The Activation Code You Provided Cannot Be Used

Issue Details

• When I try to activate my NI software, I receive the following error: The activation code you provided cannot be used. Its expiration date is either expired or earlier than the current expiration date of the license.

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• When I look in NI License Manager, there is a red exclamation point next to the software product name and the status of the software I am trying to activate is Activated for a different computer.

 

• When I look in NI License Manager, there is a red exclamation point next to the software product name and the status of the software I am trying to activate is Invalid license file.​

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• ​I had a computer that crashed or died and now I'm setting up a new computer. I was able to clone the hard drive or extract all the files from it. However, on the new computer, I am having trouble activating NI software as NI License Manager is not accepting my activation codes and complains that the software is already activated for a different computer.

Solution

The above behavior is most likely caused by a corrupt, incorrect, or expired license file for the given NI software.  See the following troubleshooting steps:
 

• Find and replace the evaluation license file(s) for the product(s) that are showing this behavior, and then repeat the activation process. Be sure to make a copy of your existing license file before you replace it, just in case you need to revert.
• If there are no evaluation license files available for your given product (e.g., LabVIEW Report Generation Toolkit for Microsoft Office), uninstall and then reinstall the software and the bad license file should be removed, and a good one should be installed in its place. Repeat the activation process after you have installed the software again. Find more information here: Uninstall or Repair NI Software or Drivers in Windows.
• Update NI License Manager to the most recent version compatible with your Operating System.

Additional Information

APS (Alliance Partner Software) licenses may be used on VMs or images. However, if those VMs or images are copied, then the NI software on those copies will no longer be activated. This is because the computer ID will not be the same for any copies made.  The same behavior may be seen when hard drives are cloned.

APS licenses changed to a lease model in July 2013. So, if a PC, Virtual Machine, or image was activated with a APS license before this time and then copied, the problem mentioned above arrises.  The activation prior to July 2013 used a permanent time limit, while the new method expires after one year. The existing license files used by NI software will have a permanent time limit and will not be compatible with this new serial number.