Invalid Serial Number Error in NI License Manager

Solution

Make sure to enter the serial number without any spaces or punctuation. Watch for blank spaces at the beginning and end of the serial number text.

Verify your software product and version is included in your serial number. You can do so by entering the serial number in the Interactive Activation Guide.

1. If the Interactive Activation Guide indicates that your serial number is invalid, and it is a subscription serial number, this may mean that the subscription has expired. Renew your subscription to activate the software.
2. If you are using a perpetual license with an expired Standard Software Program (SSP), please note that you can only activate NI software versions that were released while your service program was active. To activate newer versions of the software you must renew your service program.

Activating software using a serial number requires an active internet connection. If you are prompted with an Invalid serial number error, this may also indicate a network timeout issue. There are known workarounds for resolving timeout-related activation problems, as outlined below:

1. You can use Activation Codes to activate your software individually. Activation codes provide an offline activation method and can be used to bypass internet‑related timeout issues.
2. Network timeouts can also occur when attempting to activate multiple software products simultaneously. To resolve this issue, you can activate each product family individually by navigating to the Local Licenses tab in NI License Manager, right‑clicking the product you want to activate, and selecting Activate.

On rare occasions, this issue may be caused by corrupting files within NI License Manager. We recommend repairing or updating your NI License Manager and then checking whether the issue persists.