Activated license deactivates itself

[wordsworth]

Just FYI, I've had Malwarebytes 3.06.1469 running well for about a week after having problems with various protections in previous 3.0 versions not working for which I've been in contact with support.  This morning I'm greeted with MBAM showing I should upgrade or activate my license which had already been done when installed for the who knows number of time.  Then I'm greeted with the attached message after typing in the license information.  Then I uninstall and reinstall 3.06.1469 and don't need to type in the license information as it is inputted automatically I guess from the Windows registry. If this occurs again I don't think I'll bother reinstalling as a malware program should instill confidence and cannot do that when it exhibits flaky behavior.

Edited February 11, 2017 by wordsworth

[Aura]

Hi wordsworth

Only the Help Desk can deal with activation issues (the message in your screenshot for instance), so you'll need to contact them if it happens again. If the licence wasn't deactivated properly before a reinstall of the program, this could lead to this situation.

https://support.malwarebytes.com/customer/portal/emails/new?b_id=6400&utm_source=forum

[wordsworth]

Aura, this morning I contacted support on this issue only to tell them it occurred since I did resolve it by uninstalling/reinstalling. Not that support would be of much help since it is the weekend. On deactivating a license before reinstalling MBAM 3.0, I've never been told about any procedure for deactivating a license, only to uninstall 3.0 using the Windows uninstall programs utility and then reinstall MBAM 3.0.  If there is a proper procedure one must do to deactivate the license before reinstalling it what is that procedure?  I don't know if I'd do it anyway were this to happen again because I'm pretty tired of the behavior MBAM 3.0 exhibits.

[Aura]

There is a proper procedure yes. You should always deactivate your licence before reinstalling Malwarebytes. That has been true since at least v2.x (and even v1.x). To deactivate your licence in Malwarebytes 3.0.6, open the program and click on My Account in the top-right corner and from there, click on the Deactivate License in the bottom-right corner.

[wordsworth]

I've always wondered what the scenario would be for anyone to use the deactivate button to deactivate a lifetime license and now I know but was leary of using it for what should be obvious reasons.  Never had this message before but then neither have I ever had MBAM automatically deactivate a license that had been activated either.  I'm expecting Support to have an answer on Monday as to why this occurred and a resolution for it since I've reached the end of my patience with this program .

Edited February 11, 2017 by wordsworth

[Aura]

The Help Desk deal with tickets in a "first come, first serve" order. Also, check your Junk and Spam folder often as their email might end up in one of these folders. Also, in the Malwarebytes 2.x FAQ (even 1.x), deactivating the licence is one of the required step when you want to reinstall the program.

cc @celee, @AdvancedSetup

[wordsworth]

The point being Aura that if we were dealing here with a solid product there'd be no need for legions of us out here to be uninstalling and reinstalling the program. I've been reading reviews of other anti-malware programs and will make a decision soon as to what I'll do.  I'm not going to be constantly uninstalling and reinstalling this program.

[AdvancedSetup]

Hello @wordsworth agreed, one should not. I have not had to on any of my several installations. The only reason I can think of why you'd have a license issue after an activation is if some DNS, firewall, security software was somehow blocking access to our activation server.

I'd be glad to help take a look at your computer and see if something is going on with it to cause this issue if you like.

 

Please read the following and post back the 3 requested logs as an attachment.
 
Diagnostic Logs
 
Thank you

Ron

 

[wordsworth]

I run MBAM 3, Windows Defender, and a program called Shadow Defender.  The latter may have an issue that is causing this so I'm trying an experiment right now where I leave Shadow Defender disabled for several days to see if this occurs again.  This did occur again today, but keep in mind that this never happened with MBAM 2.2.

Question for you, when MBAM has been activated for days why would it need access to your activation server at any later time?  Does your software seek the activation server every time the program is opened for example to download updates? 

[wordsworth]

As in my last post, it happened again just today so no I've no resolution to the problem.  I am trying an experiment where I leave another program disabled to see if it is causing this somehow so it will be several days to see whether it does but if you don't have and use the program Shadow Defender then this possible road to a resolution won't work for you.

[AdvancedSetup]

Yes, our program needs to contact our activation server for metrics such as any detections, for updates, and for license compliance. If access is blocked for any reason then it can cause issues. Though I don't think it deactivates quickly. That seems odd. I've not tested it myself but will check and see if I can find out how long it can go without contacting the server before it no longer works.

 

[wordsworth]

I suspect then that a resolution will not be possible since Shadow Defender (SD) is a lite virtualization program that sandboxes the entire C: drive while enabled and then after leaving Shadow mode and thus rebooting any changes made are gone if not committed through SD by the user.  However, I never had this problem with 2.0.

My last post doesn't make much sense now that the other poster's comment is deleted to make another thread.  Should be a way to copy/paste and leave this thread intact so the conversation makes sense especially if there had been more back and forth between those commenting.

[AdvancedSetup]

Sorry, about the thread topic but we've said now since I've been on this forum in 2007 DO NOT reply to other user topics. CREATE YOUR OWN topic for one-on-one help but most users either ignore or simply post without reading and getting a feel for the forum.

As for Shadow Defender all I can do is report it to our QC Team and let them know. Version 3.x of the program uses a more updated licensing mechanism that perhaps is not compatible with SD.