Why do licenses assigned to my PC using Waves License Centre 9 disappear when I disable a USB slot?

[hesnotthemessiah]

Using the Waves License Centre V9. New to Waves plugins and downloaded the WLC a few days ago before purchasing Element. I have the license assigned to my PC on the WLC. Had no problems with it and thought it was a great, easy to use system. Until yesterday.

Up until this point, when I had been using the WLC and trying out Element on my PC I had been connected to the internet and eveything worked fine. Yesterday I loaded up Cubase with the USB slot I would use to connect to the internet disabled. Something I would usually do when not using the internet. I like to disable any USB slots I am not using. Whilst Cubase was loading, a Waves License Error message appeared:- "No licenses found for Waves Plugins. To obtain licenses please run Waves License Centre, then click "Rescan Licenses". If you have a USB flash drive containing your licenses make sure it is connected, then click "Rescan Licenses". To continue without Waves plugins, click "Skip". "

I clicked "Rescan Licenses" but the same message reappeared. I loaded the WLC and it had no licenses. Why where they no longer there assigned to my PC?


The only way for my licenses to reappear in the WLC assigned to my PC, is for me to enable the USB slot I would use to connect to the internet and keep it enabled. Once I disable that USB slot, the licenses disappear from the WLC. All seems rather rather strange to me.


I use a few PCI and PCIE cards (UAD + Powercore) and want to limit any risk of enabled USB slots affecting their capabilites. Maybe USB, PCI and PCIE slots are completely independent of each other and have their own bandwidth limits so I am really worrying about nothing anyway.

[robotmonkey]

If you disable the usb controller, then obviously your licenses become unavailable if they are stored on the usb stick. Use WLC to send licenses directly to your computer or leave the port where the usb stick is connected to enabled. One of the things I have noticed is that with some usb sticks the licenses disappear if usb power saving mode is engaged. Then you have to restart the computer and they are back again.

But all in all if you do not plan to move your licenses between computers then install license directly to hdd with WLC.

[murnau]

what robotmonkey said. i only want to add i have two powercore and four uad and never run into problems because of the ubs-slots. i keep them all on i think they are 10 or so at all.

[hesnotthemessiah]

Hi there robotmonkey and murnau I don't have the licenses on a usb stick. "I have the license assigned to my PC on the WLC." That's why I can't understand why disabling a USB controller should have any affect? When I say I have the licenses assigned to my PC I mean that they appear under a PC icon under the "View Local Licenses" tab when I have the USB controller enabled. When I disable the USB controller the licenses disappear. Enable - they reappear again! Why should disabling a USB controller have any affect on the WLC when the license is assigned to my PC and not a usb stick?

Thanks for the info murnau. I am probably worrying about nothing as usual! It's just so flippin frustrating when I can't make sense of things like this.

[murnau]

oh i understand now. you already dont have the usb-stick plugged in but it only kill your pc license when you turn off the empty usb-slot. thats really weird.

dunno maybe your licenses are still in the cloud or so? and the transfer before failed and you didnt recognize it before?

[Meffy]

This is a WAG (Wild-Assed Guess), which might be miles away from the correct answer. But here it is.

You've probably heard of people having to reauthorize software after swapping out a CPU or a network interface. It's possible there's a serial number or other unique identifier associated with the USB controller, and that's what the protection system uses to identify your machine so it can verify that the licenses are really yours. More often it's something on the motherboard, such as the CPU, or a network interface whose serial is used for this, but it's possible this is an exception.

[Gamma-UT]

My guess is that the licence manager uses USB ports as one of the things that IDs a particular computer. It counts a different number of ports, so it thinks the machine has changed. Some C/R systems have similar issues with disabled network interfaces.

[hesnotthemessiah]

Thanks for the advice guys. I originally thought that it was something along the lines of what Meffy and Gamma-UT said:- by disabling a USB slot I was changing the system setup similar to replacing a hard drive, so this could affect the "identity" of the PC. But the licenses only disappear from the WLC when the USB slot I would use to connect to the internet is disabled. I can disable and enable other USB slots and this has no affect on the WLC.

So I have just tried this:- I enabled all the USB slots and moved the USB Wireless Adapter from one slot to the next. Everytime I removed the adapter from a USB slot, the licenses would disappear. Put the adapter into any USB slot, the licenses would reappear. But the licenses always appear on the WLC as being on the PC (with the computer icon). So there are two strange things going on. One, the adapter is working like a USB stick with me being able to insert it into any enabled USB slot and the WLC then updating to show the licenses. Remove the adapter but keep the USB slot enabled, the licenses disappear. Two, the adapter doesn't appear as a USB stick on the WLC. It appears as a computer, with a computer icon rather than a USB stick icon. So the USB Wireless Adapter is confusing the WLC!

I can't transfer the Waves licenses to my PC as I need to be connected to the internet to do that. Whether it's from the license cloud to my PC or from a USB stick to my PC, I need to be connected to the internet which, at the moment, means using the USB Wireless Adapter which seems to be causing the problems.

So I have now transfered the Waves licenses to a USB stick. I did have two USB sticks already being used but found that I didn't actually need to use one of them (an old Steinberg USB stick) as I had already transfered the licenses that I wanted from that across to the other USB stick (which has Korg and Xils licenses on it) using the eLicenser control centre. So I have lost one USB stick and gained another! Takes a little bit of twiddling at times with the Device Manager enabling and disabling certain USB Controllers but at least it seems to work. I didn't want to have to enable any more USB slots whilst my DAW was making music. Success!! Even though it took me half of yesterday and my day off work today to do it!! I will not be defeated!!!

[Meffy]

"It is... a puzzlement."
-- the King of Siam, Yul Brynner

[4damind]

I had similar problems after installing new software (VMware Player). It installs some virtual device stuff (I think a network driver or USB) after this all licenses are gone and now on a "unconnected device".
The same after a system update from Windows 8 to 8.1

Fortunately I have a system image so I can recover the complete windows installation, move the license to the cloud and run the installation again and after this move the licenses from the cloud to the "connected devices".

So it's important before installing new drivers or special software like Vmware or updating the complete system to a newer version: move the Waves licenses back to the cloud! The other solution is to use a USB flash drive for the Waves licenses.

[robotmonkey]

It appears that WLC is overly dependent on the networking stack. So any networking components involved during the license activation are counted in computer profile. Any changes to networking configuration seems to throw the WLC off the track. I think this should be taken up with Waves support as this is a bad practice of license management.

[frankz00]

Mmmmm... Mmmmm iLok!

[robotmonkey]

Mmmmm... Mmmmm iLok!

Well, Waves LC is still way way better than iLok. You have a choice how to use it and if it breaks it's relatively easy and quick to fix. On the other hand if your iLok breaks you are royally screwed and in for a lot of grief.

[straius]

Can confirm, I rebooted my router today and that was enough for waves to assign a new hardware ID. The real kicker is that I learned how sensitive it was after installing a new SSD drive last tuesday and had to recover my licenses once already.

And since they only allow that once a year... GO ANTI PIRACY!

[robotmonkey]

You should contact their support and let them know what you think about it.

This is just a bad coding practice and stupid implementation that should not encouraged. Computer id profiles should be generated taking into account several pieces of hardware (cpu, motherboard, lan, video). When any single piece of hardware is replaced or malfunctioning then computer id should not change. If two or more components are replaced only then should there be any kind of effect on computer id.