Author Topic: Avast! Free AV Will Not Activate  (Read 23911 times)

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Offline igotyerna

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Re: Avast! Free AV Will Not Activate
« Reply #45 on: March 08, 2020, 09:04:50 AM »
I had no idea that the old UI with the dial-up tick box was there!

Turns out that in my case it doesn't matter, as ticking the box and then going through the whole Your Subscription Has Expired process made no difference. But, like chicken soup, it couldn't hurt.

I think that the old UI also had a Registration option on the left side which is missing in this version. Undoubtedly it handled the registration process differently than the way it's handled now -- not least of which is that it actually worked to get me a license.

I have no idea what the statistics are for posts on these forums from people unable to get a license for the free version now, as opposed to, say, a year ago, but I've seen numerous posts just today on my way to this thread where that is the main issue. If this is a relatively new trend, then maybe the developers ought to take a look at making the whole free licensing process more bullet-proof.

Jiri, at one point in our conversation, said that he doubted that the restrictive bandwidth of 56k dial-up had anything to do with my licensing problems since I never had these difficulties before and given that the license file itself is only 2-3kb -- hardly significant even for such a connection.

Grant

Offline chris..

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Re: Avast! Free AV Will Not Activate
« Reply #46 on: March 08, 2020, 02:17:29 PM »
It may not be indeed a problem with your dialup connection, as you point out, there are already several cases listed on this forum (in the French part too) where the license does not want to reset and remains "expired" even after a clean install.
So, Can you verify what Jiri said(just after uninstalling):
According to your description, it seems like you don't have any license on your pc at all - no license file here - C:\ProgramData\AVAST Software\Subscriptions

Regards,
Jiri Samanek
Is there or isn't there a "license.avastlic" file ?
Jiri seems to be saying no, but there might still be your old file with the expired license which would prevent you from renewing it for another year
From my recent experience , I noticed that a clean install in safe mode doesn't remove the path "C:\ProgramData\AVAST Software\" and all or part of what it contains.
You should delete it "by hand" after uninstalling, at least the file "license.avastlic" if it remains.

Offline igotyerna

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Re: Avast! Free AV Will Not Activate
« Reply #47 on: March 09, 2020, 08:14:07 AM »
Quote
Is there or isn't there a "license.avastlic" file ?

No. The computers that cannot get a new license have no "license.avastlic" in the Subscriptions folder. In fact, I thought to manually copy the active license file from another computer whose subscription was still valid into the Subscriptions folder of the problem computer to see what would happen, but I couldn't get access to the Subscriptions folder to insert the license. Jiri got me past that and said that he tried it himself and it worked for him. Jiri told me to reboot the computer after the license file was inserted and I did so. In my case, the license file never survived the reboot. I tried this several times but the Subscriptions folder always came up empty again after the reboot. I also tried going through the whole subscription renewal process while the Subscriptions folder still held a license (no reboot after transplanting) but it made no difference to the outcome. The donor license was from the same Windows OS version as the problem computer uses.

There is also a Licenses subfolder in "C:\ProgramFiles\AVAST Software\Avast" which contains numerous files but no license file per se. I never changed anything there and Jiri never suggested messing with it.

Grant

Offline bob3160

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Re: Avast! Free AV Will Not Activate
« Reply #48 on: March 09, 2020, 01:56:21 PM »
I still don't know if you've ever done a clean install of Avast.
You replied that you did other things.
There should definitely be a license file as stated by Jiri
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Offline chris..

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Re: Avast! Free AV Will Not Activate
« Reply #49 on: March 09, 2020, 06:51:05 PM »
I still don't know if you've ever done a clean install of Avast.
You replied that you did other things.
There should definitely be a license file as stated by Jiri
normally yes , with offline installer.
Ladies and Gentlemen,

My subscription for Avast! Antivirus Free expired back in the Fall of 2019 and it has never reactivated.

Every day (at least) I get a pop-up telling me that my subscription has expired. I click the button that is supposedly meant to initiate the process of reactivation which brings up another window offering me a choice between the premium and free antivirus versions. I select the free version and then I get another window offering me a free trial of premium which I decline. Then I’m good usually for the day. Next day, same thing.

From what I’ve read about the current activation process, when I choose the free version in that second window, that should be the end of it. I don’t even have to supply an email address like I used to. I should be able to go to the My Subscriptions tab in the user interface and see a subscription to Avast! Free AV and how many days remain in the yearly subscription.

I see none of that.

If auto-renewal fails, you are supposed to be able to click on a green “Upgrade Now” button in the Subscriptions tab to manually initiate a renewal.

There is no Upgrade Now button.

Under “Subscriptions On This PC” it reads, “You don’t have any subscriptions. How about getting one?” Following this is a green “Buy Now” button.
Up at the top of this window it says, “Add your Avast subscriptions in one of two ways” and you choose either, “Log into your Avast account” or “Enter a valid activation code.” None of these options are supposed to be required for getting a yearly activation of the Free AV product.

A few days ago I got so sick of the process that I downloaded the latest version of Avast! Free AV (the offline full installer) and installed it over my existing version. I have read that installation of the latest version is necessary for activation success but it made no difference. Exact same behavior.

Then I used the Avastclear utility in safe mode to remove everything and then reinstalled from the same new version download. Except for taking way longer to update, this had no effect. Exact same behavior. No activation.

What am I supposed to do? The product will not activate by itself and it offers me no provision to do it manually. I’ve been using Avast! Free AV for around ten years with no activation problems. If it ain’t broke, why fix it?

If it matters, I am using Windows 7 Pro and Firefox but I also have a Windows 8.1 machine that has the same activation issues.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Grant
@igotyerna
I don't know if we've talked about it in this long post, but haven't you ever had another antivirus installed on this computer?
In that case, it may not have been uninstalled thoroughly and may cause a problem with avast
« Last Edit: March 09, 2020, 07:01:06 PM by chris.. »

Offline bob3160

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Re: Avast! Free AV Will Not Activate
« Reply #50 on: March 09, 2020, 07:01:05 PM »
There has to be something that we aren't aware of that's causing this.
We don't have access to the users computer and without remote access, we may never find out the underlying cause.





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Offline igotyerna

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Re: Avast! Free AV Will Not Activate
« Reply #51 on: March 10, 2020, 01:06:46 AM »
Quote
I don't know if we've talked about it in this long post, but haven't you ever had another antivirus installed on this computer?
In that case, it may not have been uninstalled thoroughly and may cause a problem with avast

The problem computers being discussed are fairly recent installations and have only had Avast Free AV on them. In fact, the Win8.1 desktop which displays the perpetual yellow ! attention-getter along with the Your Avast Subscription Has Expired notification on the Status page of the Avast UI has never had a license. I initially installed the last 2019 version available and then updated to the new 2020 version, neither of which has been able to install a license. The Win7 Pro computer at least had a license at one point, which expired and then was never able to get a renewal license.

I have done a number of clean installs including uninstalling from Add/Remove Programs, rebooting and then uninstalling with avastclear in safe mode before reinstalling.

Quote
There has to be something that we aren't aware of that's causing this.
We don't have access to the users computer and without remote access, we may never find out the underlying cause.

Agreed. I've used the word voodoo several times in this context. Barring some type of divine revelation I don't expect to ever find out what the exact problem is in my case.

Jiri settled on the general notion that something in the network path which allows my computer to access the internet was not playing nicely with the Avast servers responsible for allowing the generation of free licenses from scratch, rather than than there being an issue with the severs themselves or my computer's internal environment. I was able to get an active license from Avast, on this same network, when I entered an activation code for Avast Premium which he said used a different set of Avast servers. I also managed to get a license for Avast Free AV on a notebook computer when using a different network (library wifi connection) instead of my home internet access. So, it seems to me that he is right about there being some issue between my home internet access and a particular group of Avast servers. What that exact problem is and how to address it will likely remain a mystery, since finding out would require unfettered access to my computer by an Avast engineer -- which ain't likely to happen. Advanced troubleshooting like that would only be warranted if the issue under investigation was far more widespread than one guy's problem on one network.

Grant

Offline chris..

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Re: Avast! Free AV Will Not Activate
« Reply #52 on: March 14, 2020, 10:13:34 AM »
Jiri,

Believe it or not, I still use a 56K dial-up connection. This is why I have to download the Avast Offline Installer rather than go with the more common Online Installer option. My connection will not stay up long enough at any one time to download the whole 360 MB Avast application, so I have to use a download manager to resume the download when the connection breaks. This is possible with the Full Installer download. I think that if the connection breaks using the Online Installer, the whole download goes back to the beginning when the connection is re-established. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong on this, but this is how it usually works with these Online installers. I’ve done it for ten years using the Offline Installer and it has always worked with no issues.
.....
Can you tell us if your 56k dialup modem was connected at the beginning of the offline installation or only afterwards?

I can't remember where avast said that, but I seem to have read that for the past few months the installation of avast (whether online or offline) requires you to be connected during installation.

I could be wrong but it's the remark made on this other subject where the member couldn't activate his free version (expired too) that made me think about it.
Quote
I did not expect that the offline installation package also needs to be connected to the Internet to install it properly.

Offline igotyerna

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Re: Avast! Free AV Will Not Activate
« Reply #53 on: March 22, 2020, 06:09:29 AM »
Quote
Can you tell us if your 56k dialup modem was connected at the beginning of the offline installation or only afterwards?

Quote
I can't remember where avast said that, but I seem to have read that for the past few months the installation of avast (whether online or offline) requires you to be connected during installation.

I can't swear to it, but my money is on NO. I probably wanted to install Avast before any online connection was made. This just makes sense -- unless there is a stipulation that you need to be online during the installation for the activation to work properly. I've never heard that one before.

If being online during the installation from the offline installer was crucial to licensing success, why would that not figure prominently in the installation instructions? In fact, the whole notion of requiring an online connection for activation of a product installed via an offline installer makes little sense. Some people are going to use the offline installer because the target computer is actually offline and never will have any direct connection to the internet. The offline installer should be self-activating.

Anyway, the notion is interesting and I think I might get around to uninstalling Avast on my 8.1 desktop and reinstalling with the latest offline installer (while online) as soon as I can get to the library again with my notebook and download the offline installer and the offline definitions database. The library closed last week due to the coronavirus panic, but the day I discovered this, I found that I could still get a usable wifi signal in the parking lot. Haven't been back since, so I don't know if the network is still up, but I guess I'll find out.

Grant


Offline chris..

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Re: Avast! Free AV Will Not Activate
« Reply #54 on: March 22, 2020, 09:39:20 AM »
I think I'm a bit confused although zony in the quoted link seems to say that you have to be connected from the beginning, I found the information I was looking for but it seems to concern XP users.
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=214357.0
However, for other OSes, you still have to log in at some point to activate the license.
Even with an OFFLINE installer and by downloading the VPS on another support I think it is not possible to use avast without ever being connected (at least once).

Offline igotyerna

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Re: Avast! Free AV Will Not Activate
« Reply #55 on: March 23, 2020, 09:54:44 PM »
Quote
I think I'm a bit confused although zony in the quoted link seems to say that you have to be connected from the beginning, I found the information I was looking for but it seems to concern XP users.
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=214357.0
However, for other OSes, you still have to log in at some point to activate the license.
Even with an OFFLINE installer and by downloading the VPS on another support I think it is not possible to use avast without ever being connected (at least once).

Just to be clear on what you mean, here, "log in" usually refers to a formal process of identification involving the establishment of a user name and a password. It was my understanding that there is no requirement to establish an Avast account in order to activate the free version. It does appear that there needs to be an online connection at some point so that the installed product can request a license from Avast. The appropriate Avast servers then must send something to the installed product -- authorization to self-generate or the actual license file, I'm not clear on the exact process -- in order for licensing to take place.

How it used to go before I started having all these licensing issues (Avast Free AV prior to 2019) was that I would install the application from the previously downloaded offline installer, then connect online to get database updates. Usually I was not prompted to go through an activation process, I had to initiate it from a "Registration" page from within the Avast UI where I would provide an email address and then receive a new license in a few minutes.

This new system for activation has been the one that does not work for me. So I'm still not really sure whether, under the new system, you need to be online during the installation process when using the offline installer or simply at some point thereafter for successful licensing to occur.

Grant

Offline chris..

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Re: Avast! Free AV Will Not Activate
« Reply #56 on: March 24, 2020, 08:09:53 AM »
You probably received a license from your own computer (file not deleted) as long as your license had not expired.
Now your license has expired and you have performed a clean installation with the tool, and it may be this file that you can no longer retrieve.
Quote
So I'm still not really sure whether, under the new system, you need to be online during the installation process when using the offline installer or simply at some point thereafter for successful licensing to occur.
I don't know either, a confirmation from avast would be required.
The member whose post I'm quoting seems to be saying that you have to be logged in from the beginning, ... but nothing is certain

Offline benodet4

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Re: Avast! Free AV Will Not Activate
« Reply #57 on: March 24, 2020, 11:31:12 AM »
Bonjour
existe t-il un forum en Français?
tank

Offline Asyn

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Re: Avast! Free AV Will Not Activate
« Reply #58 on: March 24, 2020, 12:03:52 PM »
W8.1 [x64] - Avast Free AV 23.3.8047.BC [UI.757] - Firefox ESR 102.9 [NS/uBO/PB] - Thunderbird 102.9.1
Avast-Tools: Secure Browser 109.0 - Cleanup 23.1 - SecureLine 5.18 - DriverUpdater 23.1 - CCleaner 6.01
Avast Wissenswertes (Downloads, Anleitungen & Infos): https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=60523.0

Offline benodet4

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Re: Avast! Free AV Will Not Activate
« Reply #59 on: March 24, 2020, 03:25:32 PM »
thank you