Thoughts on Ilok?

[AdvancedFollower]

Its interesting, I think the dongle *is* the main value-add for iLok. The Cloud option is no better than any other in the event of a machine "ghosting" where-in the license will be lost. That isnt any better than many other non-dongle DRMs. The dongle is the thing that keeps the licenses off the computer hardware, protecting the licenses from "ghosting" (computer dies and makes the licenses inaccessible).

IMO the customer service of the company you're dealing with is a much bigger factor than the type of DRM system used. The dongle itself can fail, so there's no guarantee you'll keep your licenses forever.

With many companies, it's a simple email and they'll deactivate the orphaned license for you. In some cases you can even do it yourself by logging in to your account. Others make it a lot harder and some simply refuse to help you.

[fde101]

If an iLok dongle fails, you can mail it to PACE and they will recover your licenses onto a new one, regardless of who issued those licenses (the customer service of the plugin companies is irrelevant in that scenario). I've had that happen once, other than the short delay waiting for it to go through the mail and the cost of a new dongle (tiny compared to the value of the licenses on it) I didn't lose anything to that. That was BEFORE I opted to subscribe to the ZDT service.

[spnc]

I just purchased an iLok USB dongle, I already have an existing email for iLok virtual where I stored my licenses, so... ??

Shall I create a new email address for the iLok USB dongle, or key the same one?

Does activating on the same address counts as 1 (virtual + USB = 1 activation), or does it count for 2 activations?

Also I heard it's expensive in case I lose the USB stick to change things with Avid support, so what's best to do?

I'm doing this to have all my licenses BOTH AT THE SAME TIME on virtual + physical (in case I have no Internet sometimes).

Cheers.

[gaggle of hermits]

Shall I create a new email address for the iLok USB dongle, or key the same one?

Does activating on the same address counts as 1 (virtual + USB = 1 activation), or does it count for 2 activations?

use the same account you already have. you can have as many usb dongles as you like on one account.

activation is not per account, it's per device and the ilok manager app will show you what's activated where.

[Digivolt]

Also I heard it's expensive in case I lose the USB stick to change things with Avid support, so what's best to do?

Unless you're switching machines a lot of the time, just keep the iLok plugged in it's own USB slot permanently

[spnc]

Also I heard it's expensive in case I lose the USB stick to change things with Avid support, so what's best to do?

Unless you're switching machines a lot of the time, just keep the iLok plugged in it's own USB slot permanently

Yeah I never switch machines so that's fine. Good to know that, thanks!

[spnc]

Shall I create a new email address for the iLok USB dongle, or key the same one?

Does activating on the same address counts as 1 (virtual + USB = 1 activation), or does it count for 2 activations?

use the same account you already have. you can have as many usb dongles as you like on one account.

activation is not per account, it's per device and the ilok manager app will show you what's activated where.

Wait: "you can have as many usb dongles as you like on one account" and "activation is per device, does that mean that the ilok manager considers each dongle as an extra activation"?

To be clear, if I activate a plugin on my usb with the same email account as my virtual activation for this same VST (which already exists), does ilok manager counts it as one or two activations?

What if I purchase one day another iLok USB (like the USB-C one), will it count as 3 then?

Most plugin companies allow for 2 or 3 activations, so okay I think I understood: I can only have max one virtual (or Cloud) + 1 (or 2) physical dongle activated for each VST, correct?

And emails are irrelevant understood.

How much does it cost to transfer a license in case on day I lost iLok Dongle 1, and want to move all my licenses to iLok Dongle 2? Like 40 USD per transfer, for each plugin?? That's crazy isn't it.

I wanted to stay 100% online, but sometimes I'll miss the internet (traveling) etc., so I prefer to have both a virtual + dongle activation(s?) to be totally safe, does it make sense what I'm trying to do?

[gaggle of hermits]

you select whichever target machine or dongle you want to be activated at the time. adding a dongle to an account doesn’t automatically mean authorisations are put on it.

there is no fee to transfer authorisations between dongles on the same account, that’s why I mentioned the ability to have more than one - in case you’re working on a second machine or want to have a backup dongle.

[spnc]

you select whichever target machine or dongle you want to be activated at the time. adding a dongle to an account doesn’t automatically mean authorisations are put on it.

there is no fee to transfer authorisations between dongles on the same account, that’s why I mentioned the ability to have more than one - in case you’re working on a second machine or want to have a backup dongle.

"there is no fee to transfer authorisations between dongles on the same account" okay great I get it, there's no fee to transfer between dongles AS LONG AS THEY'RE ALL UNDER THE SAME ILOK EMAIL ACCOUNT, correct?

So I can easily buy a new dongle an transfer from the lost dongle to the new dongle from ilok manager, that's dope.

[darkinners]

as long as the product support computer activation and at least 2 seats. I have no problem with ilok.

[plexuss]

you select whichever target machine or dongle you want to be activated at the time. adding a dongle to an account doesn’t automatically mean authorisations are put on it.

there is no fee to transfer authorisations between dongles on the same account, that’s why I mentioned the ability to have more than one - in case you’re working on a second machine or want to have a backup dongle.

"there is no fee to transfer authorisations between dongles on the same account" okay great I get it, there's no fee to transfer between dongles AS LONG AS THEY'RE ALL UNDER THE SAME ILOK EMAIL ACCOUNT, correct?

So I can easily buy a new dongle an transfer from the lost dongle to the new dongle from ilok manager, that's dope.

I am a 2 iLok key user. I was able to get two iLoks pretty check. The way I use them is I put all my licenses on the main iLok and the 2nd I put any licenses with 2 or more activations. The 2nd acts as a backup. I do not subscribe to ZDT. This is only slightly more useful than not having a 2nd key but because I got it cheap, its worth having a bit more convenience if I have to send the main key in for recovery. I dont use computer based activation because the licenses become lost with some kinds of computer hardware failure. I've been through that once and so now I prefer to keep my licenses off the computer where possible. But because I use so many products I have all different kinds of licensing types across my system, for me I don't really care about the licencing system as much as the product itself. I've also moved my Waves licenses to USB for the same reason.

[spnc]

Yeah okay guys so I'm getting used to it as we speak, it's pretty easy in fact.

Computer activation then it's really convenient to assign as many iLok dongles you want (to the extent of the maximum number of activations possible by the software, usually +1 or +2 extra), for this email iLok account.

I use computer activation first because all the plugin companies I use allow me to easily assign the iLok account of my choice on their website. I hardly see how computer hardware failure would happen on a Mac (with TimeMachine backup) since, on a new machine, you can always restore TimeMachine and/or simply reinstall ilok license manager with the same email iLok account at any time if this happened and it will simply re-sync it all in a second

@plexuss having only two dongles without computer one seems risky, if you lose both at the same time you're screwed and will have to pay for the recovery. The machine one keeps a constant link with your email iLok account, in such way that the dongles act only as backups (and offline sticks when you don't have the internet).

[plexuss]

Although its not common, any computer can suffer a catastrophic failure. In my case, it was my 2011 Macbook Pro which had the poorly designed graphics processor problem that would render the motherboard DOA, which is what happened. I spent a lot of time and energy getting replacement licenses for those licenses to the hardware. Because the computer was not able to boot, I had many machine activated licenses that I had to contact the dev to have reset etc for me to regain access. This is why I prefer not to use machine activation. But some plugins give no choice. Take that into consideration when you work out a strategy that works for you.

[revvy]

I use soft iLock.

I too ended up with licenses stuck on a drive I couldn't access.

To be honest it was easy to use the iLock system to contact the devs and get it sorted out. In fact for me this bit of hassle was much better than having to constantly use a physical dongle.

YMMV, as the petrol-heads say.

For me, the ONLY 'value' of iLock is that it allows me to use stuff by Soundtoys, Eventide, UVI, etc...

[Funky40]

Fabfilter aren't dumb and obviously know how easily I could walk over to my studio neighbors computer and copy-paste the key to his machine. I know that too. They know that I know. Etc etc. They still do it this way, and I like that experience. The fact that they're willing to show me this trust also makes them seem more trustworthy to me in turn.

I like that ! and its so true !

i DO deal with ILOK. There is no way around it for me.
many of just the best plugins i have, are ilok based.

i´m on a mac, had recently to upgrade my M1. In such situation you know that it has its advantages.

from what i gather on the net, are many ILOK problems based on using a windows computer, no ?
Also, it loooks to me like alots of anti ILOK ideology comes from .....older days.
Not saying, there´s no reason to be suspicious.

...some of you seem to be techsavy, i´m not. But: give the small guys a better option ?
To go over to pluginAlliance ?....and have their "work" *sold out* for next to nothing, like Unfiltered Audios work ?
probably not all that easy for all those who need to seek a c/p solution.........(beeing aware of FF, Valhalla, etc.)