I have been having this issue several times in the last year while traveling.
It seems Scrivener HAS TO HAVE AN INTERNET CONNECTION. Not just at initial activation.
The developer now uses “Paddle” licensing service. Paddle requires constant renewal of your permission to use the software. Or it will de-validate your license on the computer. This drops you to DEMO MODE. NO ACCESS TO YOUR PROJECTS.
If they had told us this, a lot of us would never have upgraded, or would have migrated to a less privacy invasive software option. No matter how good Scrivener is/was.
Forget going off and writing on that desert island, or anywhere without their internet leash choking you.
Forget not connecting in a country that is authoritarian or writing offline for any number of privacy or security reasons.
Scrivener actively checks your license against online servers and will deactivate if it does not get to check in with its corporate masters to RE-VALIDATE your paid for and activated license. .
It is impossible for "RE-ACTIVATION’ if you can’t connet to the internet or if security and privacy firewalls prevent YOUR fully activated and PAID FOR software reporting back to its CORPORATE MASTERS.
This is not what a lot of us signed up for.
I would like this addressed by Literature and Latte before I start publishing articles on this.
This is not, in any way, my experience with the software. Nor does it match how it is programmed to work. I would tentatively suggest you are looking at some other issue and thinking it is “A” (always online requirement) instead of “B”, where “B” is a bug (for example, the Paddle code on Windows is notoriously fickle and considers some changes to the system configuration as new systems, which breaks the activation token).
Case in point, I have both Mac and PC versions effectively firewalled, just like I firewall most of my software (and on a Mac, much of the OS as well, as Apple sends piles of data to itself that I don’t care to send, just as Microsoft does). Nothing contacts the 'net unless it is programmed specifically to do that and that is its whole purpose, and then only within those narrow realms it is programmed to do so (like an FTP client that can only access through FTP ports and nothing else). Our software probably hasn’t seen the active 'net in years in some cases, and it’s still running just fine. Did I have to activate it first? Yes, but then it right back behind the firewall.
After several years with Scrivener, I’ve found it only required an internet connection once, at activation. After that, it’s run offline indefinitely and never requires check‑ins.
This makes me wonder if you could try whitelisting Scrivener/Paddle in your firewall/antivirus. Just a thought.
A bit prematurely overwrought - no? I live in rural part of the UK where the internet connection is - at best - sporadic. I use Scrivener for at least 4-5 hours a day (quitting the programme each night before Carbon Copying) and I have never once, in a decade and a half here, had any issue with Scrivener not starting up or trying to deactivate. I can’t really imagine L&L as ‘corporate masters’ either …
What’s with the “us”? Are you a collective or an individual?
Back to topic: I use Scrivener every single day without an internet connection, to keep me off the internet. I’ve never been asked to reactivate. This issue is being caused by something specific to your infrastructure at home (or whereever you are)