized" for PT? ;)

(I pretty much always have wifi on and never had wifi-related issues with PT. Wonder if we'll soon see an updated "optimizations" guide sans "turn off wifi.")

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

Seems pretty straightforward but when I start a cloud session from ILM, all cloud available licenses move to the cloud except Pro Tools. So I can't start a cloud session from any other computer. Anyone else have this?

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

That's what happened to me.

To fix it, In ILM, I closed the Cloud Session then reopened it and my licenses transferred successfully.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

I had to physically DRAG the licenses from my iLok back to my master iLok account. You can't have them on your iLok and appear in the cloud at the same time... it's one or the other.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

just need to right click and deactivate them.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

I can see the icloud Ilok icon next to my old Pro Tools 12.7 perpetual license ... would that mean it can work ?? or ilok icloud is only available for Pro Tools 2018 ?

Re: Pro tools iLok cloud
 

Please help me out I still keep getting issues with activating pro tools with ilok cloud.

Notice the screenshots ive uploaded I have my licenses available on my Cloud Session that I have to open before opening pro tools otherwise it will try to activate them to my ilok pen (that doesn't not exist)

I would apreciatte some help as soon as possible I need to use pro tools for school work and this is really dragging me back :(

https://imgur.com/a/m8uuR

Re: Pro tools iLok cloud
 

I'm new to PT, having moved across from Sonar.
Installed and set up iLok Manager and then PT 2018.
Used the iLok Cloud to activate (I don't own an iLok dongle) and all is working fine.
I've avoided software with dongles as it can be a pain, so moved from Sonar to PT because of the cloud activation meaning I'm still dongle free.

In this day and age your lucky if you get more than a couple of USB ports on a laptop and USB C is the only port on a MacBook
Online activation should be the norm.

Re: Pro tools ilok cloud
 

Pro Tools 2018.1 is the first release that supports iLok Cloud, so if your perpetual license has a Release Limit that supports 2018.1 then you could use that. If running 12.8.3/lower (due to license limit or other reasons) then you cannot use iLok Cloud.

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/faq/iLok-Cloud-FAQ

Re: Pro tools iLok cloud
 

Welcome to the community.

2018.1 is the first version of PT that supports iLok Cloud. What version of Pro Tools are you running?