Licenses are machine-locked. If your machine is renamed, hardware is changed, or operating system is upgraded, an installed license may become broken. Similarly, renaming a network license folder or server name will break a network license. To prevent issues, deactivate the license before making major changes. If they are broken, you will need to manually deactivate and then reactivate your license.
You will need to deactivate your license before you can activate it on a different computer or network share. If you are unable deactivate the license using CFS, you can manually deactivate it using the License Portal. See License Activation for more details.
If you cannot activate, please double-check your license ID and activation password in the License Portal. Check to see if you have any activations remaining for your license.
There are a limited number of deactivations for a license, provided to help you deal with hardware changes or machine failures. If you run out of deactivations, more will be provided when your license subscription is renewed. If you need another deactivation before then, contact RSG Software and provide the License ID you need to deactivate.
If all network licenses are in use, CFS will run in light mode. If you need to determine who is using a network license, there is a log file in the network share folder called CFSLicense.log. Entries at the end of the log file will indicate the latest activity with acquiring and releasing licenses.
If a user disconnected from the network before closing CFS, or if CFS was terminated abnormally, an orphaned license semaphore file (CFSsema00?.net) may remain. The operating system will eventually close these files so they can be deleted. But if necessary, you can manually close an open file using Computer Management as an administrator on the server:
Choose System Tools — Shared Folders — Open Files — CFSsema00?.net — Close Open File
Should you encounter unusual errors, or corrupted files, you may need to manually delete them. For a single user license, you will find the license file in this (hidden) folder. Turn on the display of hidden folders or type the path into Windows Explorer:
C:\Users\<Login-Name>\AppData\Local\RSG Software\CFS
You can safely delete the CFS license file. You will then need to manually deactivate and reactivate the license.
If activation fails, it could be due to some blocking of ports or communication with the licensing server. You can test this with the following URL in your browser: https://secure.softwarekey.com.