If you’re having to enter your license number, that’s a different issue. Please open a support ticket.
literatureandlatte.com/contact-us
Katherine
Hi PA - first, check the first two postings of this thread (on Page 1 of this thread - we are presently here on page 5) and be sure that you are seeing the same error message as one of those reported. The screen shots are in the first 2 messages.
If your error message is different from those shown at the beginning of this thread, it is possible that your problem is something different but since you seem to have been operating Scrivener ok since 2015, it is likely that this thread is relevant.
If your check confirms that you are a victim of the time bomb which lived in the 1.9.13 update of Scrivener (around June or July this past summer), then you need to refer to the instructions provided by tiho_d in his post in this thread on Sat Sep 07, 2019 14:45 (on page 3) but don’t use the link in that post.
Instead, use the link in his post of Sun Sep 08, 2019 15:18 (on page 4) which I repeat here :
dropbox.com/s/v6orz5b8aq4mt … r.zip?dl=0
If you are hesitant about being able to download the zip file from Dropbox, change the dl=0 at the end to dl=1 and it should download automatically ie
dropbox.com/s/v6orz5b8aq4mt … r.zip?dl=1
If you feel that you will have difficulty in carrying out tiho’s instructions in that Saturday post, then you’d probably need to seek hands-on help from a friend to unzip the file and swap the new scrivener.exe with the old one in your Windows folder.
The location of this folder may be dependent on your version of Windows. On my Windows 10 box it is in the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Scrivener\
hth - Philip
Same here. Computer is fully updated, but the bugger keeps telling me that it can’t check my registration and threatens me with going to trail mode soon. It has cost me half a day. Fix this please.
Thx for your help. Had the same problem and could fix it with the new .exe
Finally back to work 
:mrgreen:
Thanks very much for this advice I’ve only just seen it as I didn’t check back after I was told it was a separate problem and to contact Scrivener (which I’ve done but no reply yet) I will certainly try your advice as soon as I’m able which may not be until the weekend.
I don’t know if it’s relevant but at the beginning of July I had a similar incident where this message came up
I closed Scrivener down while I typed an email to Support asking for help and then before I pressed send I opened it again and this message came up
I just assumed the problem had sorted itself and cancelled the email. But now this is reading to me as if I’d set up a new Scrivener (which I didn’t) and maybe started a trial period which would have just come to its end
It’s all very confusing!
I made the mistake of updating my Scrivener and got into the “update NET” - bomb.
I’m using Scrivener through wine (and it is updated, on Ubuntu 18.04, so it should correspond to the latest Windows quircks).
I tried to fix it by downloading the exe from the link provided (the 8.9. one), with this excellent result:
And reverting to the original reverted of cours to the license bomb:
So where is a working program file???!!!
I both downloaded and installed the new version TODAY, weeks after this thread was started (and the bug should have been known)
The .NET issue is a separate problem. Please make sure you have the latest version.
Also, an updated installer was released this morning, superseding all previous versions. It’s properly signed with our developer certificate and should be less annoying to Windows’ security. Download it here:
scrivener.s3.amazonaws.com/Scriv … taller.exe
If you still have problems after both of those steps, please start a new thread or create a support ticket, here:
literatureandlatte.com/contact-us
Katherine
Just installed the new version 1.9.14.0
Started up rapidly without the 10 - 20 seconds ‘not responding’ that we’ve had recently. First impressions are good.
Let’s see over the next few days’ operations.
Hi Katherine,
I downloaded the latest update that was pushed through today, and after updating, the program would not open at all. I then downloaded the .exe file you linked to in the above post and installed that, and still the program will not open at all. 
With the error message I could at least access the program, now I have no access at all.
The new installer from today supersedes all previous versions. Please reinstall that, and restart your system.
If you still get an error message, what does it say?
Katherine
I sent a ticket and got the most unhelpful automatic message.
Also I did have the newest version (as I told I had attempted update just before sending that message) of everything. I had just updated my system, including packages needed for running Windows programs (through Wine)
As I’musing Linux I had no idea what could I do to that “.NET”. Obviously I had it installed, though, under the “mono” package .
Scrivener was NOT supposed to even need those packages to function (I happened to have mono installed for game modding work).
If a program stops working because of a misconfigured LICENSE, that is plain criminal. Program is intentionally broken to not work. For paying customers.
I never guessed that loading a “critical” update would end in a program that crashes because is “cannot contact the license server”.
I luckily had a link to an “Appimage” old linux version which could open my projects, and I was not left with a mess of sundry .rtf files.
The information of what happened is in this thread. I do not wish to spend more of my time downloading (intentionally) broken programs and attempt to install them. Unless I get paid for my time and nerves.
I know the whole licence problem is frustrating for those involved.
Most ticket systems have an automated response that just says, received it and will get back to you shortly. I don’t know how the automated acknowledgment could be more helpful.
You have accuse L&L of criminal behaviour without any fact to support that, in fact every evidence it was unexpected as a result of the forced change of licence management. Those of us who have used Scrivener over the years know Keith and team to be honest and ethical.
The accusation is unacceptable on so many levels and IMHO you owe L&L a retraction and apology.
A minor point, you are using Scrivener on an unsupported platform so there’s never any guarantee it will work.
I don’t know if this has been suggested before. Rather than frustrating the existing users further, would it be possible to provide some means of offline activation? New users and those who will update to version 3 can activate through Paddle.
Jon
They have obviously given their license system to that Pebble or Bubble or whatever it was that has broken the software and made the license needing to connect to a server that cannot be reached. It’s probably not L&L:s doing, save that they have been using a provider that causes havoc. They should sue that company and require that they compensate everyone affected for lost time.
Unsupported platform or not but a program must NEVER NEVER crash because of a broken license. And I’ve read these forums and it seems that people who are using the program on Windows have exactly the same problem. No connection to license server, error message giving wrong cause
That’s the thing. When you’re using it on an unsupported platform, you can never know if the problem arises from the software or the platform. Wine is not Windows. Besides, there is a Linux forum for that purpose.
This time I can. At least I know it is the LICENSE. As you can see from my earlier post with screenshots, the program had started, loaded my projects (there is a project open in the background), then it forces the license there, I fill in, and it tells it “cannot reach the server”. Hitting OK closes the program. People using Windows have had exactly the same problems.
If it had been just me, I would have believed it is because I use it through Wine. As I found here page upon page of similar or almost similar messages, from WINDOWS USERS i do know it IS NOT.
Besides, actual Wine problems are never like that. It may be the program does not launch, or that some properties don’t work or have odd quircks, but if the problem is Wine, it does NEVER cause a problem that is the SAME as those that people using native Windows do have.
There is no Linux forum for that purpose. It was for the Linux beta that got discontinued.
While thinking more about this, as an option some companies allow for an alternative method for activation. It is true that they are fewer than before, but having an option to email a request to L&L (or Paddle) for a manual activation key would be helpful and (I think) calm some nerves.
Jon
It’s certainly possible that Wine’s .NET support is contributing to any connectivity issues.
And it does appear that the new update has fixed the issue for most Windows-based users.
So I wouldn’t discount the possibility that Wine is a contributing factor.
Our Wine-based users appear to congregate in the Linux beta forum, despite its somewhat misleading name.
Katherine
That it has got working (so far?) for most Windows users does not make it less Defective By Design, i.e. Intentionally broken. “Protecting it from illegal use” by preventing also legal use.
If the licensing had been done properly (give the program the code and it checks it – internally, without needing connections) there would have been no problems. Games typically work that way (and they actually often are pirated). Or then you register to their server (knowing what it is) and download.
Now the license code obviously is handled by an outsider module badly integrated using then obviously a badly-designed MS connection program (possibly intentionally designed to “detect wrong OS” and stop working) to connect to an obscure server somewhere (No way to check of that server is even working. Maybe it works only when moon’s up, or only on weekdays 11AM to 2PM according to a timezone that isn’t revealed,)
If the license makes it non-working through wine, that’s an abomination. And really, if I have paid for a program I expect to have no hassle after that, requiring me to try to update this and that FOR LICENSE.
Do you remember the Sony’s rootkit scandal? CD:s that installed a virus to computers that you used as a CD-player. In the name of “copy-protection”? This has the same taste. Only the possibility to stop a breathing machine is missing.
You paid for a licence for it to work on Windows, not WINE. You have every right to expect it to work on Windows, you have no right to expect it to work on WINE. If it does, that is a bonus, but one that is not promised in the licence, or their advertising.
That said it has been a shambles with the change, and yes L&L could have handled it better and communicated more, but their commitment and responsibility is to get it working on Windows, which is what they sold it for. I have no doubt they hope to have it working for those Linux users who run it on WINE, but they may not have staff who have any experience on that platform.