WD SmartWare activation error

I purchased an activation code but whenever I try and use it, I only get a dialog that says, “There was an error trying to validate your activation code.  Please try again later.”  I’m using SmartWare version 2.4.4.  Support has yet to respond to my ticket.

Anyone have any ideas that I can try?  I’ve tried the code here online and it shows 0 activations and 3 remaining.

Edit:  I should add that I’m using Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit.

Wow.  I truly hope this isn’t indicative of the level of support provided by WD.  I received a response to my ticket with a link on how to purchase an upgrade.  This isn’t helpful.

“We truly apologize for the inconvenience, I will be more than glad to assist you. In regards of your case the WD Smartware Pro back up software for WD hard drives has two features the 30 days free trial and the purchase option to continue using the WD Smartware Pro to back up to WD external drive that does not have WD Smartware installed, or even a third party external USB drive. Please click on the link below and follow the instruction on how to upgrade the WD Smartware to the Pro option.”

Hello and welcome to the WD community.

We have passed this along to support.

Yeah, thanks.  I’ve responded by asking for someone who actually reads the problem to reply.

Welcome to the Community.

How is your network configured? Do you use a VPN? What is your current location?

Trancer wrote:

Welcome to the Community.

 

How is your network configured? Do you use a VPN? What is your current location?

I am using DSL 40Mb internet connection with a wired connection to my desktop.  I am not using VPN.  I am in Eagle, Idaho.

So now I’ve tried completely removing the current install and re-installing from scratch.  I’ve disabled my firewall.  I’ve disabled my virus detection.  It still gives the same error.

Any suggestions on what else I should try?

Well, after 2 weeks of support asking me to try different things (none of which worked), I finally received a message from yet another support person simply telling me that my code should work now (no other information).  I tried it and, sure enough, it worked this time.  

I have no idea why it worked this time.  I don’t know what changed (nothing on my machine).  Support gave me absolutely no information.  So, if anyone else has this issue, I can’t help you except to say, keep asking for different support people until someone actually can help you.

The least I can do is thank you for giving our technical team the opportunity to work on the activation server until we were able to fix it.

To be honest, I would have been far more patient had I known it was an issue with the server.  Instead, tech support had me jumping through useless hoops.

Jimbo64 wrote:

To be honest, I would have been far more patient had I known it was an issue with the server.  Instead, tech support had me jumping through useless hoops.

Sorry about that.  But, unfortunately at the time, we didn’t know what the issue was.  So, we had to eliminate it being on the user’s side.  Putting you through the troubleshooting paces actually helped us recogize where the issue might be coming from.  It just took a while to pin point it.