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[MusicHawk]

REPOST...

I have a product I paid for (and have been using for many years) that suddenly stopped working. All I have is a rumor that it's because the computer name was changed. If that's the cause, it's undocumented, and a bizarre dependency -- certainly it's not a security measure, because any computer can be given any name at any time. And I have NO RESPONSE from the company. My music database is inaccessible, and I have no clue what to do about it. Reinstall? Restore a license? Why would these be necessary?

EARLIER MESSAGE:

>> Did you change your computer name?

MAYBE... I recall it was changed some time ago (to be more consistent with other computers on the LAN), but perhaps not restarted until last night. After being always-on for a long time, I powered off for six days while on a trip. I restarted it last night and did the MC 12.0.233 upgrade this morning. The computer's clock is auto-set and is correct, as it always is.

It's an XP WinMediaCenter machine that's been running MC 12.0.x for months (my last restore was to put MC on this PC, transferred from my old PC).

I install every new version of MC, usually the same day it's made available. Today I did exactly as I always do.

I'm not running any exotic or new software.

If changing the name of the computer wiped out my MC license, that's scary because it's the only software I've encountered that cares what the PC's name is. I work with hundreds of computers (not running MC, of course) every day and have never encountered any problem with changing names other than sometimes messing up Windows network neighborhood bookmarks.

Is this behavior in MC documented? What about the computer's name matters: exact spelling, capitalization, nickname? Is there any recovery short of restoring the license? I searched and can't find any mention of the computer's name as a factor in MC installation or behavior. Did I miss it somewhere?

If MC really does require that the computer's name be unchanged after MC is installed, that seems like a really poor system. The computer's name is in the user's control, so how does this protect MC? Wouldn't it be a lot better if MC uses something more stable to lock on to, such as MAC or CPU serial number or something? After all, if the license is locked to the computer name, something readily changeable by the user, it's a very weak lock. And if the license is NOT locked to the name, then why cause the user a problem for no reason?

I'm hoping to hear an official explanation before I use up a restore to recover from what might be MC's undocumented (mis)behavior.

[JimH]

I'm hoping to hear an official explanation before I use up a restore to recover from what might be MC's undocumented (mis)behavior.

Official explanation:  We don't know.  But just use a restore.  If you run out of restores, let us know.

[MusicHawk]

Thank you for replying.

I restored my license and I'm back in.

But it concerns me that this can happen (to me and others) and JR doesn't know why. Given the work represented by my 55,000+ record MC database, I hope you'll investigate before a lockout becomes unrestorable.

[modelmaker]

That's what the restores are for and they're free, it will always be restorable. Just Download and install MC and restore from internet.

You may also have to restore your MC database library, (MC>File>Library>Restore Library), from Docs & Settings>Administrator>Application Data>J River>Media Center 12>Library Backups.

Actually you could just try a Library Restore if MC is already installed and you just don't have access to your music.

MC 12 automatically backs up the data base library when you close MC and you will always find it in the above mentioned folder.

[MusicHawk]

Sorry, but that's not the point. Backing up and later restoring the library is only useful when Media Center can be launched. But when the license is considered invalid, it can't be -- the condition I encountered this morning.

JRiver designed a licensing mechanism that controls when MC runs. Apparently this sometimes mysteriously breaks. Restoring the license is a solution that so-far, apparently works.

But if JRiver doesn't know WHY its software breaks, how can there be any confidence that restoring a license -- just more software -- will ALWAYS fix it?? I'm a professional software developer, and without a rock-solid diagnosis of the problem, saying there's a solution is nothing more than being lucky...so far.

[modelmaker]

It's not broken. Jim was pulling your leg. Changing the computor name has always required a reinstall of MC, just as reinstalling Windose would require the same. I don't know why it was designed this way, but it goes all the way back to the early days of MJ & MC.

As you can see from my post count, I've been around here a while and to my knowledge, no one's lost anything and all it requires is a fresh install of MC. The data base and the files are not at risk.

Unfortunately, MC12 is still being polished off, so the help files are still being updated. I'll try to work up something that can be added to the Wiki.

[Alex B]

I have never lost a license during the last five years. I have licences for MJ8/MC9, MC10, MC11 and MC12 installed on four different PCs in our household. I can install and run any of these programs on all our PCs without restoring the license. Actually I don't think I have ever used a restore unless I have built or bought a new PC. I have lost the C: drive a couple of times, but since I create disk image backups MC has always been registered after a drive replacement and data restore.

Though, I have never changed the computer name after installing an OS.

[JimH]

Here's a long list of problems that people thought were MC's, but turned out to be related to other hardware or software.

The point is, though, that the lost license can't be explained and it is so extremely rare that we're not going to go looking for a reason since it is easily remedied by a restore.

Please let it go.