I just had an hour of my time wasted and experienced great annoyance because after 2 or 3 months of using my brand-new, out of the box ProTools 9 software, suddenly on a Saturday morning (when Avid phone support is closed), my ProTools 9 software wouldn't launch, because it said it's not authorized. On page 9 of the Pro Tools Software Installation Guide, it clearly says "If you purchased a new boxed version of Pro Tools [which I did], it comes with a pre-authorized iLok. You can skip this section and proceed with "Installing Pro Tools Software" on page 11.
All went well for a few months, then this morning, I get an error saying Pro Tools is not authorized. It says you can "insert the activation card" to authorize. Don't have one. Tried to get support. All closed. Tried to get an ASC code. Got one. Tried to enter it. Got an error: "invalid user". I am fully registered, etc.
So essentially, what seems to have happened is that my so-called "pre-authorized iLok" had expired, somehow. There's nothing in the documentation (as far as I can see) that says you have to go to iLok and get it authorized. But, you do. I had an old iLok on my old G5. So I had an account with iLok. After lots of fiddling with iLok.com (e.g. they don't support the Firefox 4 browser, so I had to do it with Safari), and resetting my 6 year old password and account on iLok.com, I downloaded their client installer and their driver, re-inserted my iLok, and it detected that I was authorized to use Pro Tools 9.
All I wanted to do was fire up Pro Tools and work on my music. But instead I got sucked into authorization hell for an hour. There is obviously either a) a bug in the software which causes the so-called pre-authorized iLok authorization to expire; or b) an error in the installer guide, which should read "you need to go to iLok.com and authorize your iLok".
