"The licensing software required to activate this software is not running"

[BillytheB]

Pro Tools 11.3.1

I have been getting this error with avid plugins since July of this year. I have been in a 6 week support email with ilok on this issue with over 33 replies back and forth. I have reinstalled pro tools multiple times, trashed preferences, re-synced my ilok, built a new computer with only pro tools and my plugins installed, and have tried everything possible to get rid of the error. Nothing has worked.

It doesn't happen every time I open a project but almost every 2nd or 3rd project I open will have the problem after I have closed the previous one. I can also successfully open a project only to find that when I try to export an MP3 that the .dll will report the same error.

Every plugin package I have is up to date. The ilok license manager is up to date. I'm having this problem on a 5 year old Windows 7 computer and a 3 week old windows 10 computer. The latter has only the OS, pro tools, my plugins, mother board drivers and audio interface drivers installed.

I am running out of places to turn. Ilok is still working on the issue but their last email told me "The verbose logs show a lot of plug-ins being ran that you do not have licenses for. Some examples are "Classic Tubes", "Classic Tubes 3", "Classic Instruments", "Pro Tools HD 11", "Machine Control", and "HEAT" to only name a few. Uninstalling/removing those plug-ins you do not have licenses for should reduce the number of error message you receive if they are coming from plug-ins you have no licenses for." I am running PT native and don't have those plugins even available to me. I cannot install them because I don't see them anywhere in my PT folders or even referenced within the system registry.

Ilok says this is a very unusual problem.

Two computers

Windows 10 -
Asus X299 TUF, i7 7820, 16 gigs g-skil ram, samsung 960 system drive, Windows 10 home, Samsun 970 audio drive

Windows 7 -
Gigabyte z77, i7 3770k, 16 gigs ram, Kingston msata system drive, 2x WD Black audio drive. Windows 7 home.

[albee1952]

I have seen this, though not since last year. A work-around is this:
Open Task Manager and click the Services tab. Scroll down to PaceLicenseDServices, right click on that and select Start. It might be worth updating to a later version of 11