Restoring serial number, board ID, etc. for software compatability

[Connie Mac]

I did a Big Sur install on a computer and now a few of my paid apps won't launch because of software serial numbers. I suspect this is because when I generated the new Board-id, SerialNumber, Hardware UUID, BoardSerialNumber with GenSMBIOS it broke the linkage between the software and the hardware upon which it has been using. I have my old numbers from my Mojave install on which these applications ran, so is it possible to use these same numbers for my config.plist file? Is it just a matter of copy and replace?

 

[UtterDisbelief]

I did a Big Sur install on a computer and now a few of my paid apps won't launch because of software serial numbers. I suspect this is because when I generated the new Board-id, SerialNumber, Hardware UUID, BoardSerialNumber with GenSMBIOS it broke the linkage between the software and the hardware upon which it has been using. I have my old numbers from my Mojave install on which these applications ran, so is it possible to use these same numbers for my config.plist file? Is it just a matter of copy and replace?

Hi there.

The answer is not straight forward ...

Yes & No.

Yes, you can simply copy your old serial-number, UUID etc into your present config.plist and hopefully this will re-activate your software. BUT generally the reason why you have changed them at all is because you moved to a new system-definition at some point.

This is something Apple sees. For example, one minute a Mac Pro with a certain serial-number and the next an iMac with the same serial-number. Because your Apple ID is associated with your machine the data is sent to their servers. It's possible your Apple ID might get locked because of this disparity.

Of course if you are still using the same system-definition as before this should not be a problem.

I always recommend any system-defintion experimentation be done while disconnected from the Internet to help prevent all this.

Tread carefully. Software can cost as much as a computer these days!

 

[Jamesbond007]

I did a Big Sur install on a computer and now a few of my paid apps won't launch because of software serial numbers. I suspect this is because when I generated the new Board-id, SerialNumber, Hardware UUID, BoardSerialNumber with GenSMBIOS it broke the linkage between the software and the hardware upon which it has been using. I have my old numbers from my Mojave install on which these applications ran, so is it possible to use these same numbers for my config.plist file? Is it just a matter of copy and replace?

Yes, it should be possible to reuse your old Serial Numbers and SMBIOS from your old system. Should be just a matter of copy and paste into the correct location.

However, whether that will reactivate your deactivated software is anybody's guess.

 

[Connie Mac]

OK, thank you both for the information - it's very helpful. I have the same definition (iMacPro1,1) for the computer so hopefully it won't be flagged by Apple and it will lead to the software reactivation. I suppose the easier thing is to simply contact the companies and tell them I have a new computer to see if they will issue new licenses.

 

[scottkendall]

OK, thank you both for the information - it's very helpful. I have the same definition (iMacPro1,1) for the computer so hopefully it won't be flagged by Apple and it will lead to the software reactivation. I suppose the easier thing is to simply contact the companies and tell them I have a new computer to see if they will issue new licenses.

A great deal of softwares these days will allow you to release the license and apply it to a new computer/serial number. in some cases you just need to reactivate your software on the new computer/serial number.