Knowledgebase

This is the simplest and fastest way to activate your license key. All you need to do is click Activate via Internet in the activation dialog box, as detailed above.

The software will then connect to our servers, and authenticate your license key.

Note that the PDF-XChange products will check periodically with the server to ensure that you have not blocked the device from using the license.​​​​​​

If you experience any issues with this process then please review the error messages section below, and if you still cannot resolve the issue then contact support@pdf-xchange.com for assistance.

This method is intended for devices that do not have an internet connection. Click Activate Manually (Offline) in the activation dialog box to use this option. The offline activation dialog box will open:

Follow the steps and save the file to a portable drive, then bring it to a device that has an internet connection, sign into your account page and click Offline Serial Key Activation:

Click the Upload File button to exchange your ‘Activation.request’ file for an "Activation.response" file that you can load in step three of the offline activation process via the offline activation dialog box.

The changes in our licensing setup necessitated some related changes in the account pages, including the Offline Serial Key Activation section (detailed above) and the Activation List in the Your Products & Serial Keys tab:

Click this button to view your license key activations, the date of each activation, and the name of the device with which the activation is associated:

You can also use this dialog box to deregister or block devices as desired.

Blocking prevents the device from being registered again. 

Deregistering prevents the device from automatically re-authenticating, and is intended for use when you want to remove a machine from your license key in order to free up a slot for a different machine.

Note that our servers check periodically to ensure that activated devices are permitted on license keys. If you deregister/block a device, and a user continues to use a key on that device, they will receive demo watermarks on their documents when they use licensed features.

Key Does Not Exist

This error message appears when an invalid key has been entered:

You can copy and paste the key from your account page to ensure it doesn't contain any mistakes.

Activation Attempt Exceeds License Limit

This error message means that you are attempting to activate the license key after the number of permitted activations for the key has already been reached. If you need to activate the key on additional devices then you will need to add seats to your license, which you can do via your account page.

Other Errors

If you encounter any other error messages, and you are unable to resolve the issue, then please email support@pdf-xchange.com with a screenshot of the message. We will get back to you and resolve the issue as soon as possible.