Licenses and computers

01How a license works

A license lets one computer use a plugin at a time. It is not tied to a computer: it floats between yours. Install the plugin on as many computers as you like. The number of licenses you hold is the number that can use it at the same moment.

• Every license you buy for a plugin joins one pool, however many purchases it took.
• Glitch + Textures is one license of each plugin.
• You pay once. Updates are included, and there is no subscription.
• The Windows beta has no license check. Licenses are for the Mac release now, and for Windows when the full Windows release ships.

02Signing in

Sign in once on each computer, from the plugin: open the Account group in any Bradford effect's settings and press Sign In. Your browser opens; continue with Google or ask for an emailed link. Use the email address you bought with. Install on a Mac has the steps.

One sign-in covers both plugins on that computer. Signing in does not take a license by itself; using the plugin does.

03Taking and giving back a license

When DaVinci Resolve uses the plugin, the computer takes one of your licenses. This is a lease. While Resolve runs, the computer renews it about once an hour, and when Resolve quits it gives the license back.

The Status line in the Account group shows the lease: Leased on this computer until a time, then your email.

If the computer loses its connection, the plugin keeps working for 12 hours after its last renewal. After that it needs to reach us again, or it renders with the watermark until it does. If Resolve quits while the computer is offline, the license frees itself 12 hours after its last renewal.

04Moving to another computer

There is nothing to deactivate. Quit Resolve on the computer you are leaving, and open it on the one you are moving to. The license goes with you.

If you cannot get to the other computer, for example it was left running in another suite:

1. Open the license portal (your account's Licenses page). It lists each computer using one of your licenses, by name.
2. Press Return next to that computer. This asks the computer to give the license back. It does so at its next check-in, within the hour while Resolve runs there.
3. Until then the portal says Return requested. A license is never in use on two computers at once. If that computer stays offline, the license comes back when its lease runs out, at most 12 hours after its last renewal.

The computer that gave the license back shows Returned from your account page, and does not take another until Resolve restarts there or someone presses Sign In or Borrow on it.

To sign a computer out of your account altogether (a computer you sold, say), use Where you're signed in in your account. Signing a computer out gives back every license it holds, for both plugins.

05Working offline: borrowing

For time away from the internet, borrow a license onto the computer before you go:

1. In the Account group, set Borrow For to 1 to 14 days (7 is the default).
2. Press Borrow. Borrowing needs a connection to start. The Status line then reads Borrowed until a date.
3. The plugin now works offline until that date, even when Resolve quits and reopens.
4. Back online, press Return to give the license back early. The computer then leases one, as usual, while Resolve runs.

A borrowed license counts as in use until its date or until you return it. Returning it from the portal waits until that computer goes online with Resolve open, or until the borrow ends.

A computer that can never connect to the internet needs a separate arrangement. Write to support@bradfordoperations.com.

06When no license is free

If every license you hold is in use on other computers, the plugin still renders, with the watermark. The Status line starts with Licenses in use and names the computers using them, for example:

All 2 of your licenses are in use on other computers (Edit Bay 1, Color Suite). Quit Resolve there, or press Return there for a borrowed one; or add a license on your account page.

The plugin tries again every five minutes on its own. To free a license:

• Quit Resolve on one of the computers named, or press Return there if its license is borrowed.
• Or press Return next to it in the license portal (see Moving to another computer).
• Or take back a license you have given someone (see below).
• Or add a license: Buy / Manage in the Account group opens your account page. A new license joins your pool as soon as the purchase goes through.

If the Status line reads Not purchased (trial), the account you signed in with holds no license of that plugin. Check that you signed in with the email you bought with.

07Giving licenses to others

From the license portal you can give licenses that are free right now to another person, by email, or to an organization you belong to. Press Share under the plugin, choose how many, and who.

• The person signs in to the plugin with the email you shared to. Their license portal shows it under Shared with you.
• A license you give is still yours. Press Take back to end it: a computer using it stops at its next hourly check, and a license borrowed for offline work stays with it until its date.
• A license shared with an organization counts only while you are a member of it.

08Bradford Lab

Each purchase can also turn the plugin on in Bradford Lab for one organization in which you are an owner or project manager. Choose it in the license portal under Turn on in the Lab for. That use takes none of your desktop licenses. It ends if you leave the organization or no longer hold a license of the plugin.

09Refunds

When a purchase is refunded, or its payment is disputed with the bank, the licenses it bought end. A computer using one stops at its next hourly renewal, and a borrowed license runs to the end of its borrow. The refund policy is in Questions.