Blackmagic Forum

I have just updated to Version 15.2.1 and now it wants an activation key even though there is a dongle.
Can you please explain what to do?
Thanks

My guess is you may have a second hand dongle that did not originally come from a legitimate BMD reseller. If that's not the case and you have proof of purchase from a BMD reseller with the original package serial number for the dongle you can contact your local BMD support office. Alternatively you wont be able to upgrade to 15.2.1. There is no database change from 15.2 so you can reload that version.

Does this mean Peter that the dongles are no longer recognised and won’t work with future versions of Resolve? I understood we would always be able to use dongles to easily switch to different machines.

I had also heard that BMD were no longer issuing activation keys.

Thanks

Andrew.


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Activation keys are the norm now for all new orders.

Legitimate BMD dongles continue to work. If you have a dongle from v6.x or more recently that is from an authorized BMD supplier it will work.

The dongles that don't work now are from non authorized sources. They wont work in the future for any new versions. Anyone who is offering 100 dongles at a reduced price is clearly not likely to be finished with them after a job and trying to sell them, they are not likely to be legitimate dongles.

If in doubt, purchase an activation key from an official BMD reseller.

Peter Chamberlain wrote:Activation keys are the norm now for all new orders.

Legitimate BMD dongles continue to work. If you have a dongle from v6.x or more recently that is from an authorized BMD supplier it will work.

The dongles that don't work now are from non authorized sources. They wont work in the future for any new versions. Anyone who is offering 100 dongles at a reduced price is clearly not likely to be finished with them after a job and trying to sell them, they are not likely to be legitimate dongles.

If in doubt, purchase and activation key from an official BMD reseller.

thanks Peter so BMD WILL continue to let you use dongles? Is there a way to know if it is authorised? Or should I just try it? I bought it second hand years ago It came in fancy packaging with a DVD of V 10 I think.


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I'm not sure how to be clearer. Legitimate dongles continue to work as stated above.
Try what you have.

If one got dongle from Ebay somehow then there might be a problem.
If from reseller or with gear like camera it should work.

Seeme very clear to me.

Peter Chamberlain wrote:Activation keys are the norm now for all new orders.

Legitimate BMD dongles continue to work. If you have a dongle from v6.x or more recently that is from an authorized BMD supplier it will work.

The dongles that don't work now are from non authorized sources. They wont work in the future for any new versions. Anyone who is offering 100 dongles at a reduced price is clearly not likely to be finished with them after a job and trying to sell them, they are not likely to be legitimate dongles.

If in doubt, purchase and activation key from an official BMD reseller.

Sorry, but why anybody needs to find a resellers? Why I can't by it from your site or MS Store? Why I need payed twice price for BMD cam and other things (and DaVinci too)?
Thank You!

Yeah it's clear (I have bought my dongle when Resolve was still $1,000 from someone on eBay claiming he was getting rid of a redundant dongle he had gotten with his BMD camera, and it came packaged in a blister also containing an SD card with Resolve on it - Release 12.x it was, I believe). So like many of us here I'm a bit surprised by the change in policy, potentially making an $1,000 (well - almost, as with everything on eBay) dongle not work from now on... Therefore I do have 2 questions, even if everything Peter said in this thread is indeed clear:

- I haven't installed the 15.2.1 yet; my dongle definitely didn't look like a grey market one so my question is: how is a dongle checked whether it's legitimate or not (I don't mean technical way of checking it which can be relatively simple, but the criteria a given dongle's "response" is validated against BMD database to make the "valid/ not valid" decision)?

- of course I'm going to install the 15.2.1 and check for myself, but may I rest assure at least that - should Resolve classify my dongle as illegitimate - I'd be able to revert to the 15.2 and continue working on my project before I get ready to purchase an activation key? Or, would my dongle be "banned" from any further use - even if I revert to Resolve 15.2?

Piotr

cadeg_rsh wrote:Sorry, but why anybody needs to find a resellers? Why I can't by it from your site or MS Store? Why I need payed twice price for BMD cam and other things (and DaVinci too)?
Thank You!

Exactly my point too - I live in a beautiful country, but huge margins retailers apply here, the VAT etc will make this download-only purchase at least twice as expensive as the official BMD price

Piotr

Piotr Wozniacki wrote:of course I'm going to install the 15.2.1 and check for myself, but may I rest assure at least that - should Resolve classify my dongle as illegitimate - I'd be able to revert to the 15.2 and continue working on my project before I get ready to purchase an activation key? Or, would my dongle be "banned" from any further use - even if I revert to Resolve 15.2?

you can revert back to 15.2 just fine, I got stung by this as well.

When I do buy another dongle/activation key, from a proper reseller this time, good thing twice the price is still cheap!

Tom Early wrote:you can revert back to 15.2 just fine, I got stung by this as well.

When I do buy another dongle/activation key, from a proper reseller this time, good thing twice the price is still cheap!

You're right - just checked, and it's much more than that Plus I don't even see an option to buy the activation key - only dongles! Peter, could you please advise whether a dongle purchased now from an authorized re-seller is any better than one purchased 2 years ago, and why? Thanks!

Piotr

Piotr Wozniacki wrote:Plus I don't even see an option to buy the activation key - only dongles!

Where are you looking?

Going via the Resellers page from the main BMD website, I found these for Poland:

http://syntex.cz/p/davinci-resolve-studio#1
https://www.sklep.cyfrowarepublika.pl/p ... niczna/638
https://www.sklep.cyfrowarepublika.pl/p ... niczna/638

Each appear to be the license code, and each site also has a dongle option.

I stand corrected; just saw the word "dongle" and didn't look further
Piotr

PS. Oh, and BTW - my dongle continues to work just fine with the 15.2.1

As it should, if it came packaged as you described.

Hi I have in my possession and second hand dongle which doesn't come with a SD card yet it has the serial key laser on the silver part of the dongle and it basically looks like the original dongle sold by black magic.

Yet I'm unable to upgrade from 15.2 to 15.2.1 as it keeps asking me for the activation key. I would like to know what are the ways to tell if it's legitimate or not

As stated above

Activation keys are the norm now for all new orders.

Legitimate BMD dongles continue to work. If you have a dongle from v6.x or more recently that is from an authorized BMD supplier it will work.

The dongles that don't work now are from non authorized sources. They wont work in the future for any new versions.

Anyone who is offering 100 dongles at a reduced price is clearly not likely to be finished with them after a job and trying to sell them, they are not likely to be legitimate dongles. If you purchased on eBay or some other site there may be a claim process to recover your payment for false advertising.


If your second hand dongle does not work with 15.2.1, we recommend to purchase an activation key from an official BMD reseller.

Peter Chamberlain wrote:If your second hand dongle does not work with 15.2.1, we recommend to purchase an activation key from an official BMD reseller.

Can you answer to my question, please? Why you doesn't control price of your official resellers in other countries? Why they double the cost? Sorry, but it looks like a scam and contradicts the law on advertising of some countries. Because cost of goods does not correspond to the declared on this site.
And this behavior interferes with the distribution of your products.
I'm sorry, I have a headache

BMD publishes the prices but each country and sometimes each state may have different taxes and import costs which are not in our control or included. If you need clarification please contact your regional BMD office as listed on the web page.

Peter Chamberlain wrote:BMD publishes the prices but each country and sometimes each state may have different taxes and import costs which are not in our control or included. If you need clarification please contact your regional BMD office as listed on the web page.

Of cause, taxes are different. But I don't know countries, where taxes are 200% from specified price (on your site). regional BMD office have doubled the cost. Why I can't buy key for Resolve by MS Store or on your site? It not a camera or other electronic devices. It's just key.

Which country are you located cadeg_rsh?

Peter Chamberlain wrote:Which country are you located cadeg_rsh?

Russa, I guess. Same for me.

Piotr Wozniacki wrote:- I haven't installed the 15.2.1 yet; my dongle definitely didn't look like a grey market one so my question is: how is a dongle checked whether it's legitimate or not ?

The "Resolve" font is incorrect and too bold. The gradient is too wide and one end is more green than teal. The finish of the sticker is more steeply textured.

Other than that it's a good fake. I didn't notice until I put them side by side.

My dongle.
Yesterday was "black friday".

Peter Chamberlain wrote:Which country are you located cadeg_rsh?

Yes, Russia. But if you read some comments above, you may notice that Poland too.

So may I ask if the dongle doesn't work it must be a fake? How would you be able to tell?

My Dongle still work. Lucky that i got a "real" one. Never known that there are fake dongles on the market. Sad for users who bought them and did not know they don't buy real ones

Well - the "industry" of fake dongles for any software protected that way has always been prosperous. For that reason, I would never buy a second-hand dongle if the price was "too good to be true".. Not to mention trying to be fair to the developers of this great software.

I paid for mine $600, so - while cheaper than the official price of Resolve Studio 2 years ago - it wasn't exactly cheap at all; I admit I was a bit mad at myself when shortly after I paid that much, BMD announced the current (then new), much cheaper price. But at least it's still working, meaning it is a genuine one.

Sorry for those who were less lucky...

Piotr

I think we shouldn't condemn people looking for a bargain. A lot of these dongles (the real ones) came with cameras and people either didn't have a use for Resolve or already own a copy. For me, it was a matter of "it doesn't hurt to have a spare". Just be careful and make sure you're protected against scams (like with PayPal where you have buyer protection). If the dongle is real, BMD will have gotten their money anyway. If it's fake, report the scammer and get your money back.

Derek, your dongle is not from BMD, and you can't see your posts as you didn't use your full real name when reregistering. There is a post about real names you can use to correct that. Or just register again.

Either way if your dongle wont load 15.2.1 is not a BMD supplied dongle.

Wow, I need to test mine on the new release.
I bought mine used a long time back.
I am going to very sad if it doesn't work...

Certainly Blackmagic doesn't owe free software to victims of bum dongles. However, casting a tone of 'cheating' or bad faith or something, probably let's avoid it. Keep in mind these are current users who like Resolve, which by indications could turn out to be a large number of victims of fakes. They are not the makers or sellers of these dongles. Buying and selling used software was and is common and above ground -- how many ever purchased a second-hand Avid? It doesn't serve Blackmagic to burn bridges with a swath of its own user base. (Soon-to-be brand new revenue!)

We probably should be mindful about assuming most victims paid a pittance, like for supposed lots of "100" or whatever. Those kinds of auctioneers are not the ones likely to reach out to Resolve or speak up here. I bought mine nearing full price from someone I assumed was another editor, and that's probably closer to the norm.

All that to say, it would be great if Blackmagic assumes good faith, acknowledges the issue and can reflect back good will. (In other words, follow its own marketing practices!) These Resolve customers didn't torrent or cheat. Maybe offer discounts to victims who mail in their dongles or receipts -- something. How many thousands of these things have been sold over the years? Reach out.

Thank you!

In the age of everything over the internet, i think BMD should reconsider having an online store or using one of the existing online software retailer platforms like Microsoft Store / Steam.

I have all of my software bought from online stores with serial keys sent as mail attachments or in Stores like Steam / Origin etc...

I waited 2 weeks for my local retailer to get a copy of Resolve 15 shipped to me. (key version).

This thing would have taken few minutes with an online store ...And this way you remove piracy on dongles and such ...

ArminReiss wrote:My Dongle still work. Lucky that i got a "real" one. Never known that there are fake dongles on the market. Sad for users who bought them and did not know they don't buy real ones

This was definitely handled poorly.

"Customers" should have been informed months ahead of time, especially since more people were buying fakes by the day. To just push out the update and lock them out... This almost feels tactical..

Some responsibility does fall on BMD for not addressing this sooner, when they clearly could have. This would have definitely disrupted the counterfeit market. Standing idly by for years opened the door for thousands of people to be scammed - easily - because the inaction served to increase the perceived legitimacy of these bad dongles.

I'm not on Social Media, so maybe they said something on Twitter to prepare users and/or warn them off the counterfeiters?

Why no PSA on the project website? This should have been signaled for the release of 15.0 ... even if not implemented until now.

They really need to get Resolve on the Windows Store, too. Resellers are nice for hardware, not for software - that's for the 1980s.

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Actually we were alerted by the Black Friday sales and it took us a couple of days to QA a release that fixed the issue. If you have unfortunately been sold a counterfeit try to get a refund and seek a license from an authorized reseller.