So, today I utilised the 99c for 3 months trial for UAD Spark. I've now spent 2 hours trying to get them to work and using UAD troubleshooting but getting nowhere.

I am using a Windows 11 machine and when I open the plugins in Cubase 12, Ableton Live 11, and Studio One 6, they are all opening with the blurry interface with the red box and "Unable to load" or "Plugin not licensed" text at the bottom of the plugins.

I followed the various troubleshooting steps in making iLok Cloud automatic, closing cloud sessions and re-enabling, quitting UA Connect and re-opening, all in various order as described on UAD troubleshooting site, and still no plugins are loading. The UAD troubleshooting seems fairly basic, with this video and guide that goes along with it about all that they say on this type of issue:

Everything is installed in their default location and nothing has been moved.

I'm getting a bit frustrated now as premium plugins should not be this difficult, and it's cos of the whole negativity and bad press around iLok and the authorisation system UAD use is why I have not invested in them previously, so this is not a great start!

Granted, this could be me being an idiot and missing something obvious, so grateful if anything that looks amiss is pointed out to me from the below screenshots

Anyone able to guide me, to save me having to wait for days for UAD Support to reply and to simply refer me to the troubleshooting page, using up days of my purchase?!

 

Last edited: Jun 29, 2023

What does it say to the right in the iLok screen? Under activation? You did not screenshot the whole iLok. Does it say x of x activations used? Did you link the iLok to UAD in the UAD manager under settings (license location)??

 

Here it is, showing 1 of 2 activations used, which can only be the computer I'm on/cloud. Under the cloud icon on the left, you can see it says 26 activations, being all of the UAD Spark plugins:



And my iLok user is connected, as you can see, and is definitely using the same iLok user as listed in my UA Spark subscription, and all plugins are showing as activated and installed in UA Connect as you can see:



And here it is, the same iLok user listed in my UA account on their website too, so the correct iLok account is definitely connected throughout:



And here it shows in iLok, using the iLok Cloud (apparently), and is definitely the correct iLok account as it has my old trial of East West Composer Cloud in there, which worked fine at the time:

 

Did you try sychronizing from iLok app?
If this doesn't work, try complete uninstall of UAC, plugins and clean any leftovers.
Then install again and let us know how it works.
Good luck!

 

From my own experiences you need to be online!, open the DAW, open one UAD Plugin. The UAD Connect App opens and then you need to be logged in and the Plugs will be running fine. After that you can be offline.
Inside the Connect App you can decide where the Licences are stored-
Settings-License Location-Manage

 

Last edited: Jun 29, 2023

Have you made any firewall changes or installed warez that would changed your security policies to block ilok connections? Alternatively, you could try a ilok USB - I never got the USB to work for me though.

 

I have some of the UAD and they only Authorise in 2 ways either online or on a dongle. Not on the PC/Mac/Laptop like most other companies do these days. Most other companies like UVI, etc allow you to authorize to a machine (PC/Mac/Laptop) and that's it but UAD don't allow this so you either authorize online (Every time you use the plugin - this is called Ilok Cloud) or you authorize to a dongle.
Authorising online every time I used the plugin become a pain, so I started using my dongle (which I hadn't used for many years, since UVI and other companies made it possible to authorize the machine). Hopefully, UAD will allow this way of authorizing some time soon.

 

You've activated to the Cloud, so you need to be online, and you need to not be blocking any iLok Cloud connections.

 

If you are behind VPN, try to exclude them. That gave me many problems when i had this same offer.

 

I have to start UA connect before DAW to get it working

 

It's because 99c ! ))
Use iLok )
And no online

 

The machine is fully online anyway but still don’t seem to be working.

 

I have synchronised and refreshed subs etc in iLok. I have also done part uninstalled as suggested in UAD troubleshooting. I plan to try a full deep uninstall and reinstall today.

 

There is no firewall change and no warez. I don’t really want to purchase an overpriced USB dongle for a trial, especially after only just getting rid of the Steinberg dongle!

 

Yeah, I bet this. My machine is fully online though with no firewall restrictions or anything, so should be working fine but it isn’t.

 

It is online and nothing is being blocked.

 

There is no VPN involved on my machine.

 

Why would the fact it’s an extended trial cause licensing issues?! Surely licensing is licensing, whether it’s a 99c extended trial or a $800 Neve Bundle purchase?!

As I said, I don’t want to purchase an overpriced iLok dongle for a trial and the machine is online and never given me issues, so I don’t wanna go offline just because of a UAD trial!

 

I had the Spark trial a few months ago - followed the instructions on the UAD setup guide using the Cloud ilok and it worked immediately without a glitch. Windows 10/Reaper.

 

Last edited: Jul 1, 2023

I also had a problem getting to my UAD purchase, in the end, the problem seemed to be I had multiple accounts for Ilok as well as UA cloudservice(DOH!) Took me an hour to fix it. Gladly they now work.