iLOK warning

[rj0]

10+ years with an iLok dongle. Multiple machines, OS levels. Nice to know that when I upgrade hardware/OSs (or developers go under) that licenses will still be easily accessible.

[Recourt]

This thread reminded me to purchase a new ilok3 dongle, just incase there are ever any issues with my gen1. They even come in neat colors now!!!

[fredliau41]

used ilok, suddenly after upgrading motherboard, all the licenses were stuck and were showed as offline, couldn't use them anymore, had to request for reset. thankfully almost all of the publishers reset

[musicartist99]

That's the problem with any centralized large service, it's too much in a single place.

When that single place gets some problems, too many services will simply not work.

For example, if all the plugins someone owned depended on iLok, and the service would stopped working, that means it would be impossible to do any work.

[spigmu]

I'm an ardent supporter of copy protection, and I feel for the plugin developers who can't take it on themselves and made the choice to have another party deal with it. My issue with Pace has been their consistent "The customer is always wrong" mantra since their inception. I have a dongle, and if I want the plugin enough it's a necessary evil. But it does take much of the wind out of whatever good vibe the developer has.

[MrJubbly]

"I'm iLok-free and always will be, Baby!"...

I have a dongle, and if I want the plugin enough it's a necessary evil. But it does take much of the wind out of whatever good vibe the developer has.

In my experience, for every iLok-shackled product I had interest in, there's always an alternative product. Typically, from a developer who respects and treats their users fairly enough, not to impose such a burdensome penalty upon their paying customers.

I have even politely refused an offer from a developer who offered me a free NFR licence for their iLok product, in exchange for installing iLok and reporting back any issues experienced, after I had reached out to them to request an iLok-less version of their flagship plugin which I had wanted (offering to pay them many times the RRP). However, I had to reiterate to them my distaste for that particular form of DRM and installing it on my new device would defeat the entire purpose of my intention.

I've had bad experiences using iLok on my previous device and I've heard much worse accounts from others, to never want to put myself in that unnecessary position.

Every plugin I own is a non-iLok product and so shall it remain.

[plexuss]

Dongle Wars

[Mathematics]

I've been using iLok dongles for about 15 years. I've never had one fail...yet. I would suggest not using your computer system to register licenses next time. I have about 4 iLoks with all my licenses spread across them. I only have one activation per license with spares in my account just in case. I'm sure you haven't used all your activations, right? If so, just buy the latest dongle from B&H Photo with the PayBoo card so you can avoid paying tax, and activate the available licenses in your account.

The only thing I don't like is their policy on lost or stolen dongles. They say you can submit a form reporting the incident...but when it comes to replacing those licenses...I've heard horror stories. I don't know if that is still true today, but a couple years back, I wrote a post addressing that issue then and it wasn't good for people with stolen or lost dongles. Damaged dongles is one thing because you can send it into PACE. Stolen or Lost...without the Theft and Loss Coverage...oof. Good luck with that.