Failed to activate donation edition

Posts: 2 · centizen 22 Nov 2019, 23:56

Hi all,

I've been using freefilesync for long time and really like the software, happily donated for it. However recently my copy of the software has stopped working.

The message I get trying to open it is:

"Failed to activate FreeFileSync Donation Edition.

The FreeFileSync 10.3 [Donation Edition] was registered to be used by at most 1 user(s), but was recently activated on 6 different machines."

I think I know what the problem is - I am a computer technician for an IT company and carry my copy of freefilesync on my usb toolkit. I've used this software on a lot of different computers, but I am always the only user using it. If the donation edition is not valid for this kind of use I'm happy to do whatever I need to do to get legit, but I don't see any enterprise version of the software, only free and donation.

I'm confused on what to do here and have come to really kind of rely on FFS in my daily work life. I'd donate again if I was able to add more concurrent machines to my current limit, but managing multiple licenses of the donation edition will quickly become a nightmare for me if they all track their usage separately. Ideally I'd prefer if there was some way I could work out a license that doesn't limit the amount of machines I can run.

I'm going to have to run on the free version for now, but I really want the donation features and I'm willing to pay for them.

Let me know if there are any solutions, thanks!

Posts: 2451 · Plerry 25 Nov 2019, 11:59

... and carry my copy of freefilesync on my usb toolkit.

Likely, you did not install FFS as a portable type.

Posts: 7211 · Zenju 26 Nov 2019, 18:50

Plerry's right. Newer FFS versions will also warn in situations like these before failing with an error.

Posts: 1 · msch83at 3 Dec 2019, 11:39

Hello, I have the same problem, so how can I make this work? I "only" have the portable edition, the download page allowed me to download the "portable" or a installer. Shouldn't it work no matter on how many machines as long as I am the only user? Especially because I use VMs a lot this limit gets very annoying.

*EDIT* I donated now again, got now a "newer" version (something i wanted to avoid), now i have to keep track on what machine i use witch version of the program? Isn't this unnecessarily complicated?

Posts: 5 · stratum 5 Dec 2019, 16:05

We have the same problem, except with the additional complication that we do most of our work remotely so the portable version needs to be transferred to the computer (we can't physically plug in a USB). I opened a topic about it here last week: viewtopic.php?t=6804

Posts: 3 · Jan3 11 Dec 2019, 07:09

We also ended to difficulties with this situation. We have used portable version on computer folder and now when we have changed our computers, we have run out of donated instances because it seems that our old computers, which are not used anymore, are also still counted. Does anybody know if it frees those reservations in some time period?
I have tried to contact for a week now to Zenju, how this is working/how to resolve it, but no answer at all :(

Posts: 2 · centizen 11 Dec 2019, 14:18

... and carry my copy of freefilesync on my usb toolkit.
Likely, you did not install FFS as a portable type. Plerry, 25 Nov 2019, 11:59

Sorry, I have installed it as a portable type in this case and still get the error.

Posts: 4056 · xCSxXenon 11 Dec 2019, 23:34

If you transfer the portable set of files to the local disk, it will count as an installed activation. Clearly stated in the info for the software.

Posts: 7211 · Zenju 19 Jan 2020, 18:59

Shouldn't it work no matter on how many machines as long as I am the only user? Especially because I use VMs a lot this limit gets very annoying. msch83at, 03 Dec 2019, 11:39

Currently FFS is also counting VMs. For the next version I'm planning to check for VMs and not consider them like a regular installation. Which VM software are you using?

Posts: 7211 · Zenju 19 Jan 2020, 19:04

We also ended to difficulties with this situation. We have used portable version on computer folder and now when we have changed our computers, we have run out of donated instances because it seems that our old computers, which are not used anymore, are also still counted. Does anybody know if it frees those reservations in some time period?
I have tried to contact for a week now to Zenju, how this is working/how to resolve it, but no answer at all :( Jan3, 11 Dec 2019, 07:09

FFS is only considering the latest version (but is showing the total count over all versions on the thank-you page). Therefore implicitly old computers won't be counted again after about a month (which is FFS's release cycle).
I'm planning to revise this for the next version and update the thank-you page and FAQ to make it more transparent what is being counted and how.