Mac OS Sequoia and Davinci Resolve Studio 18 Issues

Warning for Those Updating to macOS Sequoia While Using DaVinci Resolve 18:

If you upgrade to macOS Sequoia and try to open DaVinci Resolve Studio 18, you may encounter the following error message:

“Maximum automatic deactivations per week exceeded.”

After speaking with support, I was informed that this issue is due to a software activation bug. The recommended solutions are to either upgrade to DaVinci Resolve 19.03 or roll back to a previous version of macOS.

This is a significant problem for us, as we are in the middle of a project. Upgrading to version 19 may risk compromising our existing database and project files.

We hope the engineering team will release an update for version 18 to resolve this issue, rather than requiring users to upgrade to version 19.

Screenshot 2024-10-28 at 8.29.54 PM.jpg (519.14 KiB) Viewed 1857 times

No, going from 19.0 or 19.0.1 or 19.0.2 to 19.0.3 should not harm anything. As far as I know, it's minor bug fixes, no database changes. It should work just fine. One of the major bugs it fixes is that stupid Sequoia problem, which is (in my opinion) an Apple Securities & Permissions problem. They're getting very irritating and pernicious lately.

We don't plan to switch over to Sequoia until it finally works with Avid/Pro Tools, which I think is not going to happen until at least January 2025. If we bought a brand-new Mac that had to run on Sequoia, then we'd try to find a way to work around it.

[Rohit Gupta]

Given you updated to macOS 15 in the middle of the project, Updating to 19.0.3 is necessary for macOS 15 compatibility.

We're running 19.0.3 on all our Mac systems now (in Sonoma 14.5), and see no major issues so far.

I updated my Macbook to Sequoia last week, and boy has it been a headache. I was totally unaware of all the issues going on with MacOS and Resolve Studio. When I tried to open up Resolve on Sequoia, my studio license had been deactivated and I realized I had lost my key.

Long story short, I had to buy a new one. I activated my new key yesterday afternoon (at the time, on Resolve 18.5), and today had already been automatically deactivated. I then went ahead and updated to 19.03 before entering the code again.

Here is my remaining concern: When I re-entered my brand-new activation key today, Resolve said that I had no activations remaining (on the key that I bought this week). But I have only activated Resolve on this one computer. So, how do I regain my second activation, which is somehow being used twice on the same computer?

You should have asked here in the forum before buying a new key, which was not needed at all.
It was an activation problem, which has been fixed recently. Contact support about your key.

Generally, I stay away from any new OS for at least half a year, or ‚sandbox‘ it on a separate boot storage.
And, to the OP, it’s never a good idea to use software that went final long before the most recent OS under that brand new system.
Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t make it easy to downgrade MacOS, but it’s possible. 18 works well here under Sonoma.

Hi,

I’m in a similar situation, although I didn’t buy a new license.
I just opened DaVinci Studio, and the app asked for an activation code. I went ahead and re-entered my serial number; however, after activating it, I received a message stating that I don’t have any activations left. Now, I seem to be stuck with only one activation instead of the two permitted.

What should I do in this situation to regain the lost activation after upgrading to Sequoia?

You don’t need to do anything.
When you enter a key for the third time, the other two are reset and you’ll have two again.

What should I do in this situation to regain the lost activation after upgrading to Sequoia?

Judging anecdotally by forum comments, I believe this has been fixed (or at least improved) in Resolve 19.1. (I need a T-shirt that says "I Blame Apple.")

What about one that says "I blame Blackmagic" on the back?