I've spotted a couple of other threads which partly answer this query about re-using a NIS 2011 key, but not precisely in these circumstances and/or they did not completely answer my questions.
I have a 3-user license for NIS 2011, with all 3 users activated as follows:
1. Desktop PC 2. Laptop 3. Mini/netbook version.
There are approx 160 days remaining on this 3-user license.
I've just bought a new desktop PC which comes with a 60-day trial of NIS 2011 and there are now approx 30 days remaining. I would like to transfer the remaining 160 days from my old PC to my new PC.
I propose to uninstall NIS from the old desktop PC and use the product key from this license to top up/subscribe to the trial version on the new PC, by clicking the 'Subscribe' link next to the 'days remaining' on the NIS front page.
My understanding is that, if I uninstall NIS from the old PC while on-line, this will allow it to communicate with the Symantec server and register the fact that I have now removed it, ie the number of activations should be reduced from 3 to 2. Is this correct?
One important question - if I do the uninstall while on-line, wouldn't that leave me open to infection once NIS has been removed, and before another product is installed?
Finally, if the uninstall process doesn't reduce the number of activations correctly, am I right to think that trying to use the old product key on the trial version would be blocked, since all 3 available installs are still in use? In this case, I assume Norton Support would have to sort this out for me?
My understanding is that, if I uninstall NIS from the old PC while on-line, this will allow it to communicate with the Symantec server and register the fact that I have now removed it, ie the number of activations should be reduced from 3 to 2. Is this correct?
Yes, that is correct.
One important question - if I do the uninstall while on-line, wouldn't that leave me open to infection once NIS has been removed, and before another product is installed?
When NIS is uninstalled, it automatically reenables the Windows firewall. The Windows firewall is perfectly adequate and will prevent any unsolicited incoming traffic and protect you just fine. If you are behind a router, that in itself will also prevent any intrusions.
Having no anti-virus while you uninstall/reinstall NIS is not an issue. You don't get infected malware simply by not having an anti-virus.
1.Once you unistall norton from your PC it doesn't reduce your utilization count from 3 to 2. And you cannot reinstall the product in any other new PC other than the already used 3. Since the serial number of your PC,laptop or what ever will be updated in the system.
Of course it does. This has always been the case. You pay for the license. This has been the case for years, and uninstalling the product frees up a license. As described here today:
Of course it does. This has always been the case. You pay for the license. This has been the case for years, and uninstalling the product frees up a license. As described here today:
It hasn't freed up a licence automatically in the account until 2012. The new version pinpoints what has been removed or updated, Before 2012, it always took a visit to CHAT to get sorted out.
I have reused a NIS activation several times since 2010 on different computers, when I upgraded hardware. Just uninstalled it, then applied it again when I had installed Windows and NIS on the new computer, and it was accepted just fine and did not use up another activation either time.
I changed a motherboard, and had to go through Customer Service. You can do any number of uninstalls and reinstalls on your machines, as long as a main identifier is not changed. That has to do with recognition of the machine and not recognition of a licence change.
I've spotted a couple of other threads which partly answer this query about re-using a NIS 2011 key, but not precisely in these circumstances and/or they did not completely answer my questions.
I have a 3-user license for NIS 2011, with all 3 users activated as follows:
1. Desktop PC 2. Laptop 3. Mini/netbook version.
There are approx 160 days remaining on this 3-user license.
I've just bought a new desktop PC which comes with a 60-day trial of NIS 2011 and there are now approx 30 days remaining. I would like to transfer the remaining 160 days from my old PC to my new PC.
I propose to uninstall NIS from the old desktop PC and use the product key from this license to top up/subscribe to the trial version on the new PC, by clicking the 'Subscribe' link next to the 'days remaining' on the NIS front page.
My understanding is that, if I uninstall NIS from the old PC while on-line, this will allow it to communicate with the Symantec server and register the fact that I have now removed it, ie the number of activations should be reduced from 3 to 2. Is this correct?
One important question - if I do the uninstall while on-line, wouldn't that leave me open to infection once NIS has been removed, and before another product is installed?
Finally, if the uninstall process doesn't reduce the number of activations correctly, am I right to think that trying to use the old product key on the trial version would be blocked, since all 3 available installs are still in use? In this case, I assume Norton Support would have to sort this out for me?
Thanks all for your swift repsonses - even tho there does seem to be some disagreement about what is and isn't possible!
Whereas Prasanna seems certain that uninstalling does not free up a license, Bombastus is equally certain from practical experience that this is the case - this seems to be confirmed by other posters.
I think the point here may be that the process isn't always automatic - ie it is possible to transfer unused days to the new PC but this needs to done via the Customer Support team. This thought is supported by posts elsewhere from HarryP and sGanesh_Ande, also Symantec employees.
If it really is the case that a license cannot be transferred to a new PC - a perfectly legitimate action for various reasons - then this would be seriously bad news for Symantec who would lose customers.
I will try the procedure I proposed in my original post, and contact Customer Support in case of problems, and will report back.
The main question here is can an old key be used to activate a trial version. The simple answer is yes if done correctly and if the trial version is for the same product.. Please go first to www.mynortonaccout.com to retrieve your key.
1. Unnstall the product from the old computer and reboot it.
2. try and put in the old key into the trial program where it says subscribe. and enter it into the space there for the key.
3.If there is any problem with activating the trial version or subscribing it, there is a very simple solutioin. Please then contact customer support using the free chat program. If it successfully accepts the key and the number of days remaining on the subsription are correct and you still have the correct number of activations left, then there is no need to contact customer support..
.Please contact the free chat program by using this link.
I think this is rather simple to do, What seems to have happened here is that there seems to be some disagreement as to the process involved. I have noticed that the people who have claimed to have been able to do the process successfully without contacting customer support seem to have been in other locations fhan the US/Can. regions, so perhaps the process does work a little differently according to where you are located. This idea is just a guess on my part.
Please do come back and let us know how you made out. Thanks.
As I have indicated, the process seems to be slightly varied depending on location and time involved. We have had a lot of users doing the same process and they have had to use Customer Support to finish the process.. We have provided the necessary instructions and the O/P will have to see what works for him or her and report back what works. There probably is no universal set of instructions that will always work which is why there is customer support.
1.Once you unistall norton from your PC it doesn't reduce your utilization count from 3 to 2. And you cannot reinstall the product in any other new PC other than the already used 3. Since the serial number of your PC,laptop or what ever will be updated in the system.
Of course it does. This has always been the case. You pay for the license. This has been the case for years, and uninstalling the product frees up a license. As described here today:
When you uninstall a Norton product it does NOT automatically update the Norton Central Database. THis has been said in this thread by a Norton Staffer, the message you link to confirms this by saying you have to contact OnLineSUpport for them to alter the database and it is confirmed by the many many users who have received the "You have exceeded the permitted number of activatins" and posted here about it.
You are right that you still have the licence and the right to use it until it expires but that is not reflected automatically in the central database.
I don't think you are right that it has always been automatic.
BUT NIS/NAV 2012 introduce the Management Utility option and I'm told by Norton Staffers that this will enable you to link an activation to an identified computer and then you can yourself deactivate that computer and free up the activation yourself.
They would not have done this if it always happened automatically.
That is my understanding from what Norton Staff have said here in public as well as in private.......
What can happen and may be what you have experienced is that if you uninstall and reinstall on the same hardware then the Norton system detects that it is the same hardware ... some has code ID? But if you uninstalled it from PC #1 and then installed on PC #2 you would almost certainly get the error message.
Well I've got my remaining 159 days subscription transferred ok to the new PC.
Made the following observations.
The uninstall on the old PC did not appear to contact the Symantec server, as had been suggested by some, and this was confirmed by the fact that the number of activations was still 3 out of 3, ie no available installs.
However, once I input my old product key on the new PC this was accepted ok and the days remaining was updated correctly. So I didn't need to contact Support.
Based on the latest info re NIS2012 from Hugh, it does seem unlikely that the Symantec database was ever updated automatically. Still not sure why I was allowed to input the old key when there were supposedly no available installs, but I'm not complaining!
Maybe with the launch of the 2012 Management Tool the server can now detect an uninstall even without the Management Tool being involved although I don't quite see how that can happen if there was in fact no contact with it when you uninstalled.
One of the mysteries of computing ....
On the new PC you did remove and clean up any security application that was preinstalled .... ?
A normal Windows Uninstall leaves behind certain information -- for example a flag to stop you repeaatedly reinstalling a trail version as well as information that helps when reinstalling -- so since you had a valid trial the situation is slightly different to a completely clean PC on which Norton has never been installed.
In fact, since you had a rial NIS 2011 installed you did not need to uninstall it to use your existing NIS 2011 KEY -- all you had to do was enter it into the Subscribe / Activation box for an existing key and that would have converted the trial installation to a full one. There is absolutely no functional difference between Norton's Trial and Retail versions except the fixed short limit.
I'm sorry that we missed this in the discussions on the central database .......
Now you can upgrade to NIS 2012 but I'd wait a while especially if you use the Identity Safe since it seems some tuning may be needed. I suggest you go into Settings and reset the Automatic Download of New Version to OFF.
Note that the automatic in this is just the download; it does not, if ON, go on and install without asking you but there's no point in downloading something that will need updating!
I don't believe there is currently any attempt by the uninstall to contact the server and reduce the installation count, so I wasn't surprised when the counter remained unchanged.
No removal/clean-up was required on the new PC - I simply did as you said - input the old product key to convert the 60-day trial to a full version. The mystery of why I was not blocked from doing this by the activation count remains unexplained...
Thanks for the tip re Automatic Download of a New Version. I don't think I've ever seen a message displayed informing me that a new version is available for download, but I'd rather have manual control over this so I've switched the option off.
[ ... ] No removal/clean-up was required on the new PC - I simply did as you said - input the old product key to convert the 60-day trial to a full version. The mystery of why I was not blocked from doing this by the activation count remains unexplained... [ ... ]
Have you compared the Days left on the GUI with the days left in MyNortonAccount ?
I'm wondering if there were days left still on the Trial whether it might flag the Exceeded at the end of the Trial ....
I've never heard of it doing this but since we have had reports back of the OnLine Support people adding back the Trial Days when someone used a new KEY while there was still substantial time left instead of waiting. We already knew they would do this when you did it with a purchased copy and lost days, and since they have introduced this new Management tool for the user, maybe they have found a way of doing this automatically ......
The GUI shows 158 days remaining - which is the value carried forward from the old PC.
Norton MyAccount states that the expiry date for the 3 PC license is Feb 21 2012 - which is around 158 days from now.
Norton MyAccount for the Trial license has never shown an expiry date - just shows 'Trial' in that part of the info, but the end of the 60-day period will be around Oct 15 2011.
The 'About' information on the product now shows the Serial Number of the old license, so hopefully it no longer thinks it's the Trial version. I take your point and will watch what happens at the end of the 60 day period.