Perpetual License was offered moments ago, now lost accidentally

[Darryl Ramm]

That's for if you have a current valid update/support plan for a perpetual license and want to renew that update/support plan for another year (you can only do that while the past one is active or within 30 days of the past one expiring).

It's likely grey as you are past 30 days from your previous update/support plan expiring.

Past 30 days you have to buy a "renewal" i.e. the $349 price point version.

[jgiannis]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

That's for if you have a current valid update/support plan for a perpetual license and want to renew that update/support plan for another year (you can only do that while the past one is active or within 30 days of the past one expiring).

It's likely grey as you are past 30 days from your previous update/support plan expiring.

Past 30 days you have to buy a "renewal" i.e. the $349 price point version.

That makes a bit more sense. The puzzling thing is how my account went from INACTIVE to ACTIVE. Doesn’t that require payment??? I suspect it was that "submit" button, but no orders or payments were rendered.

Here's a brief history of my account:

Looking in my Order History, my most recent purchase was on Dec 2, 2019. It was a Student upgrade for $99 which granted me 1-year of support and upgrades.

The newest version at the time was 2019.10.0, which I am still running. (Version 2019.12 was released just a couple weeks later, but apparently I didn't bother to install it). The credit card that I have on file expired well over 1 or 2 years ago. I don't think I've even logged into my account since then.

But today I did log into my account, and was trying to figure out what all of the tabs and dropdown menus were (that's how I eventually clicked the "submit" button, by just poking around trying to see what's what).

I was in my Account > View My Products > Pro Tools tab.

On the left pane (where it says my system ID), it was listed as Perpetual. On the right pane, it said my upgrade & support ended in December 2020 (INACTIVE), which makes perfect sense, and there was the dropdown with some purchasing options, one of which being that $349 product, along with other options for Subscriptions.

At the bottom was a link to my downloads. I looked there and saw that I had been missing many updates along the years (the last one that was still active under my license was version 2020.11.0, and I just downloaded it today but haven't installed it). By the time version 2020.12 was released just a couple of weeks later, my account was already rendered INACTIVE.

I don't recall if this is where that "submit" button was. But after pressing it, several changes happened:

1. I got an email that says "Thank You for Choosing Pro Tools."
2. My iLok now lists Pro Tools Studio under my Perpetual license, with today's date (Oct 16, 2022) being the Deposit Date. I didn’t purchase it though, nor do I understand what this even means. My Order History does not list it, and I did not enter valid credit card information.
3. My account is now listed as ACTIVE “Your Software Updates + Support Plan expires on Oct 14, 2023” -- it would appear as if I have bypassed payment to change my account from INACTIVE to ACTIVE.
4. The dropdown menu no longer lists that $349 product, but it does list a $199 product that seems similar (or better?): “Pro Tools Studio $199.00 1-Year Software Updates + Support Plan RENEWAL”



I understand that Avid is no longer selling Perpetual plans to NEW customers (which really sucks for those people), but for those of us who DID already have a Perpetual plan, are we safe from this new marketing? If I am understanding this correctly, the $199 product is still a Perpetual plan, meaning that I can download and use the latest version 2022.9 (which was released just a few weeks ago in September 2022) and continue to use any other newer versions that come out within that 1-year. Is that right? If so, why does it seems like so many people who are grandfathered with perpetual plans are upset about the new marketing? It seems like we’re safe from the subscription plans.

[cvicente22]

Originally Posted by jgiannis

Also, as I am still puzzled about what this $199 option is, here is a screenshot at the checkout page. It seems to indicate that it is a Perpetual license, but I am not sure (it's dark gray because there's another pane that wants my cc info first, which I did not input yet)

It says "SW DL,UPG/SUP PRO TOOLS RNWL PER" for $199

Hi there! I checked your account and what actually happened here is that you upgraded your expired Software Updates + Support Plan with a $349 Get Current Upgrade. As you can see in your account your updates and support plan is now dated 10/14/2023 and a new set of licenses were deposited in your iLok account the same day when you purchase the upgrade. Currently the updated Pro Tools Perpetual license is activated in your iLok key and this will allow you to launch any versions that are going to be released until 10/14/2023. Hope this help.

Cheers!